Marcus Smart

[bucknersrevenge]

He has completely reverted back to his old poor shooting mechanics, bringing the ball all the way up from way far down. You can REALLY see it when takes one of those obvious poor isolation 3 point shots. The good shooters like Curry, Klay (hell even Nader does this) when they iso and they're moving the ball around in front of the man trying to get an angle or make the defender make a mistake or back up, when they do actually pull, they pull from a position where the ball is already up at almost eye level. No wasted motion; quick release. Smart likes to pull from the bottom of the dip when its below the knees. That's a good position for driving and attacking the rim; get low and drive but not for shooting. Too much can and will go wrong with your shot mechanics. Marcus will have to rebuild his shot from scratch again this offseason. He needs the start of his motion to be chest high not waist high. Until he figures out a way to change that habit, this will be his normal shooting results.

[return2glory]

I for one think Smart can be a bornerline all-star if he improves his 3pt shooting and shoots about 36-38%.

Games like this vs the Hawks show that. But the problem with Smart is he has offensive games like this once every 15-20 games.

Smart worked on changing his shooting mechanics this offseason. It's still a learning process for him to get the new form down. I except him to shoot between 32-36% from 3's next season. We will see what happens.

But you don't give up on a player like Smart who is a big part of this team despite his terrible shooting. His minutes and shots should be reduced until he gets his shooting percentage up.

to be fair, there are several dozen players that if you improved their 3 pt shot to .37% they'd be borderline all stars. But yes, if Brown shot like that he'd be starter material and there'd be no need to draft a PG. Problem is, there's nothing that indicates he'll ever improve. Some guys just have stone hands. Brad does him no favors allowing him to play like he does. We could get all the positives with none of the negatives if Brad just insisted that he either drive for layup/tear drop or kick out, or only shoot wide open 3 pt shots (2 max) if the clock is winding down.

I disagree about Brown. Right now Brown does next to nothing to help this team win in anyway. Smart is a better passer, rebounder, defender, ballet handler and does some many little things that help the team win.

If Brown improves his 3 point shooting, I agree with will help is game. But it's so much more than 3 point shooting that he needs to work on in order to get more minutes and help this team.

[Tiny ball]

I'm a big Smart skeptic. I don't think he's as good as many on this forum do. Here's a something I wrote in a different thread:

Right now, Smart is a role player. He's chronically overvalued on this board because he's our big prize for the tank year in 2013-2014 but the fact of the matter is he's not a very good player: great defender and historically terrible offensive shooter. He's kind of Rondo during his final years in Boston but he's one elite skill is defense. He hasn't put together anything close to Rondo's peak years when he brought elite passing, defense, and rebounding. Out of the four guards in the rotation (IT, Bradley, Rozier, and Smart), he's certainly has the most uneven skill set and is in the conversation with Rozier for the worst of the four.

If Boston trades any of their guards, it should be Smart or IT. IT is too short and will always be a defensive liability. He's played himself into a starting role and it will be hard to get him to settle for 6th man role and contract. Smart is coming off the worst shooting season ever and cannot stay healthy. I think he's a lot more likely to be Tony Allen 2.0 than an all-star player. Bradley is arguably the team's best player at the moment. Rozier has the physical skills and shooting form to grow into much more better two-way player than either IT or Smart.

On the subject of Randle, I think its pretty untenable that DA went with Smart over him. At the time, the team's best player, Rondo, played the same position as Smart. Meanwhile, the team's big men were (and still are, with the exception of Horford) flawed rotational players with no legit NBA starter among them: Sully (out of shape and injury prone) Bass (solid rotational player that reached developmental peak) KO (strange PG-turned-big learning game after late growth spurt with lots of question marks regarding his potential and developmental trajectory) Zeller (poor-to-solid rational player that, with hindsight, has seemed to flatline rather than continue to develop).

Not only were the team's bigs underwhelming at the time, it is also much easier to find a guard in that it is to find a decent-to-good big man. My question for everyone: if you replaced Smart with Randle would this team be better? I would much rather have Randle starting next to Horford than Smart backing up IT and Bradley.

