I love Marcus, but I would never sign him to a long term deal at this price. He is way too limited offensively.
He shot 21% from the three point line in the Cleveland series for example.
Well you better pay attention to his hand.
Are we seriously concerned that that would somehow make a noticeable difference in terms of shooting percentages, lol?
Yes. he's in the low 30's with a healthy hand, 10% is huge difference.
Meh, it’s a pretty small sample size that could largely be attributed to rust due to him missing nearly six weeks and being unable to shoot the majority of them. A good shooter would need time to get back to normal, so it’s easy to believe it takes longer for a poor one to regain their mechanics.
And since his playoff free throws were right in line with his regular season mark, no reason to believe his hand will hinder his shot.
I'll give him the benefit of the doubt on the hand because he wasn't able to shoot for a significant period of time while the injury was healing. By no means am I claiming he can or will become a good shooter.
However, I don't think we should ignore his playoff 3 point percentage during the prior two postseasons. Marcus shot 38% on 105 attempts during this time. This was during a 24 game sample.
I think a $12/mil per year contract is absolutely perfect for Smart. No need for me to rehash the intangibles. All I know is that he coaches and teammates have complete faith in his ability to help them win important games. Below is a list of players making $12 million or more per year. I tried to keep it to players who are in the middle of their careers.
How many of these guys actually impact winning? I see a decent amount of inefficient scorers who don't move the needle on defense. There are also a couple of one dimensional big men. I am NOT saying that Marcus is definitively better than every one of these guys. The list is more or less to show that $12 million per year is fair value for the impact that Marcus brings to the Celtics. $12 million also reflects his shortcomings as a shooter. If Marcus was a 35%+ three point shooter then he would have received a similar offer to Zach Lavine.
Kent Bazemore - $19 million
Evan Turner - $18 Million
Tim Hardaway Jr - $18
Reggie Jackson - $18 million
Bismack Biyambo - $17 Million
Evan Fournier - $17 million (first guy on this list who I would place clearly above Smart.)
Ian Mahimi - $17 million
Solomon Hill - $12 million
Mason Plumlee - $13 million
Dion Waiters - $12.5 Million
Austin Rivers - $12.5 million
Jordan Clarkson - $12.5 million
Kentavious Caldwell-Pope - $12.5 million