What's wrong with Marcus?

[Roy H.]

This has been the story of Marcus's career, right?  Sometimes he's the guy who is dedicated to defense and who makes huge plays; other times he sort of goes through the motions and goes into bad offensive funks.

From my observation, the Marcus we've seen lately is the same Marcus we saw in the 2021 season under Brad.  He's nothing special on defense, hustles less, and is a poor offensive player.  Ime got Smart to play more like "good Marcus" when he won DPOY.  This season, particularly lately, we're seeing the less intense Smart who coasts more.

Marcus needs a coach that holds him accountable, like here:

https://www.nbcsports.com/boston/celtics/ime-udoka-reveals-fallout-marcus-smart-calling-out-jayson-tatum-jaylen-brown

Either you want it at his age or you dont. Another man isnt going to "hold him accountable". Self motivation at the highest level. Marcus has to decide not Joe.

Preferably, yes.  But, if players are coasting, taking bad shots, seem more interested in acting tough than playing tough, it's on the coaching staff to do something other than the official "no adjustments" stance.

[liam]

Everything! Wow, he's just killing us!

[celticsclay]

Yeah smart has been really brutal down the stretch here.

[footey]

Marcus should  have been taken out early in 4th quarter, for White.

[liam]

Marcus should  have been taken out early in 4th quarter, for White.

Shouldn't have come back in...

[liam]

Please bench Marcus. We were better with White playing and Marcus out.

[SCeltic34]

Maybe a better question is what's wrong with Joe.  We've all seen how bad Smart has been lately.  Why does Joe keep feeding him minutes when he's clearly a net negative out there?  Why not give him the GWill treatment and let him ride the pine?

[Phantom255x]

White would absolutely be a starter on another team. Idk why this team keeps persisting with Smart though who has been worse than Brogdon and White for a while now

Even in the Hawks game, Smart was the primary reason ATL made it close late and we struggled to close it. Then when he got ejected, White and Brogdon helped the team calmly hold on.

[keevsnick]

Marcus has been straight awful since returning from his injury. Its not even so much his shooting that's been the issue either, although he is shooting like 32% from the field this month. His decision making has at times been AWFUL. His assists are down, he's taking ill advised shots, he's driving into two guys in the paint, and his defense has been WAY worse than his usual top tier performance.

He just looks off.

[gouki88]

Marcus should  have been taken out early in 4th quarter, for White.

This is eerily reminiscent of Coach Stevens sticking with Smart through hell or high water, except this time we have two superior options! Mazz's stubbornness on this is infuriating

[gouki88]

Maybe a better question is what's wrong with Joe.  We've all seen how bad Smart has been lately.  Why does Joe keep feeding him minutes when he's clearly a net negative out there?  Why not give him the GWill treatment and let him ride the pine?

To be fair, Mazz let G-Will stink it up a whole lot before benching him. Maybe in a fortnight or so...

[celticinorlando]

Smart should be coming off the bench. Right now it should be Brogdan, White, Al, Brown and Tatum as the starters and the closers.

Marcus is just an albatross offensively with his dumb shots and selfish play.

[jpotter33]

https://www.masslive.com/celtics/2023/03/why-celtics-marcus-smart-says-his-defense-has-been-mediocre-this-season.html

Good read. Seems Smart’s struggles this year (at least defensively) are part injury and part difficulty adjusting to the different officiating standard and uptick in scoring.

Don’t think it’s a coincidence that last year he won DPOY when the refs had an outlier year where they let a lot more go and allowed much more contact than usual. Unfortunately, it seems the NBA didn’t like that trend and went back to a major favoring of the offense.

Edit: I think the major ankle sprain he had in the Heat series (that he miraculously came back into the game with) is the injury that continues to linger for him. I remember the majority of us in the game thread thought he broke his ankle it looked so bad. Still amazed that he was able to even walk on it afterwards.

https://youtu.be/zhAzAV-GBg8

[liam]

https://www.masslive.com/celtics/2023/03/why-celtics-marcus-smart-says-his-defense-has-been-mediocre-this-season.html

Good read. Seems Smart’s struggles this year (at least defensively) are part injury and part difficulty adjusting to the different officiating standard and uptick in scoring.

Don’t think it’s a coincidence that last year he won DPOY when the refs had an outlier year where they let a lot more go and allowed much more contact than usual. Unfortunately, it seems the NBA didn’t like that trend and went back to a major favoring of the offense.

Edit: I think the major ankle sprain he had in the Heat series (that he miraculously came back into the game with) is the injury that continues to linger for him. I remember the majority of us in the game thread thought he broke his ankle it looked so bad. Still amazed that he was able to even walk on it afterwards.

https://youtu.be/zhAzAV-GBg8

He definitely looks hurt but a lot of his struggles also look mental. The NBA totally changed the officiating from last year to this year. We had to go from a defense first team to an offense first team.

[gouki88]

https://www.masslive.com/celtics/2023/03/why-celtics-marcus-smart-says-his-defense-has-been-mediocre-this-season.html

Good read. Seems Smart’s struggles this year (at least defensively) are part injury and part difficulty adjusting to the different officiating standard and uptick in scoring.

Don’t think it’s a coincidence that last year he won DPOY when the refs had an outlier year where they let a lot more go and allowed much more contact than usual. Unfortunately, it seems the NBA didn’t like that trend and went back to a major favoring of the offense.

Edit: I think the major ankle sprain he had in the Heat series (that he miraculously came back into the game with) is the injury that continues to linger for him. I remember the majority of us in the game thread thought he broke his ankle it looked so bad. Still amazed that he was able to even walk on it afterwards.

https://youtu.be/zhAzAV-GBg8

Then bench him