Dennis Smith Jr. will be Rookie of the Year, according to rookie survey

This summer, Dennis Smith Jr. impressed a lot of MFFLs with his play in the MGM Resorts NBA Summer League in Las Vegas - producing a handful of jaw dropping highlights and taking home First-Team honors. Turns out he put his fellow rookies on notice too.

As reported by John Schuhmann at NBA.com yesterday, Smith Jr. was on many rookies’ list of players to watch this season, in a survey conducted by the website during the rookie photo shoot earlier this month. The highest recognition in the survey, Smith Jr. was the rookie class’s pick to win Rookie of the Year, earning just over 25 percent of the vote.

He made appearances many times in the survey: rookie projected to have the best career (T-3rd); the biggest steal of the draft (2nd); and most notably as the most athletic rookie, with 43.6 percent of the vote.

Since summer league ended, Dennis Smith Jr. has received a lot of praise from players and analysts alike, and it seems like he is bullying a different rim every week:

These sort of polls hold literally zero weight when it comes to actual awards. But the hype and excitement that the Dallas Mavericks have one of the gems of this rookie class is real.

The NBA season can’t come soon enough.

Check out the rest of the survey here, and keep coming back to Mavs Moneyball as we prepare you for training camp that’s just around the corner!