I want to say that Smart is trash but that's not true. He's just a player with a very uneven skillset. Everyone hated Rondo's final years in Boston but Smart is essentially the same player just with a different distribution of uneven skills. If you supported the Rondo trade, you should be clamoring for DA to trade Smart (in package bc everyone outside of Boston knows he's not good enough to be a centerpiece) for a decent with some potential big or, at least, a guard/wing with a more even skillset. If DA's going to commit big money and long term contract to an injury prone defensive player, I'd rather have Noel than combo-guard/short small forward like Smart.

I will take Smart over Noel.

[bucknersrevenge]

I for one think Smart can be a bornerline all-star if he improves his 3pt shooting and shoots about 36-38%.

Games like this vs the Hawks show that. But the problem with Smart is he has offensive games like this once every 15-20 games.

Smart worked on changing his shooting mechanics this offseason. It's still a learning process for him to get the new form down. I except him to shoot between 32-36% from 3's next season. We will see what happens.

But you don't give up on a player like Smart who is a big part of this team despite his terrible shooting. His minutes and shots should be reduced until he gets his shooting percentage up.

to be fair, there are several dozen players that if you improved their 3 pt shot to .37% they'd be borderline all stars. But yes, if Brown shot like that he'd be starter material and there'd be no need to draft a PG. Problem is, there's nothing that indicates he'll ever improve. Some guys just have stone hands. Brad does him no favors allowing him to play like he does. We could get all the positives with none of the negatives if Brad just insisted that he either drive for layup/tear drop or kick out, or only shoot wide open 3 pt shots (2 max) if the clock is winding down.

I disagree and Brown. Right now Brown does next to nothing to help this team win in anyway. Smart is a better passer, rebounder, defender, ballet handler and does some many little things that help the team win.

If Brown improves his 3 point shooting, I agree with will help is game. But it's so much more than 3 point shooting that he needs to work on in order to get more minutes and help this team.

But Brown HAS improved his 3point shooting. Pre-All-Star break Jaylen was posting 6 ppg on 43/30/72 shooting numbers. Post break he's at 9 ppg with 50/39/62 numbers. And that's with him taking more 3 point shots per game now than before. Plus his rebounding and defense have steadily improved. It's become at least arguable that he should be getting more post looks and more passes up the wing than he is currently receiving. He is still needs to work on decision-making and of course he needs to remember the plays But IMO, he's been everything I thought he would be.

As for Smart, his regression offensively since the All-Star break has been nothing short of precipitous. His OffRTG, eFG%,TS% are down. And unfortunately it's not just his 3-point shooting. He's missing bunnies, layups and floaters, those shots that you would think he would be able to utilize his size on in the lane at an epic rate. In the paint he is currently shooting 38% which is actually down from last year's 43%. He has absolutely shown that he can make passes and set up guys in the halfcourt and has a keen understanding of the offense. But his regression shooting-wise has been extremely disappointing. Three years in I was expecting to have seen more promise in this area by now but his shot is right back to where it was when we drafted him and while I realize that Brad trusts him implicitly down the stretch in games for understandable reasons, it's certainly logical now to question now how much of an investment you want to make in a player like him who may never approach higher than role player level.

[OBisHalJordan]

I was beginning to turn around on Smart because of his improved play in December and January but he's been atrocious since all star break. Sure, he's defense is great but does it matter when costs you so many possessions on the other end with he's terrible shot selection? Now, I'm back to my position at the start of the seasons, which Tiny Ball dug up from earlier in this thread. DA should have traded Smart for Noel. If you're going to pay defensive role player, it would be better to have a big man rather than a guard, especially when Bradley, Rozier, and Crowder can more or less provide the same level of defense that Smart brings. It remains to be seen whether Rozier could fill the Evan Turner role as primary facilitator and ball handler off the bench but I'd rather see Rozier's trial by fire than Smart chuck shots. I hope Smart is gone next year. In any case, if he wants to be more than a bench player, he better shoot thousands of jumpers everyday this offseason.

