The Stupidity of Blaming College Players

One of the worst things happened to me this morning: I was at the gym, and Nate Duncan and Danny Leroux finished up with their off-season recap of Phoenix Suns, and lo and behold, there were no more podcasts in my feed. So, I sadly turned to the Locked On NBA mock draft, and after the first six picks, I was out. It was the straw that broke the camel’s back.

It wasn’t the asinine picks these NBA experts were making (Jonathan Isaac over De’Aaron Fox and Jayson Tatum). It wasn’t David Locke being the general idiot that he is. it was the expert prospect analysis Mike Schmitz, of Draft Express, was providing, especially for the mock sixth pick, Dennis Smith.

In the mock, the fake Orlando Magic GM selects Smith, out of NC State, to supplant Elfrid Payton as their point guard. And then, Schmitz comes out and lauds Smith as a great high upside prospect with one fatal flaw: he couldn’t win at NC State. That, in my opinion, is ludicrous. An utterly moronic assessment of the situation.

I’m not going to comment on the fact that Dennis Smith is blamed for his losing record at NC State, but Markelle Fultz’s Washington 9–22 record (a full 6 wins worse) than NC State in 2016–17 (and on a strength of schedule that’s only marginally harder than NC State’s) is explained away with some silliness about UW’s lack of elite talent. Because, if I had to, I’d say something about how Washington last year played in a worse conference and only won twice with a team that may have had another NBA player on it, and NC State, who definitely had no other NBA player, beat 3 tournament teams and won 4 conference games in the much deeper ACC. But I’m not going to say that.

What I will comment on is the audacity of Schmitz to claim that NC State’s struggles were a function of Smith’s “lack of defensive focus, leadership, and pure playmaking ability.” That’s fucking bullshit. NC State surrounded Smith with the following players.

• Terry Henderson, the shoot-first, pound-the-rock second, and pass-the-rock-to-Smith-at-the-end-of-the-shot-clock-to-avoid-the-blame-for-a-wasted-possession shooting guard transfer out of West Virginia. OUT OF WEST VIRGINIA. So, we know he has no ball skills.
• Then, there was Maverick Rowan, or the sharp-shooting lanky white dude who actually isn’t a sharpshooter at all.
• Inside, there was Abdul-Malik Abu, who couldn’t hit the broad side of a barn (what the fuck is that expression?) from more than five feet away.
• There were the young players on the team: Torin Dorn, a combo guard who was actually okay, Omer Yurtseven, the Turkish 5-star recruit, who should’ve been a 2-star recruit, and Markell Johnson, the tiny backup point guard who played HEAVY minutes next to Smith as the primary ball-handler.
• And lastly, we have the elephant Beejay Anya, who has actually gained weight in college over the years…

And all of that brings us to the adults in charge. Mark Gottfried played a scheme-less gameplan that was entirely dependent on Smith making shit into Jamba Juice. Even his crazy game at Duke was simply Smith heating up and beating talented college defenders in Frank Jackson and Matt Jones off the bounce. Watching Smith play last year was equivalent to watching Russell Westbrook play in the NBA this year, except if Bob Huggins was coaching, and someone banged him upside the head before the season and Huggins didn’t want to press every game. Yes, that analogy was terrible, but I wanted to accentuate how bad a playing situation NC State was last year.

And sure, you can counter with something along the lines of “Smith made his bed by committing to State, so he’s gotta sleep in it.” My response to that? I love how easily grown men and women can blame a 17 or 18 year old kid for making a decision but fail to see how the numerous mistakes the grown men and women who own them (yes, I went there) affect them.

The situation at NC State wasn’t just a function of the bad talent and bad coaching. The athletic management in Raleigh also fucked up Smith’s draft stock. With a whole month left in the season, Debbie Yow fired Gottfried, the charismatic, slicked-back haired coach who conned Smith into being the face of the Wolfpack for a year. BUT SHE KEPT HIM ON AS COACH FOR THE REST OF THE YEAR! What incentive does anyone associated with the NC State basketball program have to stay loyal to the team? It’s a hopeless situation. If the management quits on its team and forces its coach to quit on his kids, then why is Smith being dragged through the mud? It’s senseless.

I don’t want to hear about Smith’s bad body language anymore. I don’t want to listen to another naysayer talk about how Smith didn’t hang out with his teammates in college. I don’t want to read another draftnik demonize Smith for his lack of ability to elevate his teammates. Coming off an ACL injury that cost him a whole 8 inches on his vertical, he carried a team to 15 wins, who would’ve only won 9 if he weren’t on it (oh wait, that’s how many Markelle Fultz had).

I’ll admit that Smith’s tenure in college was unsatisfying. But he now has one of the best mentors in the NBA now in Dirk Nowitzki, a veteran, high character sidekick in Harrison Barnes, and a coach in Rick Carlisle who’ll put him in situations to succeed and show off his crazy skills. The future is bright for him. And, we’ll always have this.