As a rule, most pre-draft stories, written by people who don't cover college sports, are drive-by generalizations with some easy boiler-plate quotes and lazy correlations.
That's not what Jonathan Tjarks has done in his excellent piece on N.C. State's Dennis Smith Jr. for The Ringer.
Smith went into his only college season as a candidate for the No. 1 overall pick. After his spectacular, yet brief showing in the adidas Nations camp last summer, he was projected to go in the top spot.
Then the season happened. Smith, N.C. State's first ACC freshman of the year since 1977, wasn't bad, but N.C. State was. Tjarks starts with the premise that the lack of team success isn't being held against Washington guard Markelle Fultz (the Huskies went 2-16 in the Pac-12), and it shouldn't be held against Smith (the Wolfpack went 4-14 in the ACC).
Fultz, who is bigger and a better scorer than Smith, is the consensus No. 1 pick in the draft. Smith, who declined to attend the NBA combine this week, is being projected to go outside the top 5. In a guard-heavy draft, Smith has seemingly fallen behind Fultz, UCLA's Lonzo Ball and both Kentucky guards (De'Aaron Fox and Malik Monk).
Tjarks adroitly breaks down Smith's strengths (starting with his explosive athleticism) and then gets to Smith's main weakness. Anyone who watched N.C. State this season knows what that is.
