Only saw one difference in smart tonight

[PhoSita]

So while I cannot give you a definition, what I would say is that you know it when you see it.  And I didn't see it last night.

Would you classify Russell Westbrook as "dominant" at the NBA level?  The stat line Smart put up last night was similar to the kind of line we often see Westbrook put up, especially this past season when Durant was out.

On paper, perhaps (I missed the summer league game), but I think that Westbrook is absolutely a dominant player at the NBA level, even if he wasn't the annual CelticsBlog NBA Summer League MVP like Kelly Olynyk.

Right.

Not saying Smart is anything like Westbrook, but it's strange to me that people would claim that 26 pts 8 ast 2 stl and 12-13 from the line is somehow not a dominant performance.

People focus wayyyyyy too much on field goal percentage sometimes.

[D.o.s.]

I mean I'm an Allen Iverson fan I'll defend that last point to the death. 

[elcotte]

If you didn't see it, you weren't looking for it to begin with. Smart was clearly the best player on the floor last night.

you have to be kidding.....Exum was the best player on the floor.
Smart showed that he can be a good player but he didn't do anything to make his team better. He was out of control on many of his penetration moves and wasn't close to scoring on them. The best part of his game was when he grabbed a couple of steals. He was also out of control on some of his fouls...
If he thinks more while he's out there I think he can be really good. I don't think he was a good basketball player last night.
And he wasn't better than Exum. If Smart wanted to focus his energies somewhere he should have taken on Exum and shut him down.

[KeepRondo]

I honestly don't know why some people are so intent on being negative about Smart.

I guess I just don't see it.  He's not perfect, and he probably will never be a star on the offensive end, which is a bit disappointing.  Still, he's a fiery, hard-working player.  He was diving on the floor for loose balls in a summer league game!  Who does that? 

I suppose this is how some people felt with Rondo.  The flaws in Smart's game don't bother me nearly so much as they seem to bother many people around here.

I suppose my expectations or hopes are higher than yours for Smart.

He even admitted after the game that he took a lot of bad and crazy shots last night. So if the dude said it himself, then perhaps you might had been wrong?

A positive to take away was Smart admitting he will need to watch the game to figure out what went wrong.

[KeepRondo]

If you didn't see it, you weren't looking for it to begin with. Smart was clearly the best player on the floor last night.

you have to be kidding.....Exum was the best player on the floor.
Smart showed that he can be a good player but he didn't do anything to make his team better. He was out of control on many of his penetration moves and wasn't close to scoring on them. The best part of his game was when he grabbed a couple of steals. He was also out of control on some of his fouls...
If he thinks more while he's out there I think he can be really good. I don't think he was a good basketball player last night.
And he wasn't better than Exum. If Smart wanted to focus his energies somewhere he should have taken on Exum and shut him down.

agreed. Exum had a few whoa moments. Smart had a  few cringe moments with those wild drives.

[droopdog7]

If you didn't see it, you weren't looking for it to begin with. Smart was clearly the best player on the floor last night.

you have to be kidding.....Exum was the best player on the floor.
Smart showed that he can be a good player but he didn't do anything to make his team better. He was out of control on many of his penetration moves and wasn't close to scoring on them. The best part of his game was when he grabbed a couple of steals. He was also out of control on some of his fouls...
If he thinks more while he's out there I think he can be really good. I don't think he was a good basketball player last night.
And he wasn't better than Exum. If Smart wanted to focus his energies somewhere he should have taken on Exum and shut him down.

As I've always said, I don't worry about stats to tell me about potential or what kind of game a person had.  As we all know, stats are at best an incomplete description of what happened.  I rely more on flashes of talent and overall observations.

As I said in my original post, it looks like all of smart's drives are contested.  Kudos for drawing some fouls but dude was out of control many times.  Compare that to Exum, how showed flashes throughout the game.  In one instance, he drove by smart like he was stuck in cement.  Offensively, that guy showed more on that move than smart showed all game.

[RJ87]

Not saying Smart is anything like Westbrook, but it's strange to me that people would claim that 26 pts 8 ast 2 stl and 12-13 from the line is somehow not a dominant performance.

People focus wayyyyyy too much on field goal percentage sometimes.

I just don't think how he does in Summer League means anything how he'll perform this season. I remember Anthony Randolph dominating Summer League a few years back and being coined a future all-star.

