Marcus Smart - 2022 DPOY - 2023 NBA Hustle Award Winner

[Fencer reregistered]

They are saying Gobert was robbed. I really don't know why bigs get all the praise defensively when most of them have ONE job, defense, that is basically all the have to focus their energy on. Give me the guys who can match guys like Gobert defensively but also have real offensive responsibilities. Embiid and Giannis have to expend so much energy on offense and then defense too! Gobert mainly has to get putbacks, lobs, or spoonfed dunks. He barely has to waste any energy on offense. What he does offensively is what those other guys do, but they do 10x more!

I guess it's not that serious, but I firmly believe bigs get too much praise.
It's no coincidence that there are only a few players who are considered top-notch defenders and also top-notch offenders. The amount of energy that takes is massive! Two-way players are heralded for a reason (not Hauser types hehe)!

I'm not saying Gobert/bigs arent great defenders or not worthy of praise, I'm just confused as to why they get most of it.

Fair point. Kyrie is pretty high on the GOAT offender list, and he has no good defense.

[Shak_Celts]

They are saying Gobert was robbed. I really don't know why bigs get all the praise defensively when most of them have ONE job, defense, that is basically all the have to focus their energy on. Give me the guys who can match guys like Gobert defensively but also have real offensive responsibilities. Embiid and Giannis have to expend so much energy on offense and then defense too! Gobert mainly has to get putbacks, lobs, or spoonfed dunks. He barely has to waste any energy on offense. What he does offensively is what those other guys do, but they do 10x more!

I guess it's not that serious, but I firmly believe bigs get too much praise.
It's no coincidence that there are only a few players who are considered top-notch defenders and also top-notch offenders. The amount of energy that takes is massive! Two-way players are heralded for a reason (not Hauser types hehe)!

I'm not saying Gobert/bigs arent great defenders or not worthy of praise, I'm just confused as to why they get most of it.

Fair point. Kyrie is pretty high on the GOAT offender list, and he has no good defense.

he's solid when he wants to be but he also knows flashy offense pays that breaddddd! he knows what the nba is all about.

[Mr_Mojo_Risin]

They are saying Gobert was robbed. I really don't know why bigs get all the praise defensively when most of them have ONE job, defense, that is basically all the have to focus their energy on. Give me the guys who can match guys like Gobert defensively but also have real offensive responsibilities. Embiid and Giannis have to expend so much energy on offense and then defense too! Gobert mainly has to get putbacks, lobs, or spoonfed dunks. He barely has to waste any energy on offense. What he does offensively is what those other guys do, but they do 10x more!

I guess it's not that serious, but I firmly believe bigs get too much praise.
It's no coincidence that there are only a few players who are considered top-notch defenders and also top-notch offenders. The amount of energy that takes is massive! Two-way players are heralded for a reason (not Hauser types hehe)!

I'm not saying Gobert/bigs arent great defenders or not worthy of praise, I'm just confused as to why they get most of it.

Fair point. Kyrie is pretty high on the GOAT offender list, and he has no good defense.

he's solid when he wants to be but he also knows flashy offense pays that breaddddd! he knows what the nba is all about.

Unfortunately that meant he never understood what the Celtics were about. Thank god he's gone so I can enjoy his talents without him affecting my team (other than when he plays us).

Defense is sexy. Selfless offense is sexy. Two way selfless players are even sexier.

It's why I love our team again, it's truly a Celtics team who leave it all out on the floor.

[zoyathedestroya]

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The Twitterheads can just suck it.

[Dannyboy36]

Congrats to Smart. Well deserved and really cool that a perimeter player won it. It takes serious muscle endurance to scramble that fast side to side.

[KamikazeK]

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The Twitterheads can just suck it.

From one DPOY to another

[grindtime22]

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Some of the nerds on the bird app are salty about Smart winning -- Haralabob, Haberstroh, and Nate Duncan to name a few.

It's as if they believe people are saying/thinking guys like Gobert are trash when they don't win it every year! Ugh! STATS, mats, bats or birthday hats, IDGAD, Smart is deserving and he's the winner!! It's ovah!! WE DO NOT CARE!!

I think some of them have value, but defensive metrics are mostly crap. Especially the ones that are most often quoted. Basketball reference's defensive metrics are the ones most often quoted and they are beyond useless. Then people quote all of them from BR without realizing they are all basically the same thing with a few low level accounting principles applied. Your Vorp's, Ratings, WS, BPM are all kind of the same thing. None of them even remotely capture the intricacies of defense or have the players on/off data included in the formula.

[Parliament10]

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[Ill News]

Only other DPOY in Celtics history. Here was when KG passed the baton -- rookie year of Marcus.

Watch on YouTube

In truth, KG could've been just checking if Smart was alright after they both dove for the ball. But no need to mess with the narrative lol.

