Marcus Smart Discussion

[Greenbean]

Hopefully Smart proves me wrong and takes the starting job with success, but I'm not overly optimistic.

It does appear that Ainge only succeeded in securing a quality role player and someday-above-average-starter with the #6 pick in the draft, which is disappointing. 

That said, to this point, none of the guys taken after Smart has shown enough to indicate any of them will be better than that.

LaVine?? He may not have been statistically as good as Smart, but visually you can see he has all the talent in the world to take that next step. People may laugh at me for saying this, but LaVine could easily become a Westbrook type player. Also this is not just based on watching the dunk contest. The tape I've seen from LaVine displays his ability to get to the rim, finish, create offense for himself, play above the rim, and shows his sweet stroke. I'm telling you if they clear up a spot for LaVine at either the 2 or the 1 next year watch out. I'm expecting a huge improvement this next year for LaVine.

Yes. Once Minny started giving him big minutes he really flashed averaging 20+ over his last 12 games or so.

If he keeps working on his ball handling, which already imporoved, hes gonna be the steal of the draft. We were never going to reach for him at 6 tho.

[tazzmaniac]

Hopefully Smart proves me wrong and takes the starting job with success, but I'm not overly optimistic.

It does appear that Ainge only succeeded in securing a quality role player and someday-above-average-starter with the #6 pick in the draft, which is disappointing. 

That said, to this point, none of the guys taken after Smart has shown enough to indicate any of them will be better than that.

LaVine?? He may not have been statistically as good as Smart, but visually you can see he has all the talent in the world to take that next step. People may laugh at me for saying this, but LaVine could easily become a Westbrook type player. Also this is not just based on watching the dunk contest. The tape I've seen from LaVine displays his ability to get to the rim, finish, create offense for himself, play above the rim, and shows his sweet stroke. I'm telling you if they clear up a spot for LaVine at either the 2 or the 1 next year watch out. I'm expecting a huge improvement this next year for LaVine.

I like LaVine but taking him #6 would have been a reach.  I was hoping he'd fall to #17.  The only two reasonable picks at #6 were Smart or Randle.  They were clearly the best two players available. 

[PhoSita]

Lavine, like Jordan Clarkson, was a tall and athletic combo guard getting to play in extended garbage time (for 40+ minutes a game!) over the last couple months of the season while absolutely nobody on either team played any defense.

The stats those guys put up might as well have been Summer League.  Not at all a surprise that they put up nice box score stats.

[BDeCosta26]

Lavine, like Jordan Clarkson, was a tall and athletic combo guard getting to play in extended garbage time (for 40+ minutes a game!) over the last couple months of the season while absolutely nobody on either team played any defense.

The stats those guys put up might as well have been Summer League.  Not at all a surprise that they put up nice box score stats.

Thus, the danger of looking to far into the box scores of players on losing teams. Earlier in the year we had this big "Who's better, Clarkson or Smart" debate. Of course, Smarts the better play now and in the future, But Clarkson was putting up pretty decent box scores on a horrible Laker team that handed him the keys to secure their top 5 pick. Kid has a little game, for sure. But those were empty stats, padded by his totally out-of-place offensive role on them at was intentionally sucking.

Smart didn't produce so many big box score nights, but he had WAY more impact on the floor than Clarkson. Clarkson can't guard anyone, and Smart is a potential DPOY candidate. Put Smart in Clarkson's role (Which is pretty much what Smart did in college) and he could put up garbage stats too. Stats don't tell the whole story. It's hard to appreciate Smart if your only looking at the box score.

[The One]

Hopefully Smart proves me wrong and takes the starting job with success, but I'm not overly optimistic.

It does appear that Ainge only succeeded in securing a quality role player and someday-above-average-starter with the #6 pick in the draft, which is disappointing. 

That said, to this point, none of the guys taken after Smart has shown enough to indicate any of them will be better than that.