[Patsfan81]

I'm a big Smart skeptic. I don't think he's as good as many on this forum do. Here's a something I wrote in a different thread:

Right now, Smart is a role player. He's chronically overvalued on this board because he's our big prize for the tank year in 2013-2014 but the fact of the matter is he's not a very good player: great defender and historically terrible offensive shooter. He's kind of Rondo during his final years in Boston but he's one elite skill is defense. He hasn't put together anything close to Rondo's peak years when he brought elite passing, defense, and rebounding. Out of the four guards in the rotation (IT, Bradley, Rozier, and Smart), he's certainly has the most uneven skill set and is in the conversation with Rozier for the worst of the four.

If Boston trades any of their guards, it should be Smart or IT. IT is too short and will always be a defensive liability. He's played himself into a starting role and it will be hard to get him to settle for 6th man role and contract. Smart is coming off the worst shooting season ever and cannot stay healthy. I think he's a lot more likely to be Tony Allen 2.0 than an all-star player. Bradley is arguably the team's best player at the moment. Rozier has the physical skills and shooting form to grow into much more better two-way player than either IT or Smart.

On the subject of Randle, I think its pretty untenable that DA went with Smart over him. At the time, the team's best player, Rondo, played the same position as Smart. Meanwhile, the team's big men were (and still are, with the exception of Horford) flawed rotational players with no legit NBA starter among them: Sully (out of shape and injury prone) Bass (solid rotational player that reached developmental peak) KO (strange PG-turned-big learning game after late growth spurt with lots of question marks regarding his potential and developmental trajectory) Zeller (poor-to-solid rational player that, with hindsight, has seemed to flatline rather than continue to develop).

Not only were the team's bigs underwhelming at the time, it is also much easier to find a guard in that it is to find a decent-to-good big man. My question for everyone: if you replaced Smart with Randle would this team be better? I would much rather have Randle starting next to Horford than Smart backing up IT and Bradley.

I want to say that Smart is trash but that's not true. He's just a player with a very uneven skillset. Everyone hated Rondo's final years in Boston but Smart is essentially the same player just with a different distribution of uneven skills. If you supported the Rondo trade, you should be clamoring for DA to trade Smart (in package bc everyone outside of Boston knows he's not good enough to be a centerpiece) for a decent with some potential big or, at least, a guard/wing with a more even skillset. If DA's going to commit big money and long term contract to an injury prone defensive player, I'd rather have Noel than combo-guard/short small forward like Smart.

I will take Smart over Noel.

Noel doesn't take ill-advised shots like Marcus does. And he's almost a double double guy every night plus blocking shots and guarding the 3-5 positions. If he averaged 30 mins like Smart he'd be a 14/10 guy nightly. Plus Noel's PER is almost double than Smart's.

[TheOGJabroni]

I'm a big Smart skeptic. I don't think he's as good as many on this forum do. Here's a something I wrote in a different thread:



On the subject of Randle, I think its pretty untenable that DA went with Smart over him. At the time, the team's best player, Rondo, played the same position as Smart. Meanwhile, the team's big men were (and still are, with the exception of Horford) flawed rotational players with no legit NBA starter among them: Sully (out of shape and injury prone) Bass (solid rotational player that reached developmental peak) KO (strange PG-turned-big learning game after late growth spurt with lots of question marks regarding his potential and developmental trajectory) Zeller (poor-to-solid rational player that, with hindsight, has seemed to flatline rather than continue to develop).

Not only were the team's bigs underwhelming at the time, it is also much easier to find a guard in that it is to find a decent-to-good big man. My question for everyone: if you replaced Smart with Randle would this team be better? I would much rather have Randle starting next to Horford than Smart backing up IT and Bradley.

I want to say that Smart is trash but that's not true. He's just a player with a very uneven skillset. Everyone hated Rondo's final years in Boston but Smart is essentially the same player just with a different distribution of uneven skills. If you supported the Rondo trade, you should be clamoring for DA to trade Smart (in package bc everyone outside of Boston knows he's not good enough to be a centerpiece) for a decent with some potential big or, at least, a guard/wing with a more even skillset. If DA's going to commit big money and long term contract to an injury prone defensive player, I'd rather have Noel than combo-guard/short small forward like Smart.

