Craig Smith making name as a second-round steal

Timberwolves forward Craig Smith has had two 30-point games in December. AP

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A guy comes at you whose nickname is Rhino, well, you'd make room for him, too.

That's why Minnesota Timberwolves forward Craig Smith, a relative rhinoceros in a league long on giraffes, has barged onto my (and thus entirely unofficial) NBA Second-Round All-Star Team.

We're talking about a 12-man squad here of second-round picks, not merely a starting five -- a good thing since those spots were gone pretty fast. Manu Ginobili, Gilbert Arenas, Carlos Boozer, Michael Redd and Rashard Lewis are almost automatic, with Mehmet Okur, Monta Ellis, Mo Williams and Stephen Jackson close behind in that group of proud and, by definition upon their arrival, underrated players.

That leaves Smith battling with the likes of Anderson Varejao, Luke Walton, Juan Carlos Navarro, Cuttino Mobley, Earl Watson, Kyle Korver, Rafer Alston, Eduardo Najera, Paul Millsap and Steve Blake for the remaining three slots. And while I'm not eager to crash this site's Mailbag feature by offending more fans (seven out of 10) than I please, I'll take Varejao, Walton and Smith from that bunch.

You can be the one who says no to the Rhino, who, if not for that moniker, would be one of the more anonymous players in the NBA. With Joe, Josh, J.R. and Jason already scattered among the 30 teams, it's a good thing this Smith's name isn't Jim.

"I have the most generic name,'' Smith, the No. 36 overall pick in the 2006 draft, told the Minneapolis Star Tribune last week. "People are like, 'Who?' It's nothing different. Just trying to let people know I can play, that's all.''

The encyclopedia tells us that a rhinoceros is characterized by his large size, his herbivorous diet and a thick protective skin, which in Smith's case is check, check and double-check.

Playing a sport in which height is prized, literally, above all else, Smith has made width work for him. Listed at 6-foot-7 but, like Charles Barkley, at least two inches shorter than that, Smith is thick-bodied and broad-beamed, with a "Wide Load'' sign stitched to the back of his game shorts. He clears the air space above him, both for rebounds and to get his shots off, better than a squadron of jet fighters. And if Smith gains position in the low post with a defender on his back, that man most definitely is on the dark side of the moon, a hemisphere away from doing much good.

In his last seven games through Monday, Smith was averaging 17.7 points, boosted considerably by a career-high 36 points against Washington on Dec. 11 and a 30-point, 10-rebound night three games later in Milwaukee. He ranks fifth in the NBA in field-goal accuracy (58.5 percent) and has hit 62 percent (75-for-121) over the past 12 games, a function of his proximity to the rim, summertime efforts to extend the range of his jump shot, a surprisingly soft touch for such a burly guy and an uncanny ability to get his shot -- he has a nifty Bernard King-inspired "quick up'' -- based on years of facing taller opponents.

"You don't know where the release point is all the time,'' Wolves coach Randy Wittman said recently, "so it's probably a little bit difficult to figure out what he's going to do.''

Smith's development has been vital, especially since his 2006 draft mate, first-rounder Randy Foye, has been sidelined by a knee injury and hasn't played a minute for the club. It helps that Smith is on the right team, given that former Boston star Kevin McHale is Minnesota's vice president of basketball operations and the man who selected him.

Smith leads the NBA in the little-tracked stat of most field goal attempts per assist. He has taken 180 shots so far this season while dishing four assists for a robust 45-to-1 ratio. The guy in second place is Clippers rookie Al Thornton with 21.5-to-1 (129 field goal attempts, six assists), and no one else in the league has a ratio greater than 20-to-1. Naturally, that doesn't bother McHale much, considering his nickname of the Black Hole (courtesy of Danny Ainge from their Celtics days together) for how the basketball would go to McHale in the low post and rarely come back out.

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