Rik Smits was too tall to be stopped and too springy to score on. In the 90s, he was a great player. In today’s NBA, he would be the perfect center.
The 1999-2000 Indiana Pacers were glorious. They were the only (NBA) Pacers team to ever make the NBA finals, they had the franchises best ever player, and they also had the organizations tallest ever player in Rik Smits.
Smits should not be remembered exclusively for being tall. He should be remembered for his innate ability to block shots and finish around the basket.
Smits led off his career with a dominating defensive rookie season where he posted a block percentage of 4.3 percent, which was 17th in the league. From there on out, his reputation as a shot blocker made opponents afraid to go anywhere near him in the paint due to fear of being embarrassed.
Would you rather have this happen to you, or would you rather have just not shot the ball at all?
I don’t know about you, but I would probably rather just pass to someone else. That is the effect Smits had on the defensive end and a large part of why his career was so illustrious.
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Offensively, all you need to know about Smits is that his nickname was “The Dunking Dutchman”. How bad-ass is that? When you’re 7-foot-4-inches tall, dunking is easy. When you do it with as much ferocity and frequency as Smits did, dunking becomes associated with your name.
Getting up for lobs, finishing fast breaks, beating a guy off the dribble or with a simple post move; Smits had quite the repertoire of ways to get to the rim for his thunderous throwdowns. Dunks change the whole game by adding a certain level of excitement and momentum that other baskets don’t have, so frequently Smits impact extended beyond the boxscore.
Dunks also get the crowd into the game. What could have been more exciting for Pacers fans than a Reggie Miller to Rik Smits alley-oop:
You feel that? That feeling you have is nostalgia.
As touched on, Smits was an impactful defender and excellent rim protector while also being an excellent dunker and finisher around the rim. He was really good in the 90s when those skills were used differently, but in the modern NBA, he might be the perfect center.
In fact, 1993-94 Rik Smits would possibly be the most sought-after big man in the league, if he played today. By most metrics, that was his most impactful season.
Per basketball reference, Smits had a true shooting percentage of 58 percent that year. That would be above average this year, nonetheless in the 90s before it was cool to be efficient. That season was also tied for his second best defensive season with a defensive rating of 103. An efficient guy who can protect the rim? Sign me up.
Only four centers with 1000+ minutes have those stats in the current NBA season. Their names? Clint Capela, DeMarcus Cousins, Al Horford, and Joel Embiid. Three All-Stars and the starting center for the NBA’s second-best team. Smits would be in that group, and given how the NBA has gravitated toward efficient centers who can protect the rim, the Dunking Dutchman would fit right in.
Next: Power Forward Thursdays: David West and his sweet stroke
Unfortunately, we will (probably) never see Smits play in the NBA during an era that would suit him perfectly. Thankfully, we got to see Rik Smits play in a Pacers uniform, and we can all still thank him for helping the Indiana Pacers reach their only NBA finals.