Dallas Mavericks: 2017-18 player grades for Dennis Smith Jr.

Highlights

Dennis Smith Jr. hit the ground running in his NBA debut. He was named a starter on day one and started in all 69 appearances he made in 2017-18. In the Dallas Mavericks’ season opener against the Atlanta Hawks, he recorded his first double-double.

His 16 points and 10 rebounds set the tone for how the rest of the season could go, although it ended in a 117-111 defeat. Smith went 6-for-12 from the field and 1-for-4 from the arc in the game and also snagged three rebounds.

Smith set his career-high in points on Nov. 14 with 27 points against the San Antonio Spurs. It included a number of highlights, including a rim-rocking dunk that turned the heads of everybody in the league. Smith shot 10-for-23 (43.5 percent) from the floor and 5-of-11 (45.5 percent) from 3-point range with six rebounds.

In the month of December, Smith started to find his stride a bit more. On Dec. 29, he recorded the first triple-double of his career against the New Orleans Pelicans. He was impressive enough to earn a spot in the 2018 NBA Slam Dunk Contest by February and impressed there as well.

Depending on who you speak to, Dennis Smith Jr. got robbed in the Slam Dunk Contest, but luckily his mind is on bigger things, like winning games. They didn’t get a whole lot of wins in the final two months of the season, but Smith produced nonetheless.

On April 8 against the Philadelphia 76ers, he put up 20 points, 11 assists, five assists, three steals and two blocks. He put up a career-high of 11 assists on three different occasions throughout the month of February, March and April. Dennis Smith Jr. ended the regular season with a bang and there’s certainly more to come.