Marcus Smart hate

 I appreciate your empathy. Too many people are down on Smaht for no reason at all. He’s a rookie who chose to pass up the money early on and return to Oklahoma State to become a student of the game, all the while of not winning over anyone through his antics last season lingering into this one. I am pro Mahcus Smaht as an outsider. For stahters, he displays great character in an interview setting, which becomes the head-scratcher because this is the indicator, he knows right from wrong in a leadership role being thrown his way immediately.  

The best thing going for him overall is his physical conditioning. Either one or two things can happen if his willingness to keep himself up declines. He can either become a liability on the defensive end from letting himself go because he doesn’t shoot the ball well to command the respect as a shooter, or he can end up on the D-League roster and phase out of the rotation completely with Isaiah Thomas and James Young on deck. 

 I appreciate your empathy. Too many people are down on Smaht for no reason at all. He’s a rookie who chose to pass up the money early on and return to Oklahoma State to become a student of the game, all the while of not winning over anyone through his antics last season lingering into this one. I am pro Mahcus Smaht as an outsider. For stahters, he displays great character in an interview setting, which becomes the head-scratcher because this is the indicator, he knows right from wrong in a leadership role being thrown his way immediately.  

The best thing going for him overall is his physical conditioning. Either one or two things can happen if his willingness to keep himself up declines. He can either become a liability on the defensive end from letting himself go because he doesn’t shoot the ball well to command the respect as a shooter, or he can end up on the D-League roster and phase out of the rotation completely with Isaiah Thomas and James Young on deck. 

Is that your Boston accent with "Smaht" and "stahters" references?

Is that your Boston accent with "Smaht" and "stahters" references?

 Post ASG he’s averaging 9.8 ppg 4.7 rpg 2.7 apg, and a very impressive 1.8 spg, while sporting an acceptable assist to turnover ratio for his role with the team.

His biggest issue is jacking up too many three pointers. He hits them at a 33% clip, yet they account for over half of his overall shots. He should just work on getting into the lane more, and bulling weaker gaurds out of offensive rebounds until his long range game catches up to where he obviously wants it to be. 

I really do think he’ll be a very good guard in the NBA. Not like a 20 ppg type guy, but a memeber of the All-Defensive team and someone who drops 13 or 14 ppg. Too early to give up on him, and say he was a poor pick at 6.

 Post ASG he’s averaging 9.8 ppg 4.7 rpg 2.7 apg, and a very impressive 1.8 spg, while sporting an acceptable assist to turnover ratio for his role with the team.

His biggest issue is jacking up too many three pointers. He hits them at a 33% clip, yet they account for over half of his overall shots. He should just work on getting into the lane more, and bulling weaker gaurds out of offensive rebounds until his long range game catches up to where he obviously wants it to be. 

I really do think he’ll be a very good guard in the NBA. Not like a 20 ppg type guy, but a memeber of the All-Defensive team and someone who drops 13 or 14 ppg. Too early to give up on him, and say he was a poor pick at 6.

Celtic fan here. Brad Stevens fan here. Danny Ainge fan here. 

I like Smart a lot. He has shown the ability to play in an unselfish system, which is something that I was worried about due to his high usage rate at OKST. 

It seems like Stevens completely tore down Smart’s offensive game and is builing it back up slowly. Once every few games, they run a postup play for Smart. Once a game, he makes a great offensive move like splitting a pick or beating a guy to the rim. The weird problem has been his finishing. He always seems to struggle with his footwork around the hoop. He either takes a floater too far out because of his footing, or goes off the wrong foot and doesn’t get enough lift. He lost almost complete confidence in his driving ability through this season. 

That’s why I think that the summer leage will give a pretty clear indication of what kind of player he will develop into. I would guess that in the 1-2 month haitus he has, Ainge and Stevens will be working with him on his footwork and watching tape of Tony Parker and Chris Paul. I then expect Smart to go into the Summer League with a huge usage rate and a long leash (ala Kentavious Caldwell-Pope last year). He may not be perfect right away, but I want to see him aggressively going to the hoop, finishing some and-ones, and floating some 12 foot shots over bigs. His shooting percentage might be terrible, but he needs to figure this out, and the Summer League is the place to do that. 

