National Basketball Association

Chicago Bulls 15th Man: D'Vauntes Smith-Rivera

Published Jun. 30, 2017 6:28 p.m. ET

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As the regular season looms, the Chicago Bulls will have to start making cuts. With 18 players still on the roster, we take a look at what D’Vauntes Smith-Rivera has done so far and where he goes from here.

We’re three games into the preseason and the Bulls rotation is starting to take shape. It’s time to take a look at a few players who are fighting for the 15th and final spot on the roster.

One of the guys on the bubble is D’Vauntes Smith-Rivera.

Smith-Rivera was profiled by Pippen Ain’t Easy when it was announced that he was signed to a training camp deal by Chicago.

The young guard played for Georgetown in college and had a decorated career with the team. His highlight video shows just how capable he was off the dribble, getting to the rim and using his ability to penetrate defenses to create scoring opportunities for others.

Similar to our outlook for Thomas Walkup, Smith-Rivera has only played in one game, for barely over a minute, and he doesn’t have a realistic shot at making the 15-man roster.

Smith-Rivera is an Indianapolis native and this training camp tryout probably has a lot more to do with the potential for him to get an invite to join the Windy City Bulls for the upcoming D-League season.

However, that is far from a lock for the rookie guard. He’s pretty much a pure point guard and Windy City already has a couple of players ready for that position. We profiled some of the options, realistic and unrealistic, for each position for Windy City and among them were both point and shooting guards. Players like Kiwi Gardner have to figure prominently into the plans for the D-League squad.

While Walkup seems to have the size and shooting to play the two-guard, Smith-Rivera looks like an exclusively point guard oriented player. He’s good in that position, but is he good enough to jump into an already crowded backcourt at Hoffman Estates?

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Unless the cuts come before the games this weekend, Smith-Rivera will need to hit practice on a mission and hope that translates into increased playing time. The Bulls have three of their four remaining preseason games in a four-day span starting on Friday. If Smith-Rivera gets a shot, he’ll have a great chance at being with Windy City when Chicago’s camp closes.

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