Is DFS CFS?
The Rockets big signing of the summer was cadging Dorian Finney-Smith away from the Los Angeles Lakers, who according to some sources botched negotiations with the forward. Whatever the case might be, he signed with the Rockets for the mid-level salary exception – earning roughly $13 million per season for the next three season, with a player option in 2028-29 for basically the same number.
DFS was signed as more or less a one for one Dillon Brooks replacement in the lineup. If there’s
such a thing as a classic 3/D player, Finney-Smith might be one. There’s reason to think he can at least fill Brooks’ shoes, if perhaps with less personal volatility. One reason is that while Dillon Brook’s three point shooting reached a career high of around 40%, Finney-Smith shot 41%. Their career averages in the stat are about the same. Finney-Smith is 31 and a bit, while Brooks will turn 30 soon, so in my eyes, that’s pretty much a wash, though
Finney-Smith is a tough, rugged defender, who typically plays 60-70 games per season in recent years, however in a career comparison he averages roughly 65 games per season to Brook’s 60ish. Brooks is probably more reliable aside from two somewhat lost seasons in Memphis because Memphis injures players.
His defense rated out ever so slightly better than Dillion Brooks by defensive plus/minus. Brooks was effectively dead average last season at 0.0. Finney-Smith came in at 0.0. Though the stat rates an “average player” at 0.0, I wonder if it accounts for Brooks and DFS often taking the toughest wing up to power forward as an assignment. For comparison on the stat, one I think is fairly useful in looking at defense, the number one player was, of course, Kris Dunn at 3.8.
Some other names you might recognize were Draymond Green at 2.8, Victor Wembanyama at 2.9. Alperen Sengun rated 13th at 1.8, and The World’s Greatest Defender Ever, of All Time, Forever, Evan Mobley rated lower than Alpie at 1.6. (So the “Sengun isn’t good enough on defense!” crowd could perhaps STFU.) It’s not a be all, end all, rating, but it’s not nothing. (Amusingly despite 0.0 being “average” there were exactly five players in the NBA who logged that average score.)
Anyhow Dorian Finney-Smith rated 74th, which for an MLE guy who also provides shooting and decent, if not spectacular rebounding is pretty good. You’d think perhaps that most players would be ave
Finney-Smith is another 6’7” menace who will probably feast on the space I expect will be provided by Durant and Sengun, who are both extreme threats on offense in their different ways. Finney-Smith isn’t a player who needs the ball though. He’s not a volume shooter, just an accurate one.
So why might DFS be CFS or Chicken Fried Steak, something I hope he doesn’t eat too much of in Houston? Well, he had ankle surgery in the off season to repair an ankle impingement (as did Jae’Sean Tate). I don’t think his season has been pounded flat, breaded, friend and covered with gravy, though. The Rockets expect him back in a matter of weeks, and if there is one position where they boast astonishing depth it’s Big Wing/Power Forward. The Rockets can far better withstand a loss of minutes from Finney-Smith than say, any guard on the roster, all three of them.
I think DFS will turn in about 60 games played at his career average per36 of 10.7pts/5.8rbs/1.9ast/1.1stl/.6blk. Hopefully while keeping the CFS consumption reasonable.