Look at how beefy Marcus was in his first few years. It's ancient history now, but we fans were always concerned about how out of shape he looked back then.

When he significantly cut down his weight in I think the 2020 season, that's when I knew he was a real one. He's been in excellent shape ever since which made him a way better defender, and his weight loss didn't come at the expense of his strength. Hard to find guys with his kind of off-court dedication. He better retire a Celtic.

[Fencer reregistered]

This article credits Smart with pushing Ime's early season decision to move away from switching everything to ... well, to just doing a lot of switching, generally called by Smart.

https://theathletic.com/3257501/2022/04/18/celtics-marcus-smart-defensive-dpoy/?amp=1

[Captain_Caveman]

This article credits Smart with pushing Ime's early season decision to move away from switching everything to ... well, to just doing a lot of switching, generally called by Smart.

https://theathletic.com/3257501/2022/04/18/celtics-marcus-smart-defensive-dpoy/?amp=1

There's a lot of stuff you can't see from watching on TV, but I feel like Smart has been calling out defenses for years now, to the point of physically shoving teammates into position a lot of the time. Even more clear has been how much Stevens, Ainge, and now Udoka, value having him on the floor. That somehow flew under the radar during years of criticism.

[zoyathedestroya]

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[playa-hater]

This article credits Smart with pushing Ime's early season decision to move away from switching everything to ... well, to just doing a lot of switching, generally called by Smart.

https://theathletic.com/3257501/2022/04/18/celtics-marcus-smart-defensive-dpoy/?amp=1

So basically Smart deserves credit for the Celtics turn-around on defense more than Ime

Ducking for cover

[Fencer reregistered]

This article credits Smart with pushing Ime's early season decision to move away from switching everything to ... well, to just doing a lot of switching, generally called by Smart.

https://theathletic.com/3257501/2022/04/18/celtics-marcus-smart-defensive-dpoy/?amp=1

There's a lot of stuff you can't see from watching on TV, but I feel like Smart has been calling out defenses for years now, to the point of physically shoving teammates into position a lot of the time. Even more clear has been how much Stevens, Ainge, and now Udoka, value having him on the floor. That somehow flew under the radar during years of criticism.

Definitely Smart has been calling defenses, instead of or in complement to whoever was playing center. (Anecdotes on that include teammates praising Rob for doing more of it, and criticizing Grant for talking too much. ) But that's not such a big deal; SOMEBODY does it all the time, for any team.

Suggesting a whole scheme change that the coach buys into is rarer. The only other case of that I can think of is one that's actually vastly bigger, namely Bill Russell and KC Jones sitting in their dorm room and devising principles for shotblocker-centered defense that their college coach was smart enough to go along with.

[London2Boston]

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I was actually watching Game 2 in my home robe funnily enough as it was fairly late here. Until the last 8mins or so when I got too hot and nervous and had to take it off

[Bostondave]

We were all puzzled, at least I certainly was, about why the people in charge seemed to love him so much. Even when he was **** up they still wanted to sign him, keep him around. It appears we weren't privy to a lot of what he was doing, is doing, that helps the team. WHat he did to hurt the team was on clear display. But it appears there was a bit more that we didn't see that they did which has resulted now in a touch of magic and the DPOY.

This team has a touch of magic. I've never seen anything like it.

[zoyathedestroya]

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[moonie_mcgee]

Smart was always best at the point. That's his natural position and his best competitive advantage. He's the quarterback on offense and the roverback on defense. Huge and well deserved honor for him

[moonie_mcgee]

Love the robe meme. Ime has brought out the best in everyone. Main Event robes for everyone!

[Bostondave]

We all wanted Smart gone. We all didn't know his real intrinsic value. That can be forgiven. BUT....

I bet the most vociferous wanting him gone also wanted to trade Brown. And that should'nt be forgiven. It's funny how time works I guess. I'm older and have less years but have more patience then younger fans who want **** to happen quick, fast, now. They wanted Ainge gone, Irving brought in, Harden brought in. Always looking to thrash and desperately change things. I've always taken the long patient view. That impatient way got us Pitino who set us back years with his quick fix thrashing and changing and lack of patience.

I said years ago we needed patience with the young draft picks to gel and mature and then see. But too many wanted things quicker.

I was right. Me and Ainge. Who I've noticed gets no mention on this board. But all of these are Ainge's kids. Except White, who coincidentally seems a bit slow so far in these playoffs. He perhaps hasn't adjusted to playoff ball and perhaps need more time. But he's looking kind of lost right now. Slow.

But I'm sure Ainge is looking on at this team with some small amount of pride right now.

****The younger fans also forget very quickly. Ainge got us the Big 3 that won a championship and but for some bad luck should've perhaps gotten two more rings when they were all together. Nobody knew they would fit and mesh so well. I frankly was surprised that Allen was a much more complete player than I had thought. Much more complete than just a spot up 3pt master.