Smart needs to lose weight

[loco_91]

That may be his only hope.  And don't give me this crap about his ankle.  Smart is one of the least explosive, suppose to be athletes I have ever seen.  He has trouble getting by his man, he has no midrange game, and he has trouble finishing at the rim.  Did I miss anything?

So basically, short of some kind of drastic tansformation, there is almost nothing there on offense.

Come on. He just had a great game vs the Cavs, including some great drives to the hoop. He's a rare rookie who looks like he belongs in the starting lineup of a playoff team. I will never understand the hate that he attracts.

[byennie]

Folks need to at least have enough patience to see what happens when his usage goes up. The fact of the matter is that he's being used as a defensive player with usage rate lower than Mario Chalmers had in the big 3 days, he's a rookie, and he's being brought along slowly. Put him on Philly and I can just imagine how much "better" he'd look.

[manl_lui]

Folks need to at least have enough patience to see what happens when his usage goes up. The fact of the matter is that he's being used as a defensive player with usage rate lower than Mario Chalmers had in the big 3 days, he's a rookie, and he's being brought along slowly. Put him on Philly and I can just imagine how much "better" he'd look.

well said, however I don't get how "Smart need to lose weight" come from. His defense is elite the way he is, and his offense just need some work, and what you said about his usage rate. That guy is all muscle, beside LBJ, I think Smart can defend some SF in the post.

[crimson_stallion]

I think he needs to work on his handle in the offseason.  He may never be super quick, but I think with improved confidence and deceptiveness with his dribble drives he will be able to drive to basket more successfully than he does now.

Yeah, and Paul Pierce might be the best possible example of this.

Pierce was never an incredibly quick or athletic guy, but he was able to use his size/strength, handle, footwork and ball fakes to get to his spots as well as pretty much anybody in the league. 

Even though Pierce didn't have the outright agility or fancy dribbling moves, Pierce was very effective as a point forward late in his career because he had a safe handle, good BBIQ, good court vision, and the size to see over the defense.

I think once Smart learns how to use his strength, footwork and ball fakes to create space then I think he'll be able to be very effective on offense.  I can see him becoming a PG equivalent of Paul Pierce, albeit being more of a defensive guy who can hold his own on offense (while Pierce was an offensive guy who could hold his own on defense). 

Also as others have said, Smart may not be the most ripped guy out there (I'd guess he's probably around 10% body fat) but he's definitely not fat or chubby the way big Baby and Sully are.  He's got a LOT of muscle on that frame. 

[JBcat]

I think he needs to work on his handle in the offseason.  He may never be super quick, but I think with improved confidence and deceptiveness with his dribble drives he will be able to drive to basket more successfully than he does now.

Yeah, and Paul Pierce might be the best possible example of this.

Pierce was never an incredibly quick or athletic guy, but he was able to use his size/strength, handle, footwork and ball fakes to get to his spots as well as pretty much anybody in the league. 

Even though Pierce didn't have the outright agility or fancy dribbling moves, Pierce was very effective as a point forward late in his career because he had a safe handle, good BBIQ, good court vision, and the size to see over the defense.

I think once Smart learns how to use his strength, footwork and ball fakes to create space then I think he'll be able to be very effective on offense.  I can see him becoming a PG equivalent of Paul Pierce, albeit being more of a defensive guy who can hold his own on offense (while Pierce was an offensive guy who could hold his own on defense). 

Also as others have said, Smart may not be the most ripped guy out there (I'd guess he's probably around 10% body fat) but he's definitely not fat or chubby the way big Baby and Sully are.  He's got a LOT of muscle on that frame.

I agree with most of this but Pierce in his prime had a very quick first step which helped just as much as his footwork, strength, and dribbling ability.  I don't know if Smart has that quick first step in him.

[oldutican]

Concern with him is whether he will ever have the handle and ball skills to be a true PG.

[jambr380]

I think he needs to work on his handle in the offseason.  He may never be super quick, but I think with improved confidence and deceptiveness with his dribble drives he will be able to drive to basket more successfully than he does now.

Yeah, and Paul Pierce might be the best possible example of this.

Pierce was never an incredibly quick or athletic guy, but he was able to use his size/strength, handle, footwork and ball fakes to get to his spots as well as pretty much anybody in the league. 

Even though Pierce didn't have the outright agility or fancy dribbling moves, Pierce was very effective as a point forward late in his career because he had a safe handle, good BBIQ, good court vision, and the size to see over the defense.

I think once Smart learns how to use his strength, footwork and ball fakes to create space then I think he'll be able to be very effective on offense.  I can see him becoming a PG equivalent of Paul Pierce, albeit being more of a defensive guy who can hold his own on offense (while Pierce was an offensive guy who could hold his own on defense). 

Also as others have said, Smart may not be the most ripped guy out there (I'd guess he's probably around 10% body fat) but he's definitely not fat or chubby the way big Baby and Sully are.  He's got a LOT of muscle on that frame.

I agree with most of this but Pierce in his prime had a very quick first step which helped just as much as his footwork, strength, and dribbling ability.  I don't know if Smart has that quick first step in him.

I am loving what we have in Smart, but he has a long way to go to develop Pierce's offensive game. His hesitation, timing, and sheer shooting ability are things that are very difficult to learn. Smart seems [clearly] like a better defensive player and is absolutely one of the 'toughest' guys on the court, but it's hard to combine his physical, hounding style with masterful touch on the offensive end.

