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00:00 This for me will be the most positive aspect of this Hornets 10 and 60 here is Nick Smith Jr.
00:06 Do you want a very pleasing stat to kick this off, James?
00:09 Please give it to me.
00:11 Among all rookies with at least 25 three-point attempts this season,
00:16 Nick Smith Jr. is first in three-point percentage at 44.6%.
00:20 He's 33 of 74 from deep on the year after struggling to shoot with consistency at Arkansas.
00:26 It's great to see him bounce back like that, especially
00:28 obviously taking the jump up in competition.
00:30 Like Brandon Miller, he plays with a lot of energy,
00:33 but is a lot more chaotic and inconsistent defensively.
00:37 Obviously very skinny, still very young.
00:39 Doesn't harm him much on offense because he has insane shooting touch and plays with supreme
00:44 confidence, but can get moved around a little bit and is a bit prone to dying on screens.
00:49 Defensively, scoring has fallen off slightly since that early stretch in January.
00:54 I use in double digits in four out of six games, but for me,
00:58 highly positive returns on both of the 2023 first rounders so far.
01:01 But for a 27th pick in the draft, like from what we've seen from Nick,
01:05 this seems like it's going to be a home run draft value selection,
01:09 which the Hornets have not had one of those in quite a few years after they had a
01:13 very strong stretch in the late 2010s.
01:15 So great to see it from Nick.
01:17 It's great to see him just be like a permanent member of the rotation in its own right as well.
01:22 He was not a part of the nine and 60 had not really been.
01:25 I don't know if he had even played in an NBA game yet by the time that we had
01:29 done that first podcast through seven games in the season, but
01:32 was obviously not nearly the part of the of the team that he was now.
01:36 So shout out to Nick.
01:37 He's been very good lately.
01:39 Probably my favorite part of the team over the last couple of months.
01:42 So I'm probably going to fall a little bit short of a home run pick value at that point.
01:49 Yeah, I've seen some positive flashes and it's been some good things,
01:53 but for me, there are still too many holes in this game right now,
01:56 like just just to pencil him into an NBA rotation.
01:59 Look, the scout is out on him now.
02:02 He was a guy not in the scout report at all in his first stretch of games,
02:06 and you kept seeing him get opened in his spots.
02:08 And now you notice, I mean, the Philly game is a really good example.
02:11 Like they are taking away.
02:12 They know he wants to get to his pull at mid range,
02:15 and they know he wants to shoot three pointers.
02:17 And if you take all of that away, he isn't a great creator.
02:20 He's not a great defender yet, despite the high effort,
02:23 and he's not somebody who can get to the rim.
02:25 So you start to see some of these games recently where he's
02:28 kind of not impacting the game quite as much as he was early on.
02:32 And that's just because the scout is out.
02:33 It's nothing more than that.
02:35 And now this is where you get into the meta game, right?
02:38 You have to try and find a way.
02:40 Okay, so if you're going to take that away from me,
02:42 this is what I'm going to do, and this is what I'm going to get to.
02:44 And that development normally takes some time for rookies.
02:47 That's when they start to hit the rookie wall.
02:49 But you're right.
02:50 He has pushed his way above Bryce McGowan in the rotation,
02:54 ahead of James Bucknight in the rotation.
02:57 Maybe not that hard, but he has kind of emerged here
03:00 and earned a bit of Steve Clifford's trust.
03:02 And that's something which for any young rookie,
03:04 who I don't think, you know,
03:06 we weren't expecting him to be in the rotation this year at all.
03:08 We're expecting him to basically play in Greensboro,
03:10 because when this team is healthy,
03:14 he still probably wouldn't get near that top nine.
03:16 If you add Gordon Haywood and Mark Williams back into this mix.
03:20 But because the guy's missing time constantly,
03:22 he's found himself with an opportunity.
03:24 And like Steve Clifford keeps saying,
03:26 well, this is actually really good that these guys get a chance now,
03:29 because I think it'll help us in the long run.
03:31 Well, he said the same thing last season,
03:33 and I'm really not seeing the help.
03:35 I'm not seeing that positive benefit of these young guys getting playing time yet,
03:38 because a lot of these guys just still look a little bit out of their depth.
03:42 They still look flustered.
03:43 There hasn't been that much development.
03:45 We'll talk about some more guys here in a minute
03:46 who've maybe struggled a little bit more.
03:49 But I've still been encouraged by what I've seen with Nick Smith Jr.
03:52 But you have to start showing me,
03:54 OK, what is next?
03:55 What else have you got in your game apart from that three point shot
03:58 and that mid-range pull up?
04:00 Because teams are just going to take that away.
04:02 Yeah, and so when he was at Arkansas,
04:07 that was kind of the problem as well.
04:09 Granted, at that time, he had the knee injury to kind of fall back on.
04:12 He didn't really get to the rim as well,
04:13 because I think it was a meniscus injury that he had
04:16 that he was suffering through all year.
04:17 Now it's kind of just a lack of creation ability.
04:21 He's not a great ball handler,
04:23 even if he looks pretty good with the ball in his hands at times.
04:26 He's a quick guy, but not the quickest.
04:28 He's obviously not strong yet, as I mentioned earlier.
04:31 How he kind of counters that is going to be interesting going forward.
04:34 I think if he just adds a pretty decent amount of strength,
04:37 that's going to do a lot for him,
04:39 because to me, strength and shooting touch as a combination
04:42 from a guard/wing, I believe Steve Clifford has actually referred to him
04:47 as a wing multiple times in his pre and post.
04:50 He actually said he's not a guard.
04:52 He's out of his way to say he is a wing, not a guard.
04:55 Yeah, so I mean, if you add strength and shooting touch together
05:00 as a combination for an offensive player skill set on the wing,
05:04 to me, that is one of the most valuable combinations you can have,
05:07 because that's going to allow you to create shots
05:10 with pretty much anybody guarding you,
05:11 because you have touch, you can shoot in contested areas and tight spaces.
05:16 If you have strength, you can move players around
05:18 and get to your spots without having to suffer
05:22 through any sort of physicality issues.
05:24 If he can just do that, I think that's going to solve a lot of problems,
05:27 because the shooting touch, as we've mentioned,
05:29 once he gets to those spots in the mid-range,
05:31 it's very hard.
05:33 Almost every time he shoots, you think it's going to go in.
05:36 Yeah, I agree.
05:37 How smooth it looks once he gets to that spot.
05:40 Yeah, it's just for me, do you have the athleticism to get there?
05:44 And do you have enough creativity as a passer for guys
05:47 just not to step straight in front of you for the help defense and stuff like that?
05:51 ♪ It's Duck Head time ♪