You know, I kind of thought, deep in the cockles of my heart, that Dennis Smith Jr. was maybe getting a little bit overrated by not only Mavericks fans, but by the entire NBA cognoscenti. Not super overrated, mind you, but enough that I kept thinking “who are these people who keep thinking that a rookie is going to be good right away?”.
Turns out, I was wrong. In my defense, I think my rookie-value calibrator was broken by last year’s suckfest of unprepared newbies. How could anyone be optimistic for any rookie when every single one (except for Brodon wooooo suck it Philly homers) of them disappointed either through their play or lack of it (shade alert shade alert Embiid on suicide watch).
It was a good start for Smith Jr. when he caught an alley-oop 30 seconds into his career. He ended up finishing with a double-double, 16 points and 10 (somewhat lame) assists, but that first oop probably sent the collective Dallas fanbase into seizures of ecstacy. That might have been the high-point of the season, actually. Is there anywhere else to go from there but down?