Cameron Payne’s smile is many things. It’s bright and infectious. It has a childlike quality, perhaps because the Oklahoma City Thunder guard is an unassuming 6-foot-3, or maybe because that smile is so disarming.

He is averaging 11.9 minutes per game as a rookie for a team that might be the best in the NBA outside of the Golden State Warriors and San Antonio Spurs. Even more impressive than that, Payne has integrated himself into a notoriously difficult locker room fronted by two of the best basketball players in the world. One of those players, Russell Westbrook, is a coil of nervous energy and intensity on the court, but Payne’s jubilance has led to a Swagdaddies routine between the league’s leader in triple-doubles and an unheralded mid-Major star. 

“They embraced me. I guess that’s because of the type of guy I am. I came in and worked really hard and that’s how these guys are,” Payne said of Westbrook and Kevin Durant. “Get in your work, come in and constantly work. That’s just The Thunder Way and the example they set for me.” 

Payne is fortunate to learn from experienced, decorated teammates.  It wasn’t all that long ago that he found himself lightly recruited out of Lausanne Collegiate School in Memphis, Tennessee. Like so many before him, Payne underwent a growth spurt in his mid-to-late teens that helped make basketball more than just a passion.

“I was like 5’9” at one point in high school; I was little,” he admits. “I was little. I got taller by like eleventh grade, but I played basketball from the beginning.”

He was not among the consensus top 100 prospects in the high school class of 2013 and was rated by Rivals.com as a three-star recruit. That led him to Murray State and the Ohio Valley Conference. Payne made the most of his time there, collecting quite a bit of hardware during his two seasons with the Racers -- OVC Freshman of the Year, two-time First Team All-OVC and Player of the Year honors in 2015. There was some doubt about his draft stock last spring, but he entered the draft and began the transition from mid-Major “star” to lottery pick.

“No one gets to know who you are when you’re down at a mid-Major,” Payne told me the day before the 2015 NBA Draft. “You don’t know those guys. This is probably the first time you’ve ever seen me and I’m pretty sure I’m giving some great, positive stuff. You’re saying, ‘Man, he’s a cool guy.’”

Payne worked out for a number of teams leading up to the draft, fracturing a finger on his right hand during one of his auditions. The injury could have, but ultimately didn’t, hurt his draft stock. He could have gone to the Indiana Pacers (11th) or Phoenix Suns (13th), but fell into perhaps the most advantageous position of any lottery pick.

“Honestly, I wouldn’t want it any other way,” he told RealGM. “It didn’t allow me to play in the Summer League and I probably could have done more workouts, but everything happens for a reason. Having that injury put me in this position and everything is working out good.”

Payne was the unquestioned darling of the last June’s media day for good reason, he goes through all of life’s experiences with a smile. There is however, a fire burning inside that belies his personality.

Does he have a chip on his shoulder for all the times he’s been looked over? 

“Everyday,” he said. “I come in everyday and work hard. I always feel like I’ve got something to prove and that’s not going to leave me. Never.” 

His angst is much more subtle than that of Durant or Westbrook, but the environment in Oklahoma City is perfect to help foster what motivates Payne. The Thunder, as a unit, have been criminally underrated this season as we sit mouths agape in awe of the Warriors and Spurs. 

After professing that he’ll always take the court with the edge of someone who spent many years on the fringe of the sport’s elite, Payne, unprompted, insists he’s still the same kid that needed a few additional inches in high school to elbow his way into the recruiting picture.

“I’m still the same guy, I still like smiling, I still like having fun and I don’t feel like I’ll ever lose that because I love playing basketball,” he said. 

Just don’t forget what lurks behind that smile.