In the end, I stick by my Wesley Matthews comparison. I think Smart will be a better defender than Matthews, but not as efficient of a scorer. At his best, he will be shooting a lot of threes in Stevens system (4-6 a game) at a good clip (35-38%), but he will also put pressure on defenses through his driving and post up abilities–that should put his overall shooting percentage somewhere from 42-44%. 14-15 ppg, 5 rpg, 5 apg, 2 spg would be my ideal realistic stat-line. 

Which leads me to my next point: what kind of player should the Celtics pair with Smart in the backcourt? Answer: a scoring-minded guard like Lillard. Ideally, Smart as a two-guard could run some of the offense with the pg off the ball, much like Matthews and Lillard in Portland. This gives Smart some usage and keeps him engaged, but it also means that the offense does not rely too heavily on him. 

There aren’t any Lillards available in the draft or free agency, but did you know that Isaiah Thomas is right next to Damian Lillard in offensive real plus-minus stat this season? In fact, they were nearly the same in orpm, drpm, and rpm last season. Some advanced stats comparison tools have Damian Lillard’s current season comparing most closely with 2014 Isaiah Thomas. 

Now, I’m not saying that Isaiah Thomas is the same player or as good as Damian Lillard, but I do think he brings 80-90% of Lillard’s production on a GREAT contract. I still think Thomas is an ideal sixth man, but if Smart can up his offense a bit, the Thomas/Smart backcourt could be deadly, especially with Olynyk and Sully stretching the floor with their shooting. 

This, however, leads me to ask: who is the ideal type of player to start with Smart and play significant minutes with Thomas. My answer: a player who can handle the ball (so Smart can still play some off ball), shoot outside, and hold their own on defense. 

Turner has done two of those things on a GREAT contract. I would love to keep him around at the same level, but I want another guy who can shoot. 

In this draft, I like RJ Hunter and Mario Hezonja. Both guys can shoot, handle the ball some, and defend their position. I like RJ Hunter a bit more and I think he will be available when we pick, but I would take either one. 

Celtic fan here. Brad Stevens fan here. Danny Ainge fan here. 

I like Smart a lot. He has shown the ability to play in an unselfish system, which is something that I was worried about due to his high usage rate at OKST. 

It seems like Stevens completely tore down Smart’s offensive game and is builing it back up slowly. Once every few games, they run a postup play for Smart. Once a game, he makes a great offensive move like splitting a pick or beating a guy to the rim. The weird problem has been his finishing. He always seems to struggle with his footwork around the hoop. He either takes a floater too far out because of his footing, or goes off the wrong foot and doesn’t get enough lift. He lost almost complete confidence in his driving ability through this season. 

That’s why I think that the summer leage will give a pretty clear indication of what kind of player he will develop into. I would guess that in the 1-2 month haitus he has, Ainge and Stevens will be working with him on his footwork and watching tape of Tony Parker and Chris Paul. I then expect Smart to go into the Summer League with a huge usage rate and a long leash (ala Kentavious Caldwell-Pope last year). He may not be perfect right away, but I want to see him aggressively going to the hoop, finishing some and-ones, and floating some 12 foot shots over bigs. His shooting percentage might be terrible, but he needs to figure this out, and the Summer League is the place to do that. 

In the end, I stick by my Wesley Matthews comparison. I think Smart will be a better defender than Matthews, but not as efficient of a scorer. At his best, he will be shooting a lot of threes in Stevens system (4-6 a game) at a good clip (35-38%), but he will also put pressure on defenses through his driving and post up abilities–that should put his overall shooting percentage somewhere from 42-44%. 14-15 ppg, 5 rpg, 5 apg, 2 spg would be my ideal realistic stat-line. 

Which leads me to my next point: what kind of player should the Celtics pair with Smart in the backcourt? Answer: a scoring-minded guard like Lillard. Ideally, Smart as a two-guard could run some of the offense with the pg off the ball, much like Matthews and Lillard in Portland. This gives Smart some usage and keeps him engaged, but it also means that the offense does not rely too heavily on him. 

There aren’t any Lillards available in the draft or free agency, but did you know that Isaiah Thomas is right next to Damian Lillard in offensive real plus-minus stat this season? In fact, they were nearly the same in orpm, drpm, and rpm last season. Some advanced stats comparison tools have Damian Lillard’s current season comparing most closely with 2014 Isaiah Thomas. 

Now, I’m not saying that Isaiah Thomas is the same player or as good as Damian Lillard, but I do think he brings 80-90% of Lillard’s production on a GREAT contract. I still think Thomas is an ideal sixth man, but if Smart can up his offense a bit, the Thomas/Smart backcourt could be deadly, especially with Olynyk and Sully stretching the floor with their shooting. 

