Three years ago, Dorian Finney-Smith finished his third and final season at the University of Florida and was named to the Second Team All-SEC Team for the second year in a row. Then it was time for the NBA Draft.
Finney-Smith never heard is name called on draft night, but his dream didn’t stop there. Just a few weeks later, he found himself signing with the Dallas Mavericks to compete in Summer League and training camp for a spot on the final roster that fall.
Not only would Finney-Smith make the final roster, but he would go on to start 35 games for the Mavs and average over 20 minutes a game during his rookies season. His fit on the court was seamless, but off the court, he didn’t have many guys his age to connect with on the team.
“It was different the first two years,” Finney-Smith said as we reminisced on his early days in Dallas. “It was just me and A.J. Hammons. But A.J would go down to the D-League for a minute. I was the only person who was under 23 years old.”
Guys like Deron Williams, Wesley Matthews, Dirk Nowitzki, J.J. Barea, and others were already in their 30s. As a team, Dallas had seven players over 30 years old. Harrison Barnes had just arrived, but Barnes’ vet-like personality and experience in the league set him apart from being one of the “young guys” on the team.
“HB was a little different because he had been in the league for a minute and he has an older mentality,” Finney-Smith recalled.
Then, on the night of the 2017 NBA Draft, Finney-Smith’s off-the-court life in Dallas would change forever as the Dallas Mavericks drafted a 19-year-old by the name of Dennis Smith Jr. with the ninth overall pick.
It didn’t take long for the two Smiths to cross paths.
“In the training room,” Smith recalled on the first time he met Finney-Smith. “I was coming down to get ready for Summer League and we introduced ourselves to each other. He knew my cousin.”
Finney-Smith had made an earlier family connection to the Smith family through the school he attended growing up and already knew about Dennis before the Mavericks drafted him on draft night. But after their pleasantries were exchanged in the training room on the first day, it was time for them both to see what each other had.
“The first day I met him we played one-on-one,” Finney-Smith said. “Right then I knew I was going to like him.”
And ever since then, the Smith bros have been inseparable. They would play that Summer League together and head into training camp as two young pieces of the future for the Mavericks. Even though Finney-Smith battled injuries throughout their first year together, the two formed a bond off the court that is as strong as ever now.
Dennis credits the strength of that bond to their similar upbringings growing up.
“We have similar backgrounds and we are into the same things off the court,” Smith said. “Similar mentalities and we came up kind of the same way. We can relate to so much that the other person got going on. It is easy to really rock with somebody like that.”
The friendship was natural and easy from the beginning even going as far as creating a tagline between the two that has now became a popular hashtag among Mavs fans on social media: #DaSmithWay.
“It is a term that way. We just call it DaSmithWay,” Smith Jr. described it as. “It is our way, point-blank period.”
“It means going hard,” Finney-Smith added. “Having fun with the game and throwing alley-oops. Playing hard and diving after the ball.”
In a way, DaSmithWay sets the tone for them on the court. Their energy. Their grit and determination. Their pit bull-like mentality in which they feed off each other. When Dorian grabs a rebound, Dennis is the first person he is looking for, and in the same way Dennis drives to the basket and looks for a cutting Dorian.
In fact, it was this type of play that provided Dennis’ favorite memory of the two on the court up in Toronto back last season.
“The Toronto game, I drove and saw him cutting. I dropped it off and he yoked on Valanciunas,” Smith said as he thought through their memories on the court. “That’s probably my favorite memory.”
But sometimes it isn’t all fun and highlights between the two on the court. Sometimes it’s hard conversations and teaching moments between the two. And the ability to hold each other accountable on the court is something that makes their bond so special.
“He can talk to me if he sees me not playing hard,” Finney-Smith said.
In the home win over the Rockets recently, Dorian recalled a play in which he was called for a foul on James Harden. Except Dorian didn’t think it was a foul. Dennis was the first person to come over and tell him that it in fact was an infraction.
“Like tonight, he was telling me to get up on Harden and he says it was a foul,” Dorian said. “He has my back, but if he says that it is a foul, then I probably fouled him.”
It is the chemistry they have built off the court that enables this type of truth and honesty on the court.
“When you have a relationship you can really get onto one another and you don’t take it personal. It is coming from a good place,” Smith added.
When it comes to what they have learned from each other on the court, they both shared unique pieces of their games that they have adapted into their own repertoire. For Dorian, it all stems from the confidence that he soaks up from Dennis on the court. In his early years in Dallas, Dorian was his own worst critic and would stay down on himself for an entire game because of a mistake earlier in the game. But over time, he’s adopted Smith’s short memory.
“I used to think about my last shot a lot,” Finney-Smith said. “Back in the day, if I missed that dunk, I would be thinking about it the whole game.”
And that boost in confidence is evident when it comes to Finney-Smith’s shooting. Attempting more 3s per game than his entire career, Finney-Smith is also shooting his highest percentage in his career from behind the arc and was one of the best 3-point shooters in the league through the first part of the season.
For Dennis, it is the energy and pride that Finney-Smith puts into his defense that has made him take it up a notch on that end of the ball.
“Locking in on defense and how important defense is,” Smith said in regards to what he has learned from Dorian. “He takes pride in that.”
And just like Finney-Smith’s improved outside shot, Smith’s tenacity on the defensive end of the ball has been one of his biggest improvements since last season. In fact, of the Mavericks’ five-man lineups that have played over 80 minutes together, both Dennis and Dorian are in the five-man lineup that possesses the best defensive rating, according to NBA.com.
The bond on the court is evident, but ever since the beginning, it is the friendship off the court that is something you don’t see on every professional sports team. They might battle one-on-one after practice at times, but as far as who the better shooter is between the two, that is up for debate.
“My wrist is messed up right now but he can’t shoot with me,” Smith Jr. said with a laugh. “He know that. He won’t put his money on that.”
Finney-Smith had a simple response, “Come on now.”
Dorian is also confident in his fashion game over Dennis’ and Dennis recognizes that Dorian can dress, but not on his level though. “He got some swag to him…he can dress. He can’t dress better than me, but he can dress,” Dennis said with a grin.
In regards to their battles on the sticks, “I know he didn’t say he was better in that,” Dennis loudly proclaimed. Finney-Smith acknowledged that many of the young guys on the team play video games together, but credited Dennis for his skills in Madden.
“He good at Madden though. I can’t take that from him,” Finney-Smith said.
Dennis proceeded to expand on his domination over Dorian. “Look, we play on the plane. I scrape him on the plane, the hotel room,” Dennis said. “Call of Duty. Madden. I am super cold at Madden. Ain’t nobody mess with me in Madden. I scrape him in 2K too.”
As far as a good story between the two off the court that could be published on the team site, Dennis laughingly said the he “might not be able to tell some of those stories until he [Dorian] retires.”
They might throw alley-oops to each other on the court, but their bond off the court is what will last a lifetime. They are teammates and friends, but there was one word they both kept referencing when talking about each other.
They are brothers.
“They try to sit in between us because they say we are always together,” Finney-Smith said. “Everywhere we go, he is somewhere close to me. We’re always joking with each other. He’s like my brother.”
They are the Smith brothers and as far as they are concerned, nothing is coming between DaSmithWay.
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