I remember early In the season we were getting torched by shooting guards, and when Smart was inserted in the starting lineup that helped a lot.
Maybe Brown has gotten a lot better defensively since the beginning of the season (he was also fighting injuries to start the season), but we have also only faced Wes Matthews and Sterling Brown as starting shooting guards in the playoffs. Jaylen could have been matched up with Middleton more (maybe someone savvy with advanced metrics can show the breakdown of how often Brown guarded Middleton).
Maybe if we were facing a shooting guard like Bradley Beal we would want Smart back in with the starters.
Yea we just haven’t been up against elite guards is all because we will still be getting torched. We played excellent D but brown was still blowing assignments trust me. Brown makes it seem like he can’t keep a man in front of him for whatever reason, but endless to say I still think smart would be better suited starting although Brown has kicked it up on O tremendously, but I feel like we can get that same contribution out of brown off the bench.
Brown was matched up almost exclusively with Middleton yesterday and was the main defender on Bogdanovic. Brown's defense was one of the main reasons Bogdanovic was held to 39% shooting, 32% from three. Bogdanovic shot 50%/42% in the regular season.
Yesterday when in the game, Brown was on Middleton. Brown was playing Middleton super tight denying him touches. Middleton hit two ridiculously contested threes over Brown but other than that, Middleton was a major non-factor in the game due to Brown's great defense.
Your observations of Brown getting lit up by inferior SGs and getting torched, not being able to keep guys in front of him, missing assignments, in this post season, are simply not based on what is actually happening on the court.