Due to a need for youth and athleticism in the frontcourt, many Milwaukee Bucks fans were calling for rookie second-round pick Tyler Smith to earn some legitimate minutes at various times this past year. However, the time never came, and the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel's Jim Owczarski offered some perspective on why that might have been during a recent Reddit AMA.
"I watched a workout between Khris [Middleton] and Tyler when Middleton was getting ready to come back, and Khris just manhandled him. Smith couldn’t move. They had to stop the drill and restart it. Like that can’t happen for him to be a real contributor. Not to say he can’t get there, but that’s the physical development they need. But they’ve got him for a few years here, so if he can just keep building up his body, working on his shot/interior game, who knows!"
Growth will be vital for Bucks big man Tyler Smith
First off, there's no shame in a rookie second-round pick struggling against one of the smoothest scorers in the game today. Smith joined the Milwaukee Bucks as a raw 19-year-old, so him being a work in progress is no surprise. His potential as a 6-foot-11 smooth-shooting and fluid-moving big man is through the roof, but as Owczarski notes, he must put the pieces together.
As Tyler Smith saw from the sidelines, Brook Lopez's inability to guard in space got him benched in the Bucks' first-round matchup against Indiana. In today's NBA, most big men have to keep up on the perimeter to be successful defensively to hang with the youth and athleticism other teams possess. That's an area of his game he must work on to burst into the rotation on a full-time basis.
Smith's potential was there to see in Milwaukee's regular-season finale, the only game of the season in which the youngster played at least 30 minutes. In the overtime win against Detroit, Smith dropped 20 points, four rebounds, a block, and a steal on 6-of-9 shooting, including 4-of-6 from downtown. That type of game showed that there's a two-way force waiting to be unearthed in Tyler Smith.
Offseason growth from Smith could do the Milwaukee Bucks a lot of good this offseason. This team needs some retooling in the frontcourt to get more athletic and mobile, and there won't be a ton of that on the market. Smith could be a cheap, in-house option. However, he must display growth on both sides of the basketball to make it clear he can help this Milwaukee team.
Whether or not Tyler Smith works his way into the rotation next season will almost certainly come down to the growth he displays after summer. For a Milwaukee Bucks team that hasn't had much success with draft selections in recent memory, Smith's ability to change that narrative could be a significant shot in the arm.
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