This, however, leads me to ask: who is the ideal type of player to start with Smart and play significant minutes with Thomas. My answer: a player who can handle the ball (so Smart can still play some off ball), shoot outside, and hold their own on defense. 

Turner has done two of those things on a GREAT contract. I would love to keep him around at the same level, but I want another guy who can shoot. 

In this draft, I like RJ Hunter and Mario Hezonja. Both guys can shoot, handle the ball some, and defend their position. I like RJ Hunter a bit more and I think he will be available when we pick, but I would take either one. 

 Leadership is a talent that the vast majority of fans simply don’t understand or appreciate, especially in the era of fantasy basketball.

Leadership doesn’t easily fit into narrow statistical categories, and it’s not going to help you win your fantasy basketball league. So it’s easy to dismiss out of hand, and believe that a Rondo-Cousins-Melo lineup = championship contender, and assume there’s plenty of leadership in those 3, and that leadership is not that important anyway.

A majority of Celtics fans seem to under-appreciate Marcus Smart as much or more than the original poster here. These are the same chuckleheads that thought Rondo was a good leader, and made everybody around him better. That was a bogus belief, and we’ve seen Rondo fully exposed now in Dallas.

The same chucklehead Celtics fans that under-appreciate Smart are the same people who wrote this season off as another tank season, especially after their man-crush Rondo and Jeff Green were traded away.

They never saw this playoff run coming, and they still don’t even know how it happened. So they cling to fantasy basketball robotic thinking, and regret drafting Marcus Smart, our starting point guard who has led this improbable playoff drive.

Fantasy basketball and NBA2k have turned most fans’ brains into silly puddy, as did LeBron’s success in Miami. All they know is 3 Stars = Contender, because LeBron. As if a transcendent one-of-a-kind GOAT like LeBron is a solid foundation to build a generic formula on, and apply it to inferior "stars".

Smart’s Celtics teammates have been praising his leadership ability since day 1, even while Rondo was still on the roster and holding the franchise hostage, pouting after losses that he did nothing to prevent, choking on last possessions of the game, and playing fake defense at best, which he even admitted to after the trade to Dallas.

So it’s no wonder most Celtics fans and general NBA fans still diss Marcus Smart left and right, when they even notice him. Most fans, Celtics and otherwise, thought that Rondo was a solid leader who makes his teammates better. His nut-riders even insisted he played solid defense the past 3 years, which Rondo admitted was absolutely NOT the case.

So now the Celtics have a natural leader, a REAL leader, who actually WORKS his tail off and leads by example. And not once a week, or just when the Celtics are on national TV or playing in MSG, but EVERY. SINGLE. DAY. Most Celtics fans can’t appreciate that, because they falsely assumed that Rondo was already doing that, ignoring everything their eyes should have told them.

Not only does Smart lead by example by playing balls out every minute of every game and practice, but he has a great confidence that Rondo could only fake. Unlike Rondo, Smart actually has huge balls and confidence, which is one sign of a great leader. From Day 1 Smart has been completely fearless shooting the ball, and while the results have been somewhat mixed, Smart has been extremely clutch in the 4th quarter every game.

Instead of losing almost every close game as we did with Rondo, the Celtics are suddenly winning most close games, often in dramatic fashion. The entire team feeds off Smart’s confidence and CLUTCH play, and outperform other teams when it counts, in the 4th quarter. 

Smart makes every other player on the Celtics better, whether he’s on or off the court. He does it by working extremely hard/leading by example, by playing with great confidence and poise, and by playing truly selflessly, unlike Rondo who only passed the ball when an assist was likely to result. 

I’m not saying Smart deserves all the credit for this playoff run, but he has received precious little of the credit. Actually, the Celtics in general haven’t been given much credit for this improbable run, even by Celtics fans.

The Celtics are over-achieving, playing extremely hard and consistently hard, playing for each other, and playing with great confidence in the Fourth Quarter. Smart doesn’t deserve all of the credit for this, but he deserves much more than he’s getting. He stepped into Rondo’s shoes and almost immediately made fans forget about Rondo, and got the team to play much better than they did with Rondo in the same role as starting point guard/team leader.

