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Bold prediction? We are sleeping on NSj. The guy was the #1 high school player for a reason, would the basketball world be shocked if he ended up a top 10 player from his draft class?

Had a pretty good preseason shooting 13/26 from the field in limited minutes.
He also had 33 points in a SL game.
I could see him having a Mark Williams rookie year.

Dominate the GLeague for 40 games and then be a real impact player for the last 40 games.

He can clearly create his own shot, seems very mature too from what I have seen.
Screams better pro than college player, may take a few months but feels like because he isn't ready day 1 to play major minutes he is being completely forgot about.

Going to go for over 20 points in at least 10 games this year.
Average 22mpg and 9-10 ppg

I got a bad feeling when I learned he and Brandon Miller are buddies/AAU teammates. Hopefully he was selected on his own merits and not to double down on Miller over Scoot by giving him a friend to keep him happy/maybe out of trouble. Not very optimistic about our draft choices, would be great for Smith to end up being a top 10 player in his class, especially if Miller is a top 10 player in the class as well. Two hits would go a long way.

Walt Cronkite wrote:I got a bad feeling when I learned he and Brandon Miller are buddies/AAU teammates. Hopefully he was selected on his own merits and not to double down on Miller over Scoot by giving him a friend to keep him happy/maybe out of trouble. Not very optimistic about our draft choices, would be great for Smith to end up being a top 10 player in his class, especially if Miller is a top 10 player in the class as well. Two hits would go a long way.

The Nick Smith and James Nnaji picks were Mitch admitting he botched the 2021 draft.

I think Nick Smith's success this season will depend greatly on the role he is given. He is clearly a capable one-on-one scorer who can get Buckets for himself. But if he is asked to be an initiator or Creator or passer in an offense, it's going to be a mess. It just doesn't have those skills yet. I think he's an extremely one-dimensional player at this point in his career. But at least unlike bouk, he seems very engaged effort wise on the defensive end.

His role needs to be very narrow, very defined and needs to have Playmakers around him to run the offense, which unfortunately our second year severely lacks.

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PG LaMelo Ball-Frank Ntilikina-Ish Smith
SG Terry Rozier-Cody Martin-Nick Smith Jr James Bouknight
SF Gordon Hayward-Brandon Miller-Bryce McGowens
PF Miles Bridges PJ Washington JT Thor
C Mark Williams Nick Richards

JMAC3 wrote:PG LaMelo Ball-Frank Ntilikina-Ish Smith
SG Terry Rozier-Cody Martin-Nick Smith Jr James Bouknight
SF Gordon Hayward-Brandon Miller-Bryce McGowens
PF Miles Bridges PJ Washington JT Thor
C Mark Williams Nick Richards

Pretty good chance he gets an opportunity early this year with all the injuries.

Even after he isn't competiting vs a stellar group of guys.

JMAC3 wrote:PG LaMelo Ball-Frank Ntilikina-Ish Smith
SG Terry Rozier-Cody Martin-Nick Smith Jr James Bouknight
SF Gordon Hayward-Brandon Miller-Bryce McGowens
PF Miles Bridges PJ Washington JT Thor
C Mark Williams Nick Richards

If I’m Clifford I’m giving those backup shooting guard mins to Miller

countryboi wrote:

JMAC3 wrote:PG LaMelo Ball-Frank Ntilikina-Ish Smith
SG Terry Rozier-Cody Martin-Nick Smith Jr James Bouknight
SF Gordon Hayward-Brandon Miller-Bryce McGowens
PF Miles Bridges PJ Washington JT Thor
C Mark Williams Nick Richards

If I’m Clifford I’m giving those backup shooting guard mins to Miller

Yeah, no Miles for 10 games either. So who are you giving the backup Sf mins to?

Game 1 and we are already having issues with our depth, but yeah Kelly Oubre had no place on this team. Would rather carry Bouknight and McGowens lol

I’m not sold on Nick, nothing jumps out as me as a player who will be in the league for years.

Still time and I’m often wrong

Diop wrote:I’m not sold on Nick, nothing jumps out as me as a player who will be in the league for years.

Still time and I’m often wrong

His handle, footwork, midrange game are pretty far along for a 19 year old.
His shooting mechanics look pretty good and he is also 6-4.
He also at least seems to try to on defense.

He isn't some 6 foot flat guard who lives and dies by chucking 3s.

He has flashed more in 6 months than Bouk and McGowens have 2+ years in the league.

The individual offensive skills are there, No Doubt, but he just has absolutely no clue how to play in offense where he isn't the focus point. That's the part of his game that really needs to grow before he becomes an impact player. Skills are there, it's the mental part of the game and the teamwork part of the game. That one on four ISO stuff is certainly a neat tool to have in your bag when the shot clocks on your back, or when everyone is at ice cold and the team needs someone to score. otherwise it's a complete offense killer.

He really would benefit playing next to a traditional point guard where he's not asked to be the Creator. Unfortunately we just haven't seen that yet through summer league and preseason. He was always stuck with a garbage point guard or having to run point guard himself.

His ability to get mid-range buckets though is indeed quite impressive.

Fats is right on here. I think he might be really good though. Just needs some coaching, gym time (man muscles) and to play the 2 besides Melo in a couple years. He may play some tonight......

This is what it's all about:

Weird coincidence pointed out by Collins last night that the Smith Jr #8 jersey is recycled from last year.

Considering the ineptitude of our bench, do we really not think NSJ can positively contribute during the meaningful parts of a game right now?

Rich4114 wrote:Considering the ineptitude of our bench, do we really not think NSJ can positively contribute during the meaningful parts of a game right now?

At SG? Maybe. It would be exciting at worst.

At PG? No way, he would be worse than Ish in that role.

We did this kid a disservice making him run the offense at SL. He needs to focus on scoring, which is his forte anyway, because his tunnel vision makes him a terrible lead ball handler at this point. I still like his potential, but we need to slot him in the proper role instead of wishing he was something he isn't.

On board with giving him regular minutes.

With Martin, Terry, and Stinky Frank out, NSJ should at least be seeing Ish minutes (10 last night) - ideally in some Theo, NSJ, Hayward type of backup lineup. I was really hoping that Ish would be a garbage minute getting cheerleader.

Hopefully would also put an end to the Theo/LaMelo bizarreness Clifford thinks makes sense. Just play Theo at backup and put a couple of basket getters around him - stop out clevering yourself squeezing Theo and Ish into funky lineups.