LaVine?? He may not have been statistically as good as Smart, but visually you can see he has all the talent in the world to take that next step. People may laugh at me for saying this, but LaVine could easily become a Westbrook type player. Also this is not just based on watching the dunk contest. The tape I've seen from LaVine displays his ability to get to the rim, finish, create offense for himself, play above the rim, and shows his sweet stroke. I'm telling you if they clear up a spot for LaVine at either the 2 or the 1 next year watch out. I'm expecting a huge improvement this next year for LaVine.

Yes. Once Minny started giving him big minutes he really flashed averaging 20+ over his last 12 games or so.

If he keeps working on his ball handling, which already imporoved, hes gonna be the steal of the draft. We were never going to reach for him at 6 tho.

I'll take my chances that Marcus can lock him up.

[Lakersalltheway]

I like Marcus.  I thought you guys draft a very solid player.  He still has some upside. He was one of my favorite college players. 

[alewilliam789]

Lavine, like Jordan Clarkson, was a tall and athletic combo guard getting to play in extended garbage time (for 40+ minutes a game!) over the last couple months of the season while absolutely nobody on either team played any defense.

The stats those guys put up might as well have been Summer League.  Not at all a surprise that they put up nice box score stats.

Thus, the danger of looking to far into the box scores of players on losing teams. Earlier in the year we had this big "Who's better, Clarkson or Smart" debate. Of course, Smarts the better play now and in the future, But Clarkson was putting up pretty decent box scores on a horrible Laker team that handed him the keys to secure their top 5 pick. Kid has a little game, for sure. But those were empty stats, padded by his totally out-of-place offensive role on them at was intentionally sucking.

Smart didn't produce so many big box score nights, but he had WAY more impact on the floor than Clarkson. Clarkson can't guard anyone, and Smart is a potential DPOY candidate. Put Smart in Clarkson's role (Which is pretty much what Smart did in college) and he could put up garbage stats too. Stats don't tell the whole story. It's hard to appreciate Smart if your only looking at the box score.

That't actually untrue. When Smart was handed the starting job in December though he was unseated by Jameer Nelson against the Magic and then started against Brooklyn and Washington while putting up terrible stats in about 26 minutes per game. It was then that Turner came in a outplayed Smart for his starting spot at PG. They then traded Jameer and Smart stepped in, but played off ball because Brad realized he could not be a true point guard. So actually no Smart did not put up good stats with a trash team he actually put up terrible stats when he was handed the job completely on a losing team.

Go check out the stats on ESPN.com in his game logs around the end of December if you don't believe me. I even remember watching it after we traded Rondo.

[crimson_stallion]

All that being said, I still dont think any roster should start wth a guy who is not a matchup nightmare on offense (That's my personal criteria for who you should build a roster around.). I dont think teams will ever have to game plan or really focus on doubling Marcus even if he reaches his full offensive potential.

I'm on the opposite opinion of this. I think that if you're a liability on defense, you really shouldn't be on the floor. Isaiah is the best example of an offensive mismatch on this team because of his quickness, but we can't afford to have him start if you don't expect every guard to abuse his defense.

I disagree,

I believe that at the end of the day, the game of basketball is all about scoring more than your opponent.

Whether you achieve that by dominant defense (by making it hard for them to score) or by dominant offense (by beating their defense) doesn't matter, as long as at the end of the day you are scoring more points than your opponent is.

I do have a slight preference for defense over offence simply because defense is an effort-area and you CAN be great on defense every night if you put in the effort.  However on offense it's normal for players to go through streaks, for teams to have bad shooting nights, etc.  Because of that I feel like defense is the one thing you can really rely on every night.

Still though, statistically Isaiah Thomas is an elite offensive player - not just good or excellent, but elite.  The numbers he puts up on offense (both in terms of efficiency and in terms of outright scoring per minute) are right up there with anybody in the league.  Advanced stats indicate that he has more positive impact on offense then he does negative impact on defense, and that means that when he's on the floor, we are winning the PG spot.

If you win every position, then you are winning the game.

On a team full of guys who are defense / hustle oriented, I think it's even more critical for us to have a guy like Thomas who can really take over and create offense on demand.