So these lame comparisons to D Fisher or even Wes Matthews are misguided, and I might never be able to prove with existing statistics that Smart is in another category altogether. All I’ll be able to point to is Smart’s teams consistently outperforming all expectations, over and over and over. 

In this age of Fantasy basketball and NBA2K, a vocal majority of fans will always place more value on the Al Jeffersons or Monta Ellis’s of the league than unassuming impact that Marcus Smart brings every. single. night.

If Smart merely ends up as a 15 point, 7 assist player, it would make him one of the top players in the league.

Smart is already able to dominate most games defensively, and he’s already one of the better leaders in the league. Every single teammate of Marcus Smart is playing better defense, and with much more consistency, than anybody expected. Brad Stevens deserves a lot of credit, but so does Marcus Smart. He is already the team’s best defender, and is the closest thing they have to an enforcer. Not bad for a rookie point guard with middling statistics. 

Smart is a defensive phenom, and gives this rag-tag roster of misfits and cast-offs more confidence in their abilities than they would be exhibiting in most other situations on other rosters.

So the fact is that Smart could be one of the truly most valuable players in the league in a couple years while averaging a mere 15 points per game, because of his defensive domination and his inspiring leadership which makes everybody else better. 

But it’s also entirely possible, and I would argue probable, that Smart ends up averaging closer to 20 ppg than 14-15. Smart’s limited impact driving to the rim is largely a result of Smart still getting comfortable in the NBA, and also wanting to defer to teammates, which is part of what makes him such a good leader as a rookie. As soon as Smart realizes that the team is better with Smart driving to the rim at every opportunity, he will do it and excel at it. It just might not happen until next year, especially with IT4 on the team.

Smart is only going to get better finishing around the basket on drives, better with his floater, and especially better scoring from the post. This point guard obviously never needed to develop advanced post moves yet, but it is coming, and it will be a major weapon for him. Smart is already arguably the strongest guard in the league, and not just point guards. I’m talking all guards, if you consider Joe Johnson a small forward now.

Smart was the most dominant player in college last year, because he dominated on both sides of the ball. He can already dominate on one side of the ball (defense), and he’s already shooting much better from deep than anybody thought he could. He’s already an average 3 point shooter, and he’s above average from deep if you don’t count the first month of his rookie year.

Smart can be a top 10 player while averaging 15 ppg, even if he never gets proper credit. All Star and MVP voters don’t factor in how much a player makes his teammates better, so he’ll float under the radar while stat padders get more shine.

But if Smart can get up to an efficient 18-20 ppg, which he easily can, his REAL value could be top 5 in the NBA at some point in the future. Not that anybody will notice.

 Leadership is a talent that the vast majority of fans simply don’t understand or appreciate, especially in the era of fantasy basketball.

Leadership doesn’t easily fit into narrow statistical categories, and it’s not going to help you win your fantasy basketball league. So it’s easy to dismiss out of hand, and believe that a Rondo-Cousins-Melo lineup = championship contender, and assume there’s plenty of leadership in those 3, and that leadership is not that important anyway.

A majority of Celtics fans seem to under-appreciate Marcus Smart as much or more than the original poster here. These are the same chuckleheads that thought Rondo was a good leader, and made everybody around him better. That was a bogus belief, and we’ve seen Rondo fully exposed now in Dallas.

The same chucklehead Celtics fans that under-appreciate Smart are the same people who wrote this season off as another tank season, especially after their man-crush Rondo and Jeff Green were traded away.

They never saw this playoff run coming, and they still don’t even know how it happened. So they cling to fantasy basketball robotic thinking, and regret drafting Marcus Smart, our starting point guard who has led this improbable playoff drive.

Fantasy basketball and NBA2k have turned most fans’ brains into silly puddy, as did LeBron’s success in Miami. All they know is 3 Stars = Contender, because LeBron. As if a transcendent one-of-a-kind GOAT like LeBron is a solid foundation to build a generic formula on, and apply it to inferior "stars".

Smart’s Celtics teammates have been praising his leadership ability since day 1, even while Rondo was still on the roster and holding the franchise hostage, pouting after losses that he did nothing to prevent, choking on last possessions of the game, and playing fake defense at best, which he even admitted to after the trade to Dallas.

So it’s no wonder most Celtics fans and general NBA fans still diss Marcus Smart left and right, when they even notice him. Most fans, Celtics and otherwise, thought that Rondo was a solid leader who makes his teammates better. His nut-riders even insisted he played solid defense the past 3 years, which Rondo admitted was absolutely NOT the case.

