The Mavericks Have Something In Dorian Finney-Smith

 

With no clear path towards a rebuild last summer, the Mavs ended up taking a calculated risk on Finney-Smith. The 24-year-old Portsmouth, Virginia native got scooped up, inking a 3-year partially guaranteed deal worth up to $2,948,982 million dollars.

 

The Mavericks have rarely cashed in on the undrafted player[note] Outside of newly minted 2nd Team All-Rookie, Yogi Ferrell! [/note]. It seems that the unknown player has made the Mavericks a little skittish over the years. How can you blame them? The Mavs have established a culture of winning. Winning, mixed with top of the line organizational stability has been embedded into the Mavericks franchise ever since Mark Cuban bought the team 17 years ago.

 

Unfortunately for the Mavs, ever since they reached the pinnacle of the league back in 2011 [note] World Champs! #neverforget [/note], they haven’t been able to build a consistent roster. They’ve routinely been turning the roster over, summer after summer, with an allotment of veterans [note] Derek Fisher, Mike James, Chris Kaman, Sam Dalembert, Jose Calderon, Richard Jefferson, Jameer Nelson to list a few. [/note] surrounding the teams face of the franchise, Dirk Nowitzki. By delving into the young inexperienced player basket, the Mavericks were accepting the fact that roster construction change may be necessary. Finney-Smith’s arrival onto the big league club last summer meant that your typical old-head Mavericks were starting to nudge ever so slightly towards a youth movement.

 

Finney-Smith like most rookies, had an up and down season [note] 81 games, 20.3 minutes, 4.3 points, 2.7 rebounds, 37.9% from the field, 29.3% from 3 [/note]. As the Mavericks dropped their first five games out of the gate last season, Head Coach Rick Carlisle decided to put DFS into action. The sixth game rolled around versus the Milwaukee Bucks and DFS was all over the floor– making play after play. He ended up playing 31 minutes against the Bucks where he was plus-20 out on the court. The Mavs won their first game of the season and from that game on, Carlisle was willing to play Finney-Smith on a consistent basis.

 

As the league has now shifted towards the spaced out small ball type of game — it’s no secret what teams are trying to do: hoard as many multi-positional players onto their respective rosters as possible. Do the Mavericks have something in Dorian Finney-Smith? What can he become as a player in this league?

 

 

Teams are getting smarter and smarter day-by-day. They are not afforded the opportunity to play one-dimensional players anymore. Teams are sniffing out weaknesses faster and faster making it necessary that coaches put versatile lineup combinations onto the court. Not all teams have the luxury of trotting out lineups with limited flaws [note] I think the Golden State Warriors are the only team in NBA history with zero flaws [/note]. DFS is going to have to learn that if he wants to stay on the floor for longer stretches, he is going to need to become more consistent on both sides of the floor.

 

Just take a look across all of the marquee wings in the league from LeBron to KD to Kahwi, having the ability to play both ends of the ball is paramount. Teams design their offensive and defensive game plans around the weak points of the opposing team. If a player can’t shoot, teams will sag off that player and help in other avenues — mucking up the floor, therefore limiting the opposing team’s offense. If a player can’t defend, teams will target that player and often bring him in pick and roll situations, enviably forcing the opposing coach to make an adjustment or get burned.

 

Coaching staffs are extremely smart; they will attack any glimmer of weakness on either side of the floor. Finney-Smith is likely viewed within the Mavericks organization as a piece that can contribute off the bench but he needs to improve his weaknesses. As he heads into year two of his NBA journey, further developing his outside jump shot and defensive footwork and positioning are two elements of his game that he will need to upgrade as he grows as a player.

 

Donnie Nelson and the Mavericks staff have started the process of taking the necessary chances on young unproven players. With Finney-Smith in he fold, the Mavs added another undrafted rookie to the team, Yogi Ferrell, who auditioned on a 10-day contract, and impressed the Mavericks so much, he signed a two-year guaranteed deal during the tail end of last season. Ferrell was recently announced to the 2nd team all-rookie team. Yogi, Finney-Smith, and Nicolas Brussino will be relied upon as key bench pieces for the upcoming 2017-2018 season.

 

As long as Finney-Smith continues to put the work in day in and day out, his game will only continue to grow in a Mavericks uniform.