Time to start Smart and Brown in the backcourt?

[ManUp]

Not yet but in the not so distant future hopefully.

I love that Smart is finding his scoring niche and Jaylen is dripping all-star potential out his ears.

If we could land a true stud in the draft we could possibly build a long term contender.

[celtics2030]

bench a 30 ppg scorer and an enigma in the 4th quarter who averages double digits

right on line with celticsblog

[Chris22]

Smart and Brown would provide an instant improvement in defense, passing, rebounding and size. I don't know if they would score the ball well enough, or shoot a high enough percentage to be effective. They'd need to be surrounded by better players at the 3, 4, and 5 than the C's currently have.

But if you examine IT coming off the bench you'll see the benefits. By coming off the bench he'd be playing, at times, against the opponents backup guards. He'd be also guarding backups, (a major factor). Teams would have little chance to adjust their defense to contain him. Just the fact of coming off the bench with a scoring weapon like IT will be of benefit by immediately changing the personality of the Celtic attack, causing your opponent to have to adjust.

Buy alas this is a pipe dream, the IT the media and fans have created, and that now has him believing he's a celebrity superstar. It would in fact cause internal, and external problems of major proportions.

Too bad, because IMO you will never go deep into the playoffs with IT as the starting PG, and main scorer. He'd be bounced around like he was inside a pinball machine.

Exactly. Havlicek came off the bench and so did McHale.

[jpotter33]

Love the potential versatility of the Smart/Brown backcourt, or hell even the Smart/Bradley backcourt, but we simply don't have enough scoring without IT in the starting lineup.

For all of his faults defensively and being a poor decision-maker at times, IT is still a ridiculously valuable offensive weapon that is absolutely crucial to our success. The fact that he's one of the very worst defenders in the league due to his size yet still a legitimate MVP candidate shows just how valuable he really is to our offense.

Until we get significant scoring upgrades elsewhere in the starting lineup, IT is pretty much forced to start.

However, I do see (and always have) IT's natural fit as a scoring sixth man off the bench, though. Ideally, Fultz will be ready to take over the starting spot in two to three years, and IT could become the sixth man for us in his last several seasons of his contract. A Fultz, Smart, IT three-guard unit would be pretty dynamic.

[Ilikesports17]

Thomas --> Only all star 30ppg best scorer in 4th quarter
Bradley--> 2016 first team all defense 17ppg 40% three point shooting leading rebounder
yeah were not benching both those guys.

I love Brown and Smart. They should be terrorizing benches right now.

[nickagneta]

Smart and Brown would provide an instant improvement in defense, passing, rebounding and size. I don't know if they would score the ball well enough, or shoot a high enough percentage to be effective. They'd need to be surrounded by better players at the 3, 4, and 5 than the C's currently have.

But if you examine IT coming off the bench you'll see the benefits. By coming off the bench he'd be playing, at times, against the opponents backup guards. He'd be also guarding backups, (a major factor). Teams would have little chance to adjust their defense to contain him. Just the fact of coming off the bench with a scoring weapon like IT will be of benefit by immediately changing the personality of the Celtic attack, causing your opponent to have to adjust.

Buy alas this is a pipe dream, the IT the media and fans have created, and that now has him believing he's a celebrity superstar. It would in fact cause internal, and external problems of major proportions.

Too bad, because IMO you will never go deep into the playoffs with IT as the starting PG, and main scorer. He'd be bounced around like he was inside a pinball machine.

Exactly. Havlicek came off the bench and so did McHale.

Havlicek and McHale came off the bench when they started their careers, not after they became stars. Shame on you for not knowing your Celtic history. Smart and Brown are starting their careers...so they are coming off the bench, just like McHale and Havlicek did to start their careers. Don't worry, they will get their chance to start, in time.

[Ilikesports17]

Nope.   


The Celtics are on a down point.  Every good team (minus the Warriors at the moment) have them. 





They will go on another hot streak soon enough.

thank you thank you thank you
TP

[Greyman]

As long as Bradley and IT are on this team, IT and Bradley will be your starters and should be. Simply put, they are better than Brown and Smart at this point. If Bradley is traded this offseason because we draft a guard and sign a free agent, Smart or Brown will most likely enter the starting lineup. I would expect IT to sign long term and as long as he is averaging 25+ points and 6+ assists per game, he is your starter for years to come.

Sums it up nicely.

[Denis998]

IT is regarded as a superstar league wide now,

[chilidawg]

Yup

[PhoSita]

Ugh, when will the nonsense stop with the benching IT thing?

[wiley]

wouldn't mind starting IT and Smart like lately.  Whatever, no problem with Bradley starting but I think he'd be a nice shot in the arm off the bench.  And I like Smart's size with the starters.

[Boris Badenov]

 As Greg Popovich would say: "Am I being Punk'd?!?"

[Ilikesports17]

wouldn't mind starting IT and Smart like lately.  Whatever, no problem with Bradley starting but I think he'd be a nice shot in the arm off the bench.  And I like Smart's size with the starters.

Smart has not really been starting next to IT lately. He started the 3 games Brown missed.

[tarheelsxxiii]

Let's delete/lock this one on the basis of "no."