So now the Celtics have a natural leader, a REAL leader, who actually WORKS his tail off and leads by example. And not once a week, or just when the Celtics are on national TV or playing in MSG, but EVERY. SINGLE. DAY. Most Celtics fans can’t appreciate that, because they falsely assumed that Rondo was already doing that, ignoring everything their eyes should have told them.

Not only does Smart lead by example by playing balls out every minute of every game and practice, but he has a great confidence that Rondo could only fake. Unlike Rondo, Smart actually has huge balls and confidence, which is one sign of a great leader. From Day 1 Smart has been completely fearless shooting the ball, and while the results have been somewhat mixed, Smart has been extremely clutch in the 4th quarter every game.

Instead of losing almost every close game as we did with Rondo, the Celtics are suddenly winning most close games, often in dramatic fashion. The entire team feeds off Smart’s confidence and CLUTCH play, and outperform other teams when it counts, in the 4th quarter. 

Smart makes every other player on the Celtics better, whether he’s on or off the court. He does it by working extremely hard/leading by example, by playing with great confidence and poise, and by playing truly selflessly, unlike Rondo who only passed the ball when an assist was likely to result. 

I’m not saying Smart deserves all the credit for this playoff run, but he has received precious little of the credit. Actually, the Celtics in general haven’t been given much credit for this improbable run, even by Celtics fans.

The Celtics are over-achieving, playing extremely hard and consistently hard, playing for each other, and playing with great confidence in the Fourth Quarter. Smart doesn’t deserve all of the credit for this, but he deserves much more than he’s getting. He stepped into Rondo’s shoes and almost immediately made fans forget about Rondo, and got the team to play much better than they did with Rondo in the same role as starting point guard/team leader.

So these lame comparisons to D Fisher or even Wes Matthews are misguided, and I might never be able to prove with existing statistics that Smart is in another category altogether. All I’ll be able to point to is Smart’s teams consistently outperforming all expectations, over and over and over. 

In this age of Fantasy basketball and NBA2K, a vocal majority of fans will always place more value on the Al Jeffersons or Monta Ellis’s of the league than unassuming impact that Marcus Smart brings every. single. night.

If Smart merely ends up as a 15 point, 7 assist player, it would make him one of the top players in the league.

Smart is already able to dominate most games defensively, and he’s already one of the better leaders in the league. Every single teammate of Marcus Smart is playing better defense, and with much more consistency, than anybody expected. Brad Stevens deserves a lot of credit, but so does Marcus Smart. He is already the team’s best defender, and is the closest thing they have to an enforcer. Not bad for a rookie point guard with middling statistics. 

Smart is a defensive phenom, and gives this rag-tag roster of misfits and cast-offs more confidence in their abilities than they would be exhibiting in most other situations on other rosters.

So the fact is that Smart could be one of the truly most valuable players in the league in a couple years while averaging a mere 15 points per game, because of his defensive domination and his inspiring leadership which makes everybody else better. 

But it’s also entirely possible, and I would argue probable, that Smart ends up averaging closer to 20 ppg than 14-15. Smart’s limited impact driving to the rim is largely a result of Smart still getting comfortable in the NBA, and also wanting to defer to teammates, which is part of what makes him such a good leader as a rookie. As soon as Smart realizes that the team is better with Smart driving to the rim at every opportunity, he will do it and excel at it. It just might not happen until next year, especially with IT4 on the team.

Smart is only going to get better finishing around the basket on drives, better with his floater, and especially better scoring from the post. This point guard obviously never needed to develop advanced post moves yet, but it is coming, and it will be a major weapon for him. Smart is already arguably the strongest guard in the league, and not just point guards. I’m talking all guards, if you consider Joe Johnson a small forward now.

Smart was the most dominant player in college last year, because he dominated on both sides of the ball. He can already dominate on one side of the ball (defense), and he’s already shooting much better from deep than anybody thought he could. He’s already an average 3 point shooter, and he’s above average from deep if you don’t count the first month of his rookie year.

Smart can be a top 10 player while averaging 15 ppg, even if he never gets proper credit. All Star and MVP voters don’t factor in how much a player makes his teammates better, so he’ll float under the radar while stat padders get more shine.

But if Smart can get up to an efficient 18-20 ppg, which he easily can, his REAL value could be top 5 in the NBA at some point in the future. Not that anybody will notice.

