Dorian Finney Smith: A role model for NBA role players.
Ask the question, what do role players rely on to gain a foothold in the NBA?
By talent? If they had this thing, they would have already entered the lotto area and even competed for the top three;
By luck? A moment can, a lifetime is a little difficult;
By hard work? Yes, but can not say that it is all right, the players at the bottom, which one does not work hard, does not work hard, but in the end is not photographed on the beach;
The point is that you have to find the right direction of effort, role players are different from the core, there is no need to develop comprehensively, of course, this is not realistic, so you can only choose one, or a certain aspect of immersion + continuous polishing, Dorian Finney Smith is so.
Smith has a pretty good static talent. Height (1.99 meters) and arm span (2.12 meters) are excellent, but the technology is relatively rough, lack of enough scoring weapons, and there is no particularly excellent offensive creativity, until the year of college graduation, the average score is only 14.7 points per game, it is worth mentioning that due to the sophomore transfer (automatic suspension for one year), so in the 16 years of the draft, Smith was 23 years old, and it was natural to lose, even if he was later brought into the league by the Lone Ranger, but the outside world was still not optimistic about his future.
The reason is very simple, there is no skill, although it is also a defensive all-rounder, but from the performance of the rookie season, it seems that it is not much better, Smith, who averaged 20.3 minutes per game, could only get 4.3 points, 2.7 rebounds, 0.8 assists, 0.6 steals and 0.3 blocks, shooting 37%, 29% of three-point shooting, and most importantly, his help to the team's defensive end was not enough to erase the damage to the offensive end, when Smith was on the floor, Teams have to net lose 2.2 points per 100 possessions.
Following this trajectory, it won't be long before Smith is abandoned by the Lone Ranger and swept away by the NBA, and in order to avoid such a thing, from the 2017 offseason, Smith will only do one thing every summer, that is, focus on shooting practice, of course, he must thank teammate Wesley Matthews for help.
When he first entered the league, Smith, who was not particularly good at shooting, was full of fear of the NBA's ultra-far three-point line, he was afraid that as soon as he made a shot, it was an airball, that summer, Matthews took the initiative to find Smith and invited him to train together, under the guidance of this big brother, Smith adjusted his shooting posture a little bit, and constantly overcame his fear, and in the second season, he not only increased the shooting rate to 30%, Production also reached 1.0, but this efficiency still does not help Smith gain a foothold in the NBA.
As for why the Lone Ranger would continue to give him a chance, because in training, Smith had the highest shooting rate in the whole team, which even the boss Cuban knew, and during a training session, Cuban quietly walked up to Smith and whispered, "Do you know that you are now the most accurate shot in the team?" Smith was stunned, "Oh, it turns out that I voted quite accurately", and since then, he has been more determined about his future development direction.
Of course, in addition to these people, the lone ranger's training team, especially the shooting coach Pete, also helped Smith a lot, he would take a notebook, repeatedly let Smith watch the videos of those shots and lose the ball, and analyze the reasons, shooting too flat, incorrect leg power and so on.
With everyone's joint efforts, in the fourth year of his career, Finney Smith finally brought some of the training results to the official game, that season, he shot 38% of the three-point shooting rate, produced 114, has become a shooter above the league average, but for Smith, this is not what he ultimately wants to be, and in the next 2 seasons, Smith continues to evolve, while increasing the number of shots, the efficiency is also rising.
This season, Smith's outside production is not only more than 170, the shooting rate is 39.5%, 2 statistics all set a new career record, with excellent performance, before the offseason comes, the Lone Ranger can't wait to provide him with a 4-year, $50 million contract extension, it should be noted that this is the biggest contract Smith can get.
Although in the eyes of many people, Finney Smith is not worth the price, but you are watching the playoffs, if it is not his play, how can the Lone Ranger easily cross the Jazz, and how can he fight the Suns in the semifinals to be 2:2.
In Game 6 of the first round, Smith scored 4 three-pointers, scored 18 points, grabbed 10 rebounds, and delivered 5 assists; in Game 4 of the semifinals, Smith shot eight three-pointers, exploded 24 points, and grabbed eight rebounds.
So far, Smith has shot 31 three-pointers, ranking second in the league playoff list, second only to the Grizzlies Desmond Bane, shooting a whopping 43.1%, looking like a top scorer, in today's lone ranger team, Smith is not only the third scoring point, but also the most reliable helper around the core Doncic, in the 222 minutes they are on the court at the same time, the team can net 12.6 points per 100 possessions, ranking first among all players who played more than 150 minutes with Doncic.
This is the story of Dorian Finney Smith, although the origin is low, although the future is uncertain, but if you set sail at full speed in one direction, there is still the possibility of turning over and counterattacking, and it turns out that Smith's 5 years of efforts have not been in vain, he really changed from a 29% shooting rate of "afraid shots" to a highly productive and efficient top scorer.