Gary Payton is a 47% career shooter. That is all.
True. But coach has him jacking three's for his long term development. If Payton were shooting 4 3 point attempts per game, his FG% would have really suffered
Poor Gary Payton, how did he ever develop when his coach never had him jacking up threes.
... by the way, Payton has 4 seasons with 4+ three attempts per game. His overall shooting percentage in those? 48, 45, 43, 45.
Marcus Smart will never be as good as Gary Payton, and that's ok.
Stylistically on the offensive end Payton and Smart are nothing alike, but let's objectively look at Payton's development here. The dude was a bad offensive player his first two seasons in the league. He had a 47-48% TS through his first two years which is about where Smart has been thus far. The biggest difference is that Payton came into the league two years after Smart did. Payton was shooting a 48% TS at the age of 23 in the NBA. That's not good at all. He didn't become a good offensive player until his 4th year at the age of 25, and he didn't become an efficient offensive player until the age of 26. That's when he hit his stride and proceeded to make 8-9 all star teams. He really only had 4-5 years of really good, efficient basketball, and that was between ages 26-30. Don't get me wrong, though, he was still a really good playmaker and amazing defender between ages 31-34, but he probably would have been better off taking a few less shots at that point in his career..
So yeah, very different styles, but in the sense that Smart will take time to develop his particular style, I see the OP's point. Same could be said about guys like Billups and Lowry. Sometimes players take a lot of time to develop their offensive games. I think Smart has the will and work ethic that those three players had. He will figure it out in his own way just like they did.
Tempering my expectations for his offensive game, I see Smart as a 13-15/5/5 player in his prime with all first team defense; however, I wouldn't put it past him to develop into a 17-20 PPG guy one day. He has a lot to work with and a very good work ethic.