Utah Jazz: Where does Donovan Mitchell rank among top young guards?

Dennis Smith Jr, Dallas Mavericks

Dennis Smith Jr. is by far the most electrifying athlete of the bunch here. He boasts an outrageous 48-inch vertical, and he uses his explosiveness to meet opposing players at and above the rim.

Smith has the chance to be an explosive scorer in this league. He started off the season a bit slow, but once he found his groove, he consistently showed people why he was a top 10 pick in last year’s draft. He finished the season averaging 15.2 points per game, and scored over 20 points in 15 games last season. 10 of those games happened after the New Year.

Based on his production last season, and with a better team around him, there is a chance Smith could approach 20 points per game next season. Especially with Luka Doncic setting him up.

Smith is not just a scorer though. One of the more surprising parts of his game was his ability to set his teammates up. Only four guards under 25 had a higher percentage of their team’s assists when on the floor, and none of those players had a better assist to turnover ratio.

The biggest hurdle for Smith is going to be his efficiencies. He has the potential to be a dominant scoring point guard in the league, but he has a little Russell Westbrook in him. Not the good parts, but the out of control, often times takes some ill-advised shots version. He only shot 31.4 percent from three, and just 69 percent from the free throw line.

If he can up those percentages and improve his decision making, Smith could emerge as one of the best young guards in the league.