I will take Smart over Noel.

Noel doesn't take ill-advised shots like Marcus does. And he's almost a double double guy every night plus blocking shots and guarding the 3-5 positions. If he averaged 30 mins like Smart he'd be a 14/10 guy nightly. Plus Noel's PER is almost double than Smart's.

There's a couple of problems with the theory of a Smart for Noel swap. I think in a vacuum, Noel is the better player and fills a need more. However, we would have traded a valuable asset for Noel and if retained next season and beyond, he would have taken us out of the running for a max player this offseason-something Ainge was not willing to do.

Also, I am not convinced Ainge or Brad would prefer a player basically restricted to the paint but doesn't take bad shots over a player that still spaces the floor even if he does take lower percentage shots. It's not like teams are just daring Smart to shoot. They are still getting over there to defend and that is what is important for spacing.

[bucknersrevenge]

I will take Smart over Noel.

Noel doesn't take ill-advised shots like Marcus does. And he's almost a double double guy every night plus blocking shots and guarding the 3-5 positions. If he averaged 30 mins like Smart he'd be a 14/10 guy nightly. Plus Noel's PER is almost double than Smart's.

There's a couple of problems with the theory of a Smart for Noel swap. I think in a vacuum, Noel is the better player and fills a need more. However, we would have traded a valuable asset for Noel and if retained next season and beyond, he would have taken us out of the running for a max player this offseason-something Ainge was not willing to do.

Also, I am not convinced Ainge or Brad would prefer a player basically restricted to the paint but doesn't take bad shots over a player that still spaces the floor even if he does take lower percentage shots. It's not like teams are just daring Smart to shoot. They are still getting over there to defend and that is what is important for spacing.

This part has to be maybe the strangest phenomena of all. Opponents are still closing out on him. I've been turning up my TV recently during broadcasts waiting to hear some opposing player yell to a teammate "Lay off. He can't shoot!" Just to embarrass him or something. On the pick n roll, they play him straight too. Shocking. I would dare him to score 20+ on me before I took him seriously I think.

[TheOGJabroni]

Noel doesn't take ill-advised shots like Marcus does. And he's almost a double double guy every night plus blocking shots and guarding the 3-5 positions. If he averaged 30 mins like Smart he'd be a 14/10 guy nightly. Plus Noel's PER is almost double than Smart's.

There's a couple of problems with the theory of a Smart for Noel swap. I think in a vacuum, Noel is the better player and fills a need more. However, we would have traded a valuable asset for Noel and if retained next season and beyond, he would have taken us out of the running for a max player this offseason-something Ainge was not willing to do.

Also, I am not convinced Ainge or Brad would prefer a player basically restricted to the paint but doesn't take bad shots over a player that still spaces the floor even if he does take lower percentage shots. It's not like teams are just daring Smart to shoot. They are still getting over there to defend and that is what is important for spacing.

This part has to be maybe the strangest phenomena of all. Opponents are still closing out on him. I've been turning up my TV recently during broadcasts waiting to hear some opposing player yell to a teammate "Lay off. He can't shoot!" Just to embarrass him or something. On the pick n roll, they play him straight too. Shocking. I would dare him to score 20+ on me before I took him seriously I think.

I really am surprised defenses aren't giving him the Rondo treatment yet.

[bucknersrevenge]

There's a couple of problems with the theory of a Smart for Noel swap. I think in a vacuum, Noel is the better player and fills a need more. However, we would have traded a valuable asset for Noel and if retained next season and beyond, he would have taken us out of the running for a max player this offseason-something Ainge was not willing to do.

Also, I am not convinced Ainge or Brad would prefer a player basically restricted to the paint but doesn't take bad shots over a player that still spaces the floor even if he does take lower percentage shots. It's not like teams are just daring Smart to shoot. They are still getting over there to defend and that is what is important for spacing.