No matter what, I am confident Smart will continue to improve. His drives today were very encouraging and he is already the leader of our team.

[shrinkage36]

I don't see the weight thing at all, he has a huge frame, which holds a lot of weight effortlessly.

[GetLucky]

This is like saying Evan Turner needs to skim off 3 inches because his dribble is too high or that Kelly Olynyk needs to cut his hair.

[Beat LA]

I think he needs to work on his handle in the offseason.  He may never be super quick, but I think with improved confidence and deceptiveness with his dribble drives he will be able to drive to basket more successfully than he does now.

Yeah, and Paul Pierce might be the best possible example of this.

Pierce was never an incredibly quick or athletic guy, but he was able to use his size/strength, handle, footwork and ball fakes to get to his spots as well as pretty much anybody in the league. 

Even though Pierce didn't have the outright agility or fancy dribbling moves, Pierce was very effective as a point forward late in his career because he had a safe handle, good BBIQ, good court vision, and the size to see over the defense.

I think once Smart learns how to use his strength, footwork and ball fakes to create space then I think he'll be able to be very effective on offense.  I can see him becoming a PG equivalent of Paul Pierce, albeit being more of a defensive guy who can hold his own on offense (while Pierce was an offensive guy who could hold his own on defense). 

Also as others have said, Smart may not be the most ripped guy out there (I'd guess he's probably around 10% body fat) but he's definitely not fat or chubby the way big Baby and Sully are.  He's got a LOT of muscle on that frame.

I never felt that Pierce was that great of a ball handler, but his footwork is outstanding and he did have a great first step.  Joe Dumars and Joe Johnson are better examples, imo.  Neither one is/was a great athlete, and even though Dumars was pretty quick, what made him so deadly, aside from his jump shot, was his lethal ballhandling, especially his right to left crossover between the legs that enabled him to get by anyone, and Joe Johnson has always reminded me of Dumars in that regard, even though JJ has a better post game.  Those are two guys I'd study if I were Smart. 

[crimson_stallion]

I don't mean a great ball handler in terms of pure dribbling skills (i.e. fancy dribble moves), more so in terms of his ability to hold on to his dribble.

Even though Pierce didn't have many dribble moves, he seemed very comfortable bringing he ball up the court under pressure, and he did a decent job of not turning the ball over considering (a) how often he handled the ball and (b) how much pressure/attention the defense constantly threw at him. 

He just seemed to be good at using his body to protect the ball, and seemed to have good enough coordination to not dribble off his foot (Evan Turner style) every time he got put under pressure.

I could see Smart being similarly effective - no fancy crossovers or dribble moves, but he just doesn't seem to get forced in to silly turnovers very often.  He seems to do a good job of holding on to the ball just by protecting it with his body and making the simple play.

[colincb]

Smart finished 2nd among rookies to 5 year Euro-pro Mirotic in net real +/- while learning the most difficult position to play in the NBA. 48th in the NBA overall (Mirotic was 44th) and he's only going to get better.

http://espn.go.com/nba/statistics/rpm/_/page/2/sort/RPM

[Iggzilla]

I don't mean a great ball handler in terms of pure dribbling skills (i.e. fancy dribble moves), more so in terms of his ability to hold on to his dribble.

I agree, I don't think Smart will ever have the dribbling skills of Kyrie or CP3, but I think he can be a Westbrook, the type that just charges down the lane and uses that strong body of his to bully his way to the paint (which he used to do a lot in college, although I admit he doesn't seem to have the speed for this). I think Smart has the body for it, and he just needs to develop that aggressive mindset. We'll see a few years down the line.

That said, I don't think Smart needs to lose weight, not when his bulk is probably his best advantage for his position. Why slim down? His football build is what makes him unique for a guard, as it allows him to defend three positions, (valuable in Stevens' system) and could help him absorb contact when his driving game finally develops. Asking him to lose weight would be like asking Moses Malone to get liposuction for his big ass, which would prevent him from doing his Ass Attack to box out other centers/forwards for rebounds.

[clover]

Smart finished 2nd among rookies to 5 year Euro-pro Mirotic in net real +/- while learning the most difficult position to play in the NBA. 48th in the NBA overall (Mirotic was 44th) and he's only going to get better.

http://espn.go.com/nba/statistics/rpm/_/page/2/sort/RPM

And there is KO at #36 in the league.

[rollie mass]

smart -has said he is going to play in two summer leagues,the guys work ethic mixed with boston coaching and trainers make for one heck of a future-the energy and iq he shows defensively will eventually show up on offense-
---last nites x factor goes to refs and bad bounces or deep rebounds fo cavs after good defense foced poor shots--this was a case of playoff defense by cav's taking celts out of rythm,handoffs by bigs contested,not like regular season-
ko looked very good early on-his abilty to dribble for a big and hit the three for one spurt he was as good as it gets-
sully has to adapt to bigs getting position leading to offensive fouls
brad with a series gets to show his coaching skills now
cleveland d took avery out of game ,isiah scored his points but gritty,
both lebron and irving got banged up,they might decide to watch out for injuries and play cautious
celts came back and made a run,even though some players had tough games