The season starts in less than a week and Joshua Smith has one practice and one preseason game to prove something.
Such is the life of a rookie trying to make a veteran-laden team as a center.
Smith entered his time with the Houston Rockets as a long shot to make the roster given the veteran star, Dwight Howard was the starter, Clint Capela's rising talent as the backup and Jeremy Tyler, who has at least three years of NBA experience over him.
As training camp progressed, Smith watched Howard and Capela's health keep them out of games, presenting him with an opportunity to play.
Smith got minutes over Tyler, who doesn't appear in the mix for one of the final roster spots now.
So it's up to Smith. Can he make it?
"That's something I try not to think about," he said. "I let the hierarchy make that decision. I'm going to control what I can control and try to get better every day."
One of the people making the decision is a Hall of Fame power forward in Rockets coach Kevin McHale. Based on the health of the bigs, Smith's roster spot could be secure.
Then again, maybe not.
"Joshua right now may win a spot by default," McHale said. "He may be the biggest guy left standing. He's picking up stuff that we're doing, he's working on getting in better shape and working on going longer and that kind of stuff. I like his hands, I like his feet, I think he's got a pretty good feel for the game. I think realistically when Dwight comes back, and (Donatas Motiejunas) comes back and Terrence [Jones] comes back, the majority of the minutes will be with them and Dwight, but we'll see how it goes."
As the Rockets move toward their final preseason game with McHale expressing a desire to play his vets a good portion of the game, he won't have Howard, Jones and Motiejunas.
Capela is the starting center, Smith and Tyler could get some time at center after that. The Rockets will play small and that keeps a player like Smith on the bench.
Smith's size (6 feet 10, 350 pounds) can be a problem at times. He needs to move faster on the weak side of the defense to help out and when faced one-on-one with opponents, has to move quicker so he can stop reaching for fouls.
In six preseason games, Smith has been called for a team-high 29 fouls. Some of the calls are just a rookie still learning the NBA game.
The foul calls became so bad, Smith's mother, Tracey, called him to cut it out.
"In college you can afford to be on the weak side and sometimes you can zone off a little bit because the play is not going your way, because of different options," he said. "But in the NBA there is so many actions, it's going so fast. When you're on the weak side, it's important you're talking because the [center] is the quarterback of the defense. You got to tell everybody what they're doing and what to do. You got to be more aware."
Smith is using the fact he played at two prestigious basketball schools in college, UCLA and Georgetown, as help in his development.
In the summer league, he picked the brain of Patrick Ewing, considered one of the great centers in college basketball history.
On his own team, Smith spoke with Trevor Ariza, a UCLA alum.
Smith is trying to learn everything he can on and off the court.
"It's just making sure I'm taking advantage of all the opportunities I have here," Smith said. "I met the nutritionist the other day and went over a meal plan and making sure I'm getting in the meals before games, after games and making sure I'm getting my metabolism up because with the game and everything I'm feeling a lot better going out there. The more weight I lose, the better I feel."
Is it too late?
