Breaking: Marcus Smart Named DPOY

[Ill News]

Smart's DPOY win is a bit narrative-driven, but he also deserves the award as much as anyone. Both statements can be true. He has been fantastic on defense all year. He's like prime Draymond for the Celtics; he directs the whole defense and calls out the other team's plays when he's on the court, his individual defense is excellent as always, and his versatility in being able to effectively guard 1-5 is such a valuable skill and he's been doing it for years now. Very few bigs can take advantage of him in the post and he is great at cutting off guards' drives to the rim (just watch the final defensive possession against Kyrie; he read Ky's spin perfectly and walled him off to force him where the help was coming from). That's why he's still a better overall defender than Time Lord on the Cs, even though Time Lord appears to be more impactful.

Crazy how the Celtics had him on the trade block for a while there

It's because he had a trade-friendly contract before he signed his most recent extension. I think it was 4 years, $53 million.

[50yrceltsfan]

can someone present an objective reasoning for smart over any of rudy gobert, draymond green or giannis? not thrilled with this one. he's had a great season for sure and is a great defensive guard perhaps top 3 in the nba this year. but dpoy? not over those big guys, if the criteria is 'most impactful defender in the nba' this season.

- Draymond missed too many games
- Smart had more steals per game than any of them, in addition to Bridges
- According to matchup data, Smart allowed fewer points per possession over the season than Bridges, Gobert or Giannis
- Smart had more deflections per game than any of them
- Smart recovered more loose balls per game than any of them
- Smart drew more charges per game than any of them

Wait - he leads in steals, deflections, loose balls, charges, and points per possession - and people here are upset? If you watch him regularly, these are the things he does every night. He's a disruptor. He affects the game at both ends, continuously. He's what makes the Celtics tick. Look at the end of game 1: he forces Kyrie to give it up (no small feat in that situation), then makes a brilliant fake and assist on the winning hoop in the final 3 seconds.

Plus - all these awards are based on multiple years. You don't win MVP or DPOY by showing up out of nowhere for 1 year. You build your case over multiple years.

[KIRAG]

Congrats to Marcus Smart. Well deserved.

Mikal is also a good sport, a future DPOY as well

Read on Twitter

[1st banana]

Funny how you didn't mention Bam who eclipses smart on all the analytics for defensive metrics.

It’s also funny how the heat went 17-9 without bam and had essentially the same defensive rating.

Good try trying to use a useless stat that reflects little on Miami's actual success. Bam's numbers with any combination of Heat players has astronomical defensive metrics, and lessen when he isn't on the court with them by a lot. However Miami has the best bench in the league, and a really deep team, continuing to win regardless of missing players is how they managed to keep winning. Doesn't change the fact then when he was on the court, He held players to their lowest rates and defended all positions equally on any switch a true defender that can defend 1-5.

I was just pointing out they have a great defensive system and I think that hurts his case for dpoy along with the missed games. You also say it’s a useless metric but then reference said metrics to say bam was better than Marcus.

I will concede tho that bam is a monster and can legit guard 1-5. I also do think him not being a finalist over gobert was weak.

[jazzed77]

I'd love to have smart on the jazz....

[hugepatsfan]

DPOY is so subjective. You can try to make it a statistical thing, but even the best metrics out there are flawed. It's so tough to isolate individual performance on that end. Any of us pretending we've cracked the code to do it are delusional.

Gobert is always an elite defender but we've seen teams bring him down a notch in playoff series fairly commonly. I think that cast some skepticism on his regular season performance and there's general voter fatigue.

Bridges is a stud on that end himself but his body of work is shorter. Smart's been an elite defender for like a decade now which give his name a little more "oomph" in these discussions.

Green missed a god chunk of time this year and again, voter fatigue.

Bam is a stud. Could never go wrong picking him.

Could always give it to Giannis again.

On the Celtics Rob Williams has a statistical case besides Smart as well.

Again, subjective award. Narrative and reputation matter. Smart's long been known as an elite defender and BOS's defense was arguably the main story of the second half of the season. If you're up in arms about the order of anyone I mentioned above you gotta look in the mirror and ask yourself if you like watching the sport or if you just like to argue about it.

[DelAbbot]

When Lowry (my fav rap back then) was on the trading block, I wanted to trade for Marcus Smart, but I gained even more respect for Smart after seeing this

Watch on YouTube

[DroseReturnChi]

On the Celtics Rob Williams has a statistical case besides Smart as well.

