Roscoe Smith still searching for NBA opportunity
More than a year has passed since Roscoe Smith decided to forgo his senior season at UNLV and enter the NBA Draft, but the 24-year-old forward has yet to record a regular-season NBA statistic.
After going undrafted last season and playing for the NBA Development League affiliate of the Los Angeles Lakers, the former Rebel returned to the Thomas & Mack Center this week donning the powder blue and white NBA Summer League uniform of the Denver Nuggets.
“It’s a fresh opportunity and a chance for me to show what I got,” said Smith, who also played with the San Antonio Spurs summer league team in Salt Lake City from July 6-9. “It’s not L.A., but I definitely see potential with where I am.”
Smith, who played two years at the University of Connecticut before transferring to UNLV, averaged 11.1 points and 10.9 rebounds per game as a junior in 2013-2014, his only year as a Rebel.
While he didn’t make it to the NBA in his first year as a pro, Smith averaged 18.1 points and 11 rebounds per game last season in the D-League, earning the attention of the Nuggets staff and front office.
“He’s one of the few players that can guard four different positions, from one to four,” Nuggets summer league coach Micah Nori said earlier this week. “That’s such an anomaly in this league and there’s a need for players like that.”
“Roscoe has an incredible motor and we think he’s ready to make the jump,” Denver GM Tim Connelly said. “It really just comes down to circumstances and our immediate needs.”
But if Smith’s playing time this week is any indication, Denver’s immediate needs might not yet revolve around the former Rebel.
While 2015 first-rounder Emmanuel Mudiay and current Nuggets regular-season roster players such as Gary Harris, Ian Clark and Joffrey Lavergne average 25 to 33 minutes in summer league games, Smith is averaging nine points and six rebounds in 21 minutes. He had 10 points and nine rebounds in 25 minutes off the bench Thursday in Denver’s 82-73 loss to the Atlanta Hawks at the Thomas & Mack Center.
And with a regular season roster that includes Lavergne, Kenneth Faried and JJ Hickson at forward, as well as versatile big men Danilo Galinari and Wilson Chandler, Smith’s chances of wearing powder blue in October for the start of the regular season are a longshot, at best.
“I think he’s on the cusp,” Nori said. “The summer league is just generally more for our roster players.”
Both Smith and the Nuggets staff in Las Vegas were quick to note that for non-roster players like the former Rebel, Summer League is a more of a national tryout than a brief shot at earning a spot in Denver.
With 23 of the NBA’s 30 franchises playing in Las Vegas this week, scouts, coaches and general managers are almost as numerous as fans in the Thomas & Mack Center and Cox Pavilion.
That bodes well for Smith, Connelly said.
“He’s a great, coachable kid that wants to be good,” Connelly said. “With the energy he brings, you have to think there are teams looking for those 13th, 14th and 15th guys that are going to seriously consider him.”
Time will tell if the once-promising Rebel forward will soon get a shot at his dream of playing in the NBA. Smith said there’s only one way to approach his current situation on the outside-looking-in: “Just keep bringing that spark, man. That’s all I can do.”
Contact Chris Kudialis at ckudialis@reviewjournal.com or 702-383-0283. Find him on Twitter: @kudialisrj