[celticsfan8591]

"Smart might be better utilized playing the 2 as our SG going forward"

I agree.  I think Smart is better served as a SG (size and body type more reminds me more of a younger D Wade than a PG).  Catch and shoot should help his shot percentage and if he can combine that with drives to the rim he will be ok.  At the start of last nights game Rozier had the point and Smart was the SG.  Let's keep it that way

Yup, I agree with this.  Barring a major improvement in his ballhandling I don't think Smart is going to be a good enough off the dribble creator to be a point guard.  Which is fine, he can guard 2's easily and I think he'll become a good enough shooter to survive at the 2.  But I had no issue with the Rozier pick mainly because I consider Smart a 2 when thinking about the team's future.

[PhoSita]

Not saying Smart is anything like Westbrook, but it's strange to me that people would claim that 26 pts 8 ast 2 stl and 12-13 from the line is somehow not a dominant performance.

People focus wayyyyyy too much on field goal percentage sometimes.

I just don't think how he does in Summer League means anything how he'll perform this season. I remember Anthony Randolph dominating Summer League a few years back and being coined a future all-star.

it doesn't have really anything to do with how he'll perform in the season.

doesn't mean that he didn't dominate the competition at this level.

[Al91]

So while I cannot give you a definition, what I would say is that you know it when you see it.  And I didn't see it last night.

Would you classify Russell Westbrook as "dominant" at the NBA level?  The stat line Smart put up last night was similar to the kind of line we often see Westbrook put up, especially this past season when Durant was out.

On paper, perhaps (I missed the summer league game), but I think that Westbrook is absolutely a dominant player at the NBA level, even if he wasn't the annual CelticsBlog NBA Summer League MVP like Kelly Olynyk.

Right.

Not saying Smart is anything like Westbrook, but it's strange to me that people would claim that 26 pts 8 ast 2 stl and 12-13 from the line is somehow not a dominant performance.

People focus wayyyyyy too much on field goal percentage sometimes.

Would you say we focus on FG% too much when it comes to Melo then?

I'm not trying to argue anything but I don't necessarily view going 6-20 with nearly half of his 26 points coming from the FT line as "amazing" (my words, not yours!). I do appreciate him getting to the line. Demonstrates his aggressiveness but by the same taken his shooting outside the paint wasn't fun to watch. I wouldn't want that out of my SG (as some have mentioned him possibly moving to in the future).

Of course, Westbrook was named "Westbrick" by some his first 3-4 years in the league too.

[Big333223]

I'm just happy to see him going to the rim. With his size, he could live at the FT line. As others have said, this isn't necessarilly a real taste of how he'll play this season, but I'm hopeful that attacking more will translate to his regular season decision-making.

[TheFlex]

I'm curious what your definition of "outclass" is, then.  Smart was clearly too good to be playing with most of the other guys on the court.

I think people just need to accept that taking a lot of threes is just part of Smart's game.  Was part of his game in college, and it's a part of his game in the NBA.  Sometimes those shots look ugly, but overall he's an OK shooter from outside and he's going to continue to steadily improve.

Smart got to the line 13 times in that game.  Anytime a guard gets to the line that many times, it's a good thing.  It's not like Smart wasn't working in his teammates, either.  He looked very confident and in command running the pick and roll.


I'm starting to think Smart might develop along the lines of another Boston Celtics guard who never reached stardom while he was here in Boston.  No, not Marcus Banks.  Chauncey Billups.  Mr. Big Shot. 

Billups averaged less than 40% from the field the year that Detroit won the NBA Championship.  His shot selection wasn't always pristine.  But he got to the line and hit big shots.  The confidence in taking shots was part of his game.  And he had the defense and leadership on the floor to back it up.

T freakin P.

[PhoSita]

Would you say we focus on FG% too much when it comes to Melo then?

I'm not trying to argue anything but I don't necessarily view going 6-20 with nearly half of his 26 points coming from the FT line as "amazing" (my words, not yours!).

I think we focus too much on field goal percentage by itself, and yes that applies to Melo, too.


The problem isn't when Melo shoots a low percentage while taking a ton of shots.  The problem is that Melo is so high usage and yet he doesn't add nearly enough in all of the peripheral categories -- defense, passing, hustle stats, rebounding.

If you shoot 6-20, but your aggression got you to the line 13 times and opened up opportunities for your teammates, I'm not going to call that a poor performance, especially when it's accompanied by good defense and the team otherwise has very few offensive options.

[SHAQATTACK]

His hair

[M.A.]

A good friend of mine was sitting court-side at the game covering the Jazz, and he thought that Smart was the most impressive player on the court. I wouldn't put too much stock in one game, but Smart certainly didn't shoot well. Yet I think that he is better than his shooting percentage in this one individual game.