Is Marcus Smart hitting the Rookie Wall?

[PickNRoll]

For a lot of rookies, this is the time when the NBA schedule starts to show.  Smart seems to be no exception.  Hopefully it's just a slump.

Last 9 games:

fg: 29.9%
3pt: 21.7%
FT: 59.5%

I feel like he's also failing to keep his man in front more often and he hasn't had the same burst since the ankle injury.



Kevin might have to write another column about his shooting soon.  I found it funny that the Lakers announcers were remarking about Smart's hot shooting of late.  They must skim CB before the game.

[loco_91]

probably just normal variance. monthly shooting percentages are really noisy.

Edit: I ran the numbers, and the difference in his shooting for january vs february comes out right at p=.05. So you can interpret that as evidence that something has changed, but there's just so many equally plausible comparisons you could make, for example february vs rest of the year (p=.08). Or you think of it as, the chance that someone on the C's would be slumping at least this badly just by random chance this month compared with last is about 50%, and even more than that for this month as compared with the rest of the year.

[MSceltic]

He looks lost when Turner runs the offense in my opinion. Is never as aggressive to the basket as I thought he would be coming out out of college.

[Rosco917]

You're right Marcus looks a bit weary, I guess all rookies go through it. He's finding out what he needs to get better at. When he was in college he got into the paint by attacking aggressively and over powering many of the defenders.
In the NBA he's running into a wall of bodies that happen to be defending where he wants to go. 

Hopefully will figure it out.