Because people love young prospects. Just look at all the Mickey love and how many people are holding out hope in James Young. It doesn't matter who you are, if you're a young player on the Celtics, there will be tons of people who will become instantly attached to you and believe you can become an All-Star/All-NBA player if just given enough minutes.
With Avery, he's a known quantity at this point. People have moved on from him developing much more at this point and believe what you see is what you get. Smart on the other hand, people have yet to accept what we see is his ceiling.
And it also helps that Marcus Smart is to defense what Gerald Green was to offense. Just like Gerald would break out some crazy highlight reel dunk that makes you say, "wow if he can just develop the rest of his game he'll be an All-Star for sure," well Marcus is the same way on defense, making a spectacular play on D that makes everyone say, "wow if he can just develop the rest of his game he'll be an All-Star for sure."
I can't take you seriously if you think Marcus has hit his ceiling at age 22.
Same here. I think people just get incredibly impatient with our players. Smart is younger than a couple of people that will be drafted this year.
Yeah. Like, some people want the 22 year old Hield but not Marcus. Smh
See, you guys make my point.
I've never said what I think Marcus's ceiling is, but people want to believe it's higher than what we currently see. Though, I do see how I framed my sentences could make it seem like I'm saying something like "this is the best we can get from Marcus, time to move on," that is not what I'm saying at all. I love Marcus and hope to see continued improvement.
But it goes with:
I think people just get incredibly impatient with our players.
There should be no "our players" when it comes to talent evaluation. We shouldn't have more (or less) patience with a player just because he's on the C's. But this isn't limited to the C's, it's pretty much the same for all passionate fans of most teams. If I said we should trade Marcus Smart straight up to the Magic for Aaron Gordon, Elfrid Payton, or Mario Hezonja or to the Lakers for Julius Randle, D'Angelo Russell, or Jordan Clarkson, I think most people here would be against any of those trades. But I bet if I went over to a Lakers or Magic forum, they'd be equally against those trades too. How can every fan base be so right about their own players?
It's because people get attached to the young players on their teams and they dream of their potential. Once those players stop being so young (as the case with Avery) that dream of potential turns into the reality of this is who this player is for better or worse.
Sometimes those feelings of attachment and the let's-see-this-through mentality are justified (like with players such as C.J. McCullom, Jimmy Butler, Draymond Green, Steph Curry, Gordon Hayward, etc.), sometimes they aren't (with players like Fab Melo, Dion Waiters, Austin Rivers, Hasheem Thabeet, Wesley Johnson, Ekpe Udoh, Derrick Williams, Gerald Green, Anthony Bennett, etc.).