With Dirk Nowitzki’s career dwindling down to its final year or two, the Dallas Mavericks are ready to usher in a new era. There was no better way to do just that than draft a franchise point guard and that’s exactly the move the Mavs made when they took Dennis Smith Jr. with the 9th overall pick.
Smith played his sole collegiate season at North Carolina State and has the potential to be a franchise centerpiece for Dallas during its post-Nowitzki era.
While Smith will provide one part of the Mavs new backcourt, their end goal is to bring in free agent guard Jrue Holiday and pair him with their prized rookie. Following from Jonathan Givony of DraftExpress:
Dallas is hoping to pair Dennis Smith in a backcourt with free agent Jrue Holiday I'm told.
— Jonathan Givony (@DraftExpress) June 23, 2017
Mark Cuban and his Mavericks have expressed interest in Jrue Holiday before now and it seems that drafting Smith won’t slow down their pursuit for Holiday’s services. Last year, Dallas ran out a Yogi Ferrell-Seth Curry backcourt for the latter portions of the campaign and while they were serviceable, an upgrade was needed.
Even though Holiday has played and started at point guard for nearly his entire career, if he were brought into Dallas, that would likely change quickly. Smith is the more pure point guard of the pair and playing him out of position early in his career could stunt his growth. Though a naturally gifted distributor, Holiday’s length and shooting touch should allow him to play the 2 guard proficiently, something that could bolster this Mavericks team on both sides of the ball.