Again, subjective award. Narrative and reputation matter. Smart's long been known as an elite defender and BOS's defense was arguably the main story of the second half of the season. If you're up in arms about the order of anyone I mentioned above you gotta look in the mirror and ask yourself if you like watching the sport or if you just like to argue about it.

you said it yourself. it is questionable if smart is even the leader to me RW3 is more fit for DPOY if anyone boston has to win.
smart will never be dpoy caliber bc he is a midget guard. hes no jordan/dwade where he blocks like a center. the only guard that is worthy of DPOY is thybulle.

[benhillboy]

I’d rather put Crowder on the opposing teams best scorer over Mikal just sayin, and Mikal is a monster. But Crowder’s the best ball denier for my money and that’s paramount for a “lockdown” perimeter defender. And he’s got more sneaky vet dirt.

Love Smart winning it though, and all great defensive small guards in this era it ain’t easy; CP3 been doing it through multiple eras. Delon Wright was my favorite Hawk this season scoring -3.4 points a game.

[Perseus1966]

Its a disgrace ,maybe the lowest think nba have ever done ,none of the awards now matter.
Now only one thing left ,to name Tony Brothers MVR

[NyCeEvO]

DPOY is so subjective. You can try to make it a statistical thing, but even the best metrics out there are flawed. It's so tough to isolate individual performance on that end. Any of us pretending we've cracked the code to do it are delusional.

Gobert is always an elite defender but we've seen teams bring him down a notch in playoff series fairly commonly. I think that cast some skepticism on his regular season performance and there's general voter fatigue.

Bridges is a stud on that end himself but his body of work is shorter. Smart's been an elite defender for like a decade now which give his name a little more "oomph" in these discussions.

Green missed a god chunk of time this year and again, voter fatigue.

Bam is a stud. Could never go wrong picking him.

Could always give it to Giannis again.

On the Celtics Rob Williams has a statistical case besides Smart as well.

Again, subjective award. Narrative and reputation matter. Smart's long been known as an elite defender and BOS's defense was arguably the main story of the second half of the season. If you're up in arms about the order of anyone I mentioned above you gotta look in the mirror and ask yourself if you like watching the sport or if you just like to argue about it.

I agree with much of what you’re saying, but DPOY has never been viewed as a reward for contributions over one’s career. Unlike MVP, it literally has the words “of the year” in its name, so no one should be thinking about a player’s body of work over the course of their career when judging who deserves DPOY.

[LordCovington33]

Good for him. The Celtics have been absolutely amazing defensively since the start of 2022 and he has been a driving force behind that.

[Gusto1903]

I like Smart, has been one of my fav players since entering the league

[hippesthippo]

Yeah, if we're ignoring the larger effect bigs have on defense, particularly regular season defense, then Mikal Bridges was just a straight up superior defender.

I'm OK with Smart winning it though. Most visible defender on the best defense in the league. Hard to ignore how Ime Udoka effected things with the way he deployed Time Lord. Been saying for years that Ime was being overlooked for HC positions. He had a bit of a learning curve, but he's sure looking good now.

[ty 4191]

I think it should've been Rudy Gobert.

Agree. One of the GOAT big man defenders, and, had an amazing season defensively (statistically speaking) again this year.

[pacers33]

Good pick. I like that the winners of awards aren't always the most objective choices, if that makes sense. The storyline aspect of sports makes it fun, don't be afraid to give Vince McMahon his due.

[JN61]

Marcus Smart winning DPOY the day after Kyrie decimated him is pretty humorous.

Do you watch the games or boxscores?

I can't tell if this is satire.

[JN61]

Very much not deserving player for the award but we already knew close half of these awards are usually too late or based on random factor of bigger defensive name and lets just give it to them.

[GAthens34]

Dedicated to the 50%(at least) of the Celtics board who wanted him traded after every loss in the last two seasons (if not more).
Idc if he deserves it this season(probably not) but it feels good to rub it on these people faces. Learn to appreciate what you have before you lose it.
Congratulations to the soul of this Celtics team.

[GreenBloodedC]

Its a disgrace ,maybe the lowest think nba have ever done ,none of the awards now matter.
Now only one thing left ,to name Tony Brothers MVR