umm smart is the 3rd best player on this team.
I think he shouldn't have plays run for him on the offensive end and hate the amount of times he takes a shot in a game when a much better offensive option like tatum is usually on the floor at the same time.
but as bad as he is offensively, he is our 3rd best player. if someone really needs convincing of this maybe watch a game or 2.
There are people that watch the games regularly that say publicly that Marcus Smart is a better basketball player than Tatum or a healthy Jaylen? Or Horford?
Rozier I can absolutely understand. But those guys?
It's close.
Kyrie is the clear #1, and Horford is the clear #2. I think Hayward and Horford are somewhat similar in terms of relative value (can't include Hayward b/c he's not playing for us this year).
After that, you could make the case for: Smart, Tatum, Brown, and maybe, maybe Morris. At this point, it is pretty subjective in my eyes.
So the team traded out IT and KO left.
The team is significantly better this year.
You see the big difference between this year and last as essentially the improvement of Smart? Is that sorta what you're implying?
Like after the upgrade from IT to Kyrie the next biggest thing is Smart's play?
Nope. I'm not convinced that the team is significantly better than last year. There's still 43 games to play, and the Celtics hold a slight edge as the #1 team in the East. They have a better record at this point, but I don't necessarily think that they will beat CLE in the ECF.
I do think that the combo of Brown/Tatum/Baynes has helped as well.
I think Brown and Tatum will eventually be better than Marcus, but I'm not sure of that right now. I also said that I think its close, and an argument could be made for a couple of these players as the #3. If Hayward was healthy, we'd be talking about who are our 4/5/6th best players.