Marcus Smart is the real deal!

[manl_lui]

This is a piece published today on Celtics.com and it's a very good read

These quotes stands out to me

Evan Turner, “Tonight, he was willing everybody, just saying, ‘We can come back. We can get into this lead, get it down to 10 and we can win.’”

“He just changes the pace of the game, especially on defense,” said Kelly Olynyk. “He’s up on people, making plays on the defensive end, whether it’s steals, a couple of charges, or just making it tough, wearing guys down.”

“His defense. His tenacity,” Turner stated. “You can tell a lot of other guards don’t like going up against him, for the most part. Once they feel his strength and stuff, they look back and kind of say, ‘This kid’s for real.’”

source: http://www.nba.com/celtics/news/sidebar/post-120814-this-kids-for-real-smart-inspires-celtics-comeback

It's nice seeing a player that can have this kind of impact on his team as a rookie. This is huge for us in the future and we definitely need someone like that, who can impact his team that is not represented in the stat sheet. He does all the little things and brings tons of energy.

[PickNRoll]

- Wizards Blog

[oldtype]

I agree that this kid has superstar potential, but he needs to get rid of the bad habits he picked up leading a terrible team in college.

I'm fine with him taking the 3 even though he can't hit it regularly yet. Get those reps in and make it part of your game like Sullinger did last year.

But every time he takes one of those ill-advised pull-ups with 15 seconds left on the clock Brad needs to yank him straight out of the game. His hero-ball fueled the comeback yesterday but most of the time it's not going to work. Indeed, it was an early-clock pull-up three from Smart with less than a minute left that directly lead to us being unable to close out the game.

[manl_lui]

I agree that this kid has superstar potential, but he needs to get rid of the bad habits he picked up leading a terrible team in college.

I'm fine with him taking the 3 even though he can't hit it regularly yet. Get those reps in and make it part of your game like Sullinger did last year.

But every time he takes one of those ill-advised pull-ups with 15 seconds left on the clock Brad needs to yank him straight out of the game. His hero-ball fueled the comeback yesterday but most of the time it's not going to work. Indeed, it was an early-clock pull-up three from Smart with less than a minute left that directly lead to us being unable to close out the game.

actually I want to see how his hero ball looks like if instead of taking 3s, he drives to the basket trying to draw fouls

This kid is BIG, I've seen him on opening day at the garden, him standing next to Green, you definitely don't think "wow this kid is 6'4", you more or less say "[dang], this kid is HUGE". On TV, you don't notice as much, but if you get a chance to see them in person, he makes Rondo look very small. You guys see him box out Gortat yesterday and defend Pierce in the post. He is incredibly strong and him driving to the rim can definitely draw a lot of fouls