First it’s set shots from within the dotted line. Then free throws. Then running floaters and pull-up jump shots. Eventually, he works his way out to the three-point line. Some shots drop. Others don’t.

Smith Jr. is methodical in his approach to pregame warmups. Every sequence is a warmup to another and then another, rinse and repeat, over and over again. That’s usually how life goes on the court for an NBA player. Practice makes perfect, and practice is best defined as repetition.

Life off the hardwood can be the complete opposite.

Smith’s pre-game shooting routine may be fixed — every “i” dotted, every “t” crossed — but his off-court routine is a constant evolution as he adjusts to the daunting travel schedule of an NBA player. For a 20-year-old on the tail end of his first year as a pro basketball player, it can be difficult to adjust.

“We just played New York. Two days later we played in Toronto, and we here now, about to play Brooklyn on a back-to-back,” he told SB Nation. “So, the schedule is hectic. You’re flying around everywhere, and you still gotta bring that same energy every night. It’s not easy, but it’s an adjustment. I’d say that’s the biggest adjustment to make.

“I can’t even say I’m fully adjusted yet, but my motto this year is ‘I’m working and learning,‘ so I’m taking my time with it.”

Forty-one games of an NBA season are on the road. That affords players at least 41 different opportunities to travel around the country and Canada. Amid all that travel, this Mavericks’ guard has put his rookie scale salary to good use: Expanding his horizons to enjoy some of the best food available.

“I eat better,” he said. “I eat at a lot of nicer steakhouses, three, four-course meals. I like Ruth’s Chris a lot. That’s my favorite spot. I get Papadeaux’s, I can get crab legs whenever I want.”

Smith got his first taste of fine-ish dining during pre-draft workouts when Knicks brass invited him to dinner. It was there that then-president Phil Jackson and general manager Steve Mills forced him to eat an octopus tentacle. A real-life octopus tentacle.

“First time ever,” he told The New York Daily News back in August. “I wasn’t going to try it, honestly. They kind of put the pressure on me to do it.”

Fancy steakhouses and crab legs weren’t reality for Smith Jr. when he grew up in Fayetteville, North Carolina And knowing the what he ate while growing up, octopus was probably the item furthest from the menu.

North Carolina — and the southernmost parts of Virginia — is considered the line of demarcation along the east coast between the north and the south. That means Smith grew up on some good ol’ Southern home cooking.

“My favorite home-cooked meal was definitely mac and cheese,” he said. “It could be fried chicken or pork chops with collard greens, too.”

Did he cook? “Naw. I was a youngin’. I was just eating everything.”

Smith’s diet changed some when he was in college at North Carolina State, but not necessarily for the better. Like most college students, he ate cup noodles to get by when he was hungry. He may have only been 50 minutes from home, but he couldn’t always make that trip, especially not during the college basketball season.

Growing kids have to eat, especially one who practiced and played Division I basketball most nights in a week. Waffle House was Smith’s safe haven. It’s a staple in the South where you can order breakfast all day, all night. If you’ve never been, make a pit stop on your next road trip.

“I’d always been big on cereal, so I ate a lot of it,” he said, before raving: “Cinnamon Toast Crunch, Fruity Pebbles, Cocoa Pebbles, Golden Grahams. All of ‘em.”

Smith ate cereal and the competition as an electrifying point guard who wowed fans and scouts alike for one college season before entering the 2017 NBA Draft, where the Dallas Mavericks selected him ninth overall. That’s when he made a change in his diet plan.

“My trainer back home ... He did a lot of meal prep for me preparing for the draft,” he said. “That was major for me, and I think it helped me out in terms of getting ready for the Summer League.”

Smith still eats everything available to him. There’s no hardcore diet he’s on. He’s 20 years old in just his first NBA season, not 40 years old as a 20-year veteran. But he understands the day may soon come when he needs to make a real shift in the things he puts in his body.

Some NBA players have started going vegan, most notably Kyrie Irving, Damian Lillard, JaVale McGee, and Wilson Chandler. One of the top 2018 NBA Draft prospects, Michael Porter Jr., also follows a strict plant-based diet. They’ve ditched the chicken for the chickpeas in an effort to either shed weight or increase energy.

Smith Jr. has only just begun to taste the foods available to him as a pro athlete. Will he ever slice his options in half by going vegan?

“I doubt I will, but I mean you never know,” he said. “Things change whenever you get older. I just had this talk the other day. [If my boy can do it], I don’t see why I couldn’t. If that’s truly a healthier route, then it’s something I’ll look into. But as of now, I don’t think it’s a strong chance of that happening.”

The diet of an NBA rookie is a tasty one. The No. 1 pick hauls in an annual salary of nearly $6 million. Second-round pick salaries range from a tick over $1 million to a minimum salary in the $250,000 ballpark. Going from zero to $6 million expands a teenager’s options 100-fold.

Smith is enjoying the new food options his NBA salary can now afford. Cup noodles are still in his house, but he rarely touches them. He still eats cereal, and he knows where the nearest Ruth’s Chris is to get his fix of fried chicken and mac and cheese.

He knows he has to get the greens on his plate, too. Veganism isn’t for the faint of heart, and Smith ain’t giving up his pork chops or fried chicken just yet.

Life off the court is about balance. And as he’s adjusted to life as an NBA player, he’s adjusting to life off of it, as well. Finding balance in the kitchen might not be the easiest task.

It undoubtedly is the tastiest — that is, unless you don’t like octopus.

“I eat better for sure,” Smith told me. “It costs to eat healthy. That’s the way the world is set up.”