If a rookie season is like an Intro to NBA class, consider Dorian Finney-Smith in the advanced placement section — and on the accelerated track.
“He just gains more wisdom as he gets his (tail) kicked,” Mavs head coach Rick Carlisle deadpanned recently.
Carlisle has even gone as far as to say Finney-Smith takes it personally when opponents score on him. He becomes upset when he makes a mistake, but not a volatile type of mood. He just takes pride in his defense. Before Monday’s game against Charlotte, Carlisle went a little deeper.
“He improves every game. Defensively, he’s way ahead of the curve for a rookie,” he said. “He’s one of the best defensive players for a first-year guy at the wing/post position that I’ve seen. He’s very mature.”
Carlisle credits Finney-Smith’s extensive college experience for the reason behind his sound and stable mental approach to the game. The rookie spent one year at Virginia Tech before transferring to Florida for his final three seasons, and he had to sit out one season between his freshman and sophomore campaigns.
While his five-year stay at the D-I level might have been beneficial to his development, there’s no doubt it was a huge reason why the 23-year-old went undrafted this summer. Finney-Smith’s senior stat line — 14.7 points and 8.3 rebounds — looked nice, sure, but his Gators team went just 21-15 and finished eighth in the SEC. You wonder how many scouts that might have turned off.
But as Finney-Smith has proved in his short tenure with the Mavericks, stats don’t really tell the whole story. He only averages 4.0 points and 2.0 rebounds per game, so why are Carlisle and Mavs proprietor Mark Cuban heaping so much praise on him?
“Guys just respect other guys who work hard,” said Cuban, who similarly admires Finney-Smith’s mental and emotional control. The proprietor is campaigning to get him into this year’s rookie/sophomore Rising Stars game.
“I don’t know that we’ve ever had somebody since I’ve been here like that,” he said. “Everybody else gets emotional at one level or another. And you know he is, because he gets mad at himself, but Doe-Doe is just fine.”
All of these kind words were said about him on Monday, two days after he recorded a career-high 11 points in the Mavs’ 107-82 win against the Bulls. Later that night, the Mavs lost 109-101 to the Hornets, and Finney-Smith scored just one point on 0-of-5 shooting. It’s not necessarily going to be easy all the time, but the rookie understands that.
“It’s an up-and-down season for me,” he said. “Some games I’m making shots, and some games I can’t throw a rock in the ocean. I know what I bring to the table, and I just try not to forget to play defense, play hard. It keeps me on the court and it helps our team.”
It takes a special mentality for a guy not to be discouraged when he “can’t throw a rock in the ocean” and instead focus on the defensive end, where players rarely ever receive recognition. But that’s how Finney-Smith approaches the game. Defense comes first, and the scoring can come later.
“I just love the game. I love to compete,” he said. “You just put me out there, I’m gonna go hard against anybody. I don’t care who it is. I’m just gonna give it my all.”
Depending on how you look at it, going 0 of 5 from the field is really nothing compared to not being drafted. A competitor like Finney-Smith, who remembers the players by name that have drawn and-1 fouls against him, had every right to be upset on draft night.
Then again, for some players there’s a benefit to not being drafted, as opposed to being taken in the second round. Finney-Smith was able to choose to sign with Dallas, instead of being forced into a contract with whichever team selected him. Many second-rounders were either stashed overseas due to roster limits or waived during training camp, but the Mavericks said all summer that it would be an open competition for the last couple spots. The rookie made a great first impression during the Las Vegas Summer League camp, and earned a contract before the team left for Sin City. He then beat out five other players for the final roster spot in training camp and became a full-time starter by the Mavs’ seventh game.
Still, the chip on his shoulder must remain, right?
“I don’t think it would’ve changed with him, even if he’d been a first-round pick,” Carlisle said. “He’s just wired to be a competitor. I think that’s another compliment to him as a player.”
You think back throughout the Dirk Era to identify the rookies with the biggest immediate impact, and it’s hard to instantly come up with someone who fits that bill more than Finney-Smith. Players like Josh Howard and Marquis Daniels had solid first seasons, but both were more on the periphery at the beginning of the 2003-04 season.
When I asked him, Cuban mentioned one name: Devin Harris. He started 19 games right off the bat during his inaugural campaign in 2004-05, quarterbacking the offense as the Mavs got off to an 8-1 start.
“But Devin was drafted number five,” Cuban said. “Doe-Doe wasn’t drafted.”
Just because he’s made a big impact and absorbed heavy minutes doesn’t mean the initiation process isn’t over. Finney-Smith still wears the pink rookie backpack everywhere he goes. He recently bought his first car, which means he’d better become familiar with the route to Eatzi’s, a favorite takeout place of his veteran teammates. The day before he played 32 minutes in an overtime win against Milwaukee, Finney-Smith finally moved into his first apartment. Amazingly, his NBA.com profile page still does not have a photo.
On the floor, he’s still learning, too. It’s one thing to defend good SEC players, but it’s another to defend world-class players on a nightly basis. Wesley Matthews is the Mavs’ go-to perimeter defender, but Finney-Smith is always guarding the best interior player or second-best perimeter player. That’s a nice luxury to have as a coach, but it means the rookie has got to stay focused and avoid giving anything easy away.
“It’s hard because you can’t play physical. You can’t touch them,” he joked. “That, and being a rookie, you’re definitely not gonna get calls to go your way. I’m just learning guys who draw a lot of fouls, learning how to play them.”
When Finney-Smith is on the floor, the Mavericks allow just 101.1 points per 100 possessions, per NBA Stats. For reference, that would rank fourth in the NBA. When he’s out of the game, that number increases to 105.9, which would rank 20th.
It’s difficult to directly measure a player’s defensive impact because so much of defense is a team scheme and relies on all five players doing their jobs exactly right. But on-off splits do go some way in telling the story, and that number plays heavily into Finney-Smith’s favor. If there was a rookie All-Defensive Team, he’d be the first player on the list, for sure.
“It’s not even whether the guys make or miss, it’s the shots they don’t take,” Cuban said. “You get a lot of (pump fakes), and they see his length and he can get up close, and they won’t even take a shot.
“There should be a new stat: shots not taken.”
You won’t find many bigger fans of Dorian Finney-Smith than the coach and the proprietor. I don’t think you’ll hear him complain about that, either. If you’re gonna have two fans, that’s a good place to start. Soon, though, the unheralded, undrafted rookie with modest per-game stats and not even 2,000 Twitter followers might be receiving more attention. It’s early still, but it appears the Mavs might have found a diamond in the rough.
“He’s on a mission,” Cuban said. “He’s been through a lot, and he’s not gonna let this chance get by him. We got lucky.”
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