Since the Summer League, Dennis Smith Jr. has continued to turn a lot of heads with his solid play, and proving that he deserves all the hype that surrounded him even before he entered the league. Despite falling to the Dallas Mavericks with the 10th pick in last June’s draft, even if he was projected to be in the top five, Brad Stevens recently admitted that he had a chance to be selected third overall.

The Boston Celtics head coach shared, via Sean Grande of Celtics.com, that the team thought hard on bringing the former NC State star in, but ultimately chose Jayson Tatum instead, as they wanted him to play alongside Jaylen Brown, and be a big part of their future plans.

Brad on whether Dennis Smith Jr. was "in the conversation" for the Celtics with the #3 pick…"Sure. That's why we had him in. This class was so deep, so many good players, it was going to be hard to choose one. It came back to the idea of Jayson and Jaylen growing together." — Sean Grande (@SeanGrandePBP) November 21, 2017

The Mavs are certainly happy with how the draft went, and finding Smith still available when they were on the clock. He is rewarding the team with his impressive showing so far this season, averaging 14.5 points, 4.2 rebounds and 4.5 assists in 28.8 minutes per game. More importantly, he is giving the Dallas faithful a lot of optimism that they can once again be a contender in the coming years.

The C’s on the other hand are surely not regretting their decision to pass up on Smith, as they are off to a hot-start, and are currently leading the league with a 15-2 record. Tatum is also playing well for them, but there’s no denying that Stevens had a very hard time deciding who to draft, as Smith is a very talented player in his own right, and impressed the Celtics coaching staff during his workout.