It went almost completely unnoticed, but Smart went toe-to-toe with Russell Westbrook last week, and arguably outplayed him, on Westbrook’s home court.

Most Celtics fans are so dumb that the closest thing Smart got to a compliment after the game was, "if Smart can play like this every night than he can be our starting point guard."

As if 25 points on 14 shots, 9 rebounds, 5 assists, 2 steals, and 2 blocks was merely adequate. As if it wasn’t a superstar/mvp candidate caliber performance.

My God. It was an epic performance that almost nobody noticed or appreciated, much less suggested that it might be a glimpse of what Smart could do regularly in a year or two or three. Nope, it was merely adequate for a starting point guard.

When I say that Smart arguably outplayed Westbrook, let me explain:

Smart and the Celtics held Westbrook to 8-26 shooting (30.8%), while Smart shot 8-14 with SEVEN threes on Westbrook and OKC. Westbrook outscored Smart 35-25, but 6-8 of those points came on free throws at the end of the game when Westbrook was intentionally fouled on the inbound pass. Smart was plus 11 in the game, while Westbrook was plus 8. 

I’m not saying Smart clearly outplayed Westbrook, but he absolutely went toe-to-toe with him, and showed he is capable of dominating a game on both sides of the court in the same game. It’s only a matter of time before this becomes more than an occasional occurance, and the fact that Smart is showing this as a ROOKIE is extremely impressive and noteworthy. Funny how nobody noticed…

http://www.basketball-reference.com/boxscores/201503180OKC.html

It went almost completely unnoticed, but Smart went toe-to-toe with Russell Westbrook last week, and arguably outplayed him, on Westbrook’s home court.

Most Celtics fans are so dumb that the closest thing Smart got to a compliment after the game was, "if Smart can play like this every night than he can be our starting point guard."

As if 25 points on 14 shots, 9 rebounds, 5 assists, 2 steals, and 2 blocks was merely adequate. As if it wasn’t a superstar/mvp candidate caliber performance.

My God. It was an epic performance that almost nobody noticed or appreciated, much less suggested that it might be a glimpse of what Smart could do regularly in a year or two or three. Nope, it was merely adequate for a starting point guard.

When I say that Smart arguably outplayed Westbrook, let me explain:

Smart and the Celtics held Westbrook to 8-26 shooting (30.8%), while Smart shot 8-14 with SEVEN threes on Westbrook and OKC. Westbrook outscored Smart 35-25, but 6-8 of those points came on free throws at the end of the game when Westbrook was intentionally fouled on the inbound pass. Smart was plus 11 in the game, while Westbrook was plus 8. 

I’m not saying Smart clearly outplayed Westbrook, but he absolutely went toe-to-toe with him, and showed he is capable of dominating a game on both sides of the court in the same game. It’s only a matter of time before this becomes more than an occasional occurance, and the fact that Smart is showing this as a ROOKIE is extremely impressive and noteworthy. Funny how nobody noticed…

http://www.basketball-reference.com/boxscores/201503180OKC.html

+1 Great analysis

Just to clarity …

My comparison to Wes Matthews was not an insult. I think Matthews is one of the most underrated players in the league. He plays both ways with good efficiency. He has been a bulldog on defense (although he has become a little inconsistent on that side of the court this last year) and the fact that I think Smart can be better on defense than him is a great compliment. He makes clutch shots when his team needs him to. He is a great teammate, fiery competitor, and an intimidating matchup.
For the same reason that Draymond Green is considered a Max Player, defensive MVP candidate, great teammate, and the cog that makes the Warriors go, I think Marcus Smart could be a Max Player, defensive MVP candidate, and the cog that makes the Celtics go.

The devil is in the details. The way Smart dips his shoulders under screens to stay with a ball-handler, the way Smart makes the extra pass, the way he tips passes, and the way he boxes out big men so that his teammate can get a rebound, all of that is what makes Smart special.

He is not just an interesting prospect to me as a Celtics fan. I am doubling down on him to be a (the?) key component in our present and future success.

+1 Great analysis

Just to clarity …

My comparison to Wes Matthews was not an insult. I think Matthews is one of the most underrated players in the league. He plays both ways with good efficiency. He has been a bulldog on defense (although he has become a little inconsistent on that side of the court this last year) and the fact that I think Smart can be better on defense than him is a great compliment. He makes clutch shots when his team needs him to. He is a great teammate, fiery competitor, and an intimidating matchup.
For the same reason that Draymond Green is considered a Max Player, defensive MVP candidate, great teammate, and the cog that makes the Warriors go, I think Marcus Smart could be a Max Player, defensive MVP candidate, and the cog that makes the Celtics go.

