The Mavericks are now fully committed to the Luka Doncic era in Dallas as the rookie sensation is averaging 20.2 points, 6.7 rebounds, and 5.0 assists per game.
Doncic is also clearly best suited as the Mavs primary ball-handler, which puts their 2017 first round pick Dennis Smith Jr. in a precarious position. The second-year point guard is not an especially good off-ball player and hasn’t been a great fit in lineups with Doncic. Given his age and potential, there have been rumors that the Mavs could consider looking into trading Smith to bolster their roster needs elsewhere.
According to ESPN’s Adrian Wojnarowski, those discussions have begun to pick up, with the Phoenix Suns and Orlando Magic as the two teams engaged in talks about the NC State product — also Woj notes Smith is out currently with a sore back, seeming to indicate maybe he’s been sitting due to trade discussions.
The Dallas Mavericks are escalating discussions to find a trade for point guard Dennis Smith Jr., league sources tell ESPN. Phoenix and Orlando have engaged in ongoing talks with Mavs. Smith Jr., has sat out three straight games with what team has termed a sore back.
— Adrian Wojnarowski (@wojespn) January 15, 2019
As Wojnarowski makes note of in his piece on the trade talks, the Mavs would like to also move Wesley Matthews and his expiring deal in a Smith trade, which would help make money work with a much larger contract returning to Dallas — Matthews and Smith together would be just around $22 million.
The Magic and Suns both make a ton of sense as suitors for Smith, as both are in dire need of point guard help and are in the rebuilding phase, thus fitting Smith’s timeline better than a contender. What will be interesting is to see whether either team is willing to meet whatever Dallas’ demands are for Smith, and, if a deal gets done, what his value is determined to be on the trade market.
As the ninth-overall selection from a year ago, Smith was a highly regarded prospect and while he’s not had a great start to his NBA career, he is still a wildly athletic point guard who could still develop into a quality NBA player. It seems highly unlikely anything better than a lottery-protected first-round pick would be included in the deal from a draft asset perspective, but what players would be included is quite interesting.