This part has to be maybe the strangest phenomena of all. Opponents are still closing out on him. I've been turning up my TV recently during broadcasts waiting to hear some opposing player yell to a teammate "Lay off. He can't shoot!" Just to embarrass him or something. On the pick n roll, they play him straight too. Shocking. I would dare him to score 20+ on me before I took him seriously I think.

I really am surprised defenses aren't giving him the Rondo treatment yet.

The only thing that makes sense (or doesn't depending on how you view it) is that with Rondo, he was a pretty effective finisher in the paint and he had a pretty good first step in his prime. Not only did they not respect his shot but they also wanted to discourage the drive which he was pretty good at. Marcus has no first step whatsoever. And he's an inefficient finisher. I'm not sure when the last time I was able to say this about a Celtic guard but when it comes to making the ball actually go inside the hoop- from ANYWHERE, Marcus is pretty much an unmitigated disaster. He can't beat you off the drive...but he can't hit the broadside of a barn. What is the proper way to defend that? LOL I have no idea!

[GrandTheftRondo]

It's blatantly obvious to me that he's never going to live up to his pick number. His defence is great but that's literally it. Not even convinced he can become like Tony Allen and not be a total liability offensively.

Allen at least knows that he's not Stephen Curry and therefore he pretty much only shoots layups. Smart doesn't have the quickness and smarts to get to the basket so his playmaking is essentially useless at times. This was the case in game one with the Bulls defenders barely having to worry about Smart when he had the ball.

[KumaJG]

Not many players live up to their pick number, not going to put that on Smart.

He just not producing for the amount of minutes he played. Hopefully he will find something that works for him.

[ddb]

Marcus Smart is fine. He played fine last night. Not his best game, not his worst.

[2Mas]

It's blatantly obvious to me that he's never going to live up to his pick number. His defence is great but that's literally it. Not even convinced he can become like Tony Allen and not be a total liability offensively.

Allen at least knows that he's not Stephen Curry and therefore he pretty much only shoots layups. Smart doesn't have the quickness and smarts to get to the basket so his playmaking is essentially useless at times. This was the case in game one with the Bulls defenders barely having to worry about Smart when he had the ball.

This is my issue with Smart.

Smart is fine for sure.

My thing is that he could be a much better player without gaining any more skill. Just play to your strengths. & he doesn't. That is what frustrating me.

That's like Rondo shooting 3's instead of looking for Ray & Pierce. Perk popping off picks instead of crashing the o glass. That's Jeff Green going up soft for a layup when we want him to destroy someone at the rim.

I like Smart. I want him here long term. & If he never gets better, he's still super valuable. But he needs to realize he's a role player & play his role. & Not try to be mr everything.

[Dannyboy36]

Coach needs to tell him this but doesn't. Or if he does tell him, he won't yank him. It's on the coach.

[Fencer reregistered]

I thought of the perfect TV scene to illustrate Smart's attitude when the other team has the ball. Even better, it stars a famous Celtics fan.

Unfortunately, I couldn't find a clean clip on YouTube, but it's split between the 1:05 mark of

Watch on YouTube

and, more simply, the entirety of

Watch on YouTube

[bucknersrevenge]

It's blatantly obvious to me that he's never going to live up to his pick number. His defence is great but that's literally it. Not even convinced he can become like Tony Allen and not be a total liability offensively.

Allen at least knows that he's not Stephen Curry and therefore he pretty much only shoots layups. Smart doesn't have the quickness and smarts to get to the basket so his playmaking is essentially useless at times. This was the case in game one with the Bulls defenders barely having to worry about Smart when he had the ball.

His pick number is completely irrelevant. What isn't though is his inability since the All-Star break to convert in the paint, even those layups you would have him taking. His hitch is dreadful. Not sure if he will ever fix it. But scoring in the paint and in the post; that has to happen for him to be a functioning offensive player. Think Evan Turner-like. Turner could not stretch the floor but he was $$$ from below 17feet.

[KumaJG]

We not talking about Smart playing overweight? Ok.

[Red2]

Time to bench Smart and play rozier

[Red2]

Smart is awful right now . Love his fire and hustle but he's hurting us when he's in the game. He needs to sit down