The devil is in the details. The way Smart dips his shoulders under screens to stay with a ball-handler, the way Smart makes the extra pass, the way he tips passes, and the way he boxes out big men so that his teammate can get a rebound, all of that is what makes Smart special.

He is not just an interesting prospect to me as a Celtics fan. I am doubling down on him to be a (the?) key component in our present and future success.

 On Celticsblog there’s a popular thread where a majority of the fans say they would trade Smart for Elfrid Payton in a heartbeat if they had the opportunity. These are the same type of fans who adored Rondo, and probably thought MCW was a future star because he put up stats on a tanking PHI roster last year.

Payton is a good player and a great prospect, but Smart is already an average 3 point shooter, on pretty high volume, in his rookie year. Payton will be lucky to shoot 35% from 3 on low volume some distant day in the future.

Payton is better than Smart as a pure point guard, but he’s a major liability from the perimeter and at the FT line, just like Rondo. Teams can sag off Payton all day, which makes Payton’s teammates’ jobs harder, because they face more double teams and lane congestion.

Smart is only an average offensive point guard right now, but he plays with poise and has a calming effect on his teammates.

But Smart has much more positional versatility than Payton. Payton is strictly a point guard, and with a glaring inability to stretch the floor. Smart, who can shoot and weighs 40-45 lbs more than Payton, can play three positions on both sides of the floor. Smart is already an above average PG and SG, and he can defend a majority of the small forwards in the NBA at an adequate level.

That versatility has major value. Meanwhile, the Magic will be trying and failing for years to make a Payton/Olidipo lineup work. It will fail because neither can stretch the floor with an outside shot, even if they continue to put up decent stats together in losses for the next few years.

If the Magic had Smart instead of Payton OR Olidipo, that wouldn’t be nearly as much of a problem.

 On Celticsblog there’s a popular thread where a majority of the fans say they would trade Smart for Elfrid Payton in a heartbeat if they had the opportunity. These are the same type of fans who adored Rondo, and probably thought MCW was a future star because he put up stats on a tanking PHI roster last year.

Payton is a good player and a great prospect, but Smart is already an average 3 point shooter, on pretty high volume, in his rookie year. Payton will be lucky to shoot 35% from 3 on low volume some distant day in the future.

Payton is better than Smart as a pure point guard, but he’s a major liability from the perimeter and at the FT line, just like Rondo. Teams can sag off Payton all day, which makes Payton’s teammates’ jobs harder, because they face more double teams and lane congestion.

Smart is only an average offensive point guard right now, but he plays with poise and has a calming effect on his teammates.

But Smart has much more positional versatility than Payton. Payton is strictly a point guard, and with a glaring inability to stretch the floor. Smart, who can shoot and weighs 40-45 lbs more than Payton, can play three positions on both sides of the floor. Smart is already an above average PG and SG, and he can defend a majority of the small forwards in the NBA at an adequate level.

That versatility has major value. Meanwhile, the Magic will be trying and failing for years to make a Payton/Olidipo lineup work. It will fail because neither can stretch the floor with an outside shot, even if they continue to put up decent stats together in losses for the next few years.

If the Magic had Smart instead of Payton OR Olidipo, that wouldn’t be nearly as much of a problem.

 Of Westbrook and Tony Parner vs Rondo and i say its too early to call that a exposure. His title and 2 finals appearance already prove his point. Smart will never be a good finisher but improving his J will allow him to go off the dribble more. He does shoot too many threes. His defense is very good. Yeah he shot well in Oklahoma back home and i expected that from him. Peyton and Lavine fit more needs. He is basically a less athletic Avery Bradley. He hustles hard and plays hard too though.

 Of Westbrook and Tony Parner vs Rondo and i say its too early to call that a exposure. His title and 2 finals appearance already prove his point. Smart will never be a good finisher but improving his J will allow him to go off the dribble more. He does shoot too many threes. His defense is very good. Yeah he shot well in Oklahoma back home and i expected that from him. Peyton and Lavine fit more needs. He is basically a less athletic Avery Bradley. He hustles hard and plays hard too though.