Bench Smart / Marcus Calls Out The Jays

[liam]

There is a lot of focus on what Marcus is doing (or not doing) on offense.

He just isn't cutting it on defense either. His defense was awful against the Bulls. I'll be watching carefully tonight, but I just haven't seen him play well on that end in any sustained way this year.

He gambles too much hunting highlight plays. Our D is so bad this year.

[boscel33]

Interesting factoid:  "Since Jayson Tatum entered the NBA in 2017-18, the Jays have more playoff wins than 28 out of 30 NBA teams. Only the Bucks and Warriors have more."

[rocknrollforyoursoul]

Interesting factoid:  "Since Jayson Tatum entered the NBA in 2017-18, the Jays have more playoff wins than 28 out of 30 NBA teams. Only the Bucks and Warriors have more."

Definitely interesting, and a good thing. Too bad none of those wins are from the NBA Finals.

[Moranis]

Interesting factoid:  "Since Jayson Tatum entered the NBA in 2017-18, the Jays have more playoff wins than 28 out of 30 NBA teams. Only the Bucks and Warriors have more."

Definitely interesting, and a good thing. Too bad none of those wins are from the NBA Finals.

Jaylen has 25 and Jayson has 27.  Toronto has 27 so that tweet is misleading if not flat out wrong.

[goCeltics]

Never understood Brad's love affair with him I would start Pritchard, not losing that Cleveland game and ending up with Smart instead of Gordan set the franchise back, in hindsight they should of taken Randle

[gouki88]

Interesting factoid:  "Since Jayson Tatum entered the NBA in 2017-18, the Jays have more playoff wins than 28 out of 30 NBA teams. Only the Bucks and Warriors have more."

Definitely interesting, and a good thing. Too bad none of those wins are from the NBA Finals.

Jaylen has 25 and Jayson has 27.  Toronto has 27 so that tweet is misleading if not flat out wrong.

Collectively, I assume.

[Celtics2021]

Interesting factoid:  "Since Jayson Tatum entered the NBA in 2017-18, the Jays have more playoff wins than 28 out of 30 NBA teams. Only the Bucks and Warriors have more."

Definitely interesting, and a good thing. Too bad none of those wins are from the NBA Finals.

Jaylen has 25 and Jayson has 27.  Toronto has 27 so that tweet is misleading if not flat out wrong.

Collectively, I assume.

If Toronto also has 27, it was likely just a math mistake.  Only two teams having more wins doesn’t mean they have more wins than the other 28.  They (the Celtics, and not technically the Js because Jaylen pulled a hamstring in 2018 playoffs, missing the beginning of the Philly series) are tied with Toronto and themselves.  They should have just said only two teams have more, and that would have been correct, but they likely forgot about ties and said 30-2 is 28.

[Celtics4ever]

Never understood Brad's love affair with him I would start Pritchard, not losing that Cleveland game and ending up with Smart instead of Gordan set the franchise back, in hindsight they should of taken Randle

I would bet money Pritchard would get eaten alive as a starter.....

[Celtics2021]

Never understood Brad's love affair with him I would start Pritchard, not losing that Cleveland game and ending up with Smart instead of Gordan set the franchise back, in hindsight they should of taken Randle

I would bet money Pritchard would get eaten alive as a starter.....

As would I.

[goCeltics]

Never understood Brad's love affair with him I would start Pritchard, not losing that Cleveland game and ending up with Smart instead of Gordan set the franchise back, in hindsight they should of taken Randle

I would bet money Pritchard would get eaten alive as a starter.....

As would I.

Can not be that much worse than than now, they have mr defense, and they are the worse defensive team in the league

[gouki88]

Never understood Brad's love affair with him I would start Pritchard, not losing that Cleveland game and ending up with Smart instead of Gordan set the franchise back, in hindsight they should of taken Randle

I would bet money Pritchard would get eaten alive as a starter.....

As opposed to Smart, who singlehandedly shoots us out of games and plays erratic, inconsistent and generally poor defence.

[Muzzy66]

Never understood Brad's love affair with him I would start Pritchard, not losing that Cleveland game and ending up with Smart instead of Gordan set the franchise back, in hindsight they should of taken Randle

I would bet money Pritchard would get eaten alive as a starter.....

I remember some years back during our rebuild, when we had guys like Keeyon Dooling, Marquese Daniels and Mikael Pietrus starting, with Avery Bradley as our "#1 guy". 

That team was outmatched on talent almost every time they stepped on the court, but you know what?  I was kinda OK with it because no matter what I knew that every single night every one of those guys would go out there on the court and they would leave absolutely everything they had on the floor.  And even though they would be outmatched on talent, they won games simply by playing as a team and just out-hustling every team they came up against, and I respected the crap out of that.

We might have glorious young talents like Brown and Tatum, but there hasn't been a single game ive seen this year (and not many last year) where I watched this team play and felt even the slightest semblance of pride that I felt when I watched those old teams full of scrubs go out there and compete every night.

So at this point I honestly don't care if Pritchard gets outplayed every night, and if every opponent scores 30 on him.  If he goes out there and plays with maximum effort then I'll take it. 

I'm sick and tired of watching these prissy, entitled Gen Z prima-donnas go out there acting like merely being present and putting on their jersey is enough to justify their multi million dollar paychecks...like hard work, sacrifice and dedication are merely 'inconveniences'.

[liam]

Never understood Brad's love affair with him I would start Pritchard, not losing that Cleveland game and ending up with Smart instead of Gordan set the franchise back, in hindsight they should of taken Randle

I would bet money Pritchard would get eaten alive as a starter.....

I remember some years back during our rebuild, when we had guys like Keeyon Dooling, Marquese Daniels and Mikael Pietrus starting, with Avery Bradley as our "#1 guy". 

That team was outmatched on talent almost every time they stepped on the court, but you know what?  I was kinda OK with it because no matter what I knew that every single night every one of those guys would go out there on the court and they would leave absolutely everything they had on the floor.  And even though they would be outmatched on talent, they won games simply by playing as a team and just out-hustling every team they came up against, and I respected the crap out of that.

We might have glorious young talents like Brown and Tatum, but there hasn't been a single game ive seen this year (and not many last year) where I watched this team play and felt even the slightest semblance of pride that I felt when I watched those old teams full of scrubs go out there and compete every night.

So at this point I honestly don't care if Pritchard gets outplayed every night, and if every opponent scores 30 on him.  If he goes out there and plays with maximum effort then I'll take it. 

I'm sick and tired of watching these prissy, entitled Gen Z prima-donnas go out there acting like merely being present and putting on their jersey is enough to justify their multi million dollar paychecks...like hard work, sacrifice and dedication are merely 'inconveniences'.

Agreed!

[Muzzy66]

The Celtics are 20 points per 100 possessions better when Smart is on the court compared to off it.
https://www.nba.com/stats/vs/advanced/#!?TeamID=1610612738&VsPlayerID=203935

The Celtics are 9 points better when Tatum is on the court than off (and are a net negative in either case).
https://www.nba.com/stats/vs/advanced/#!?TeamID=1610612738&VsPlayerID=1628369

The Celtics are 6 points better with Schroder on the court (but again, are a net negative).
https://www.nba.com/stats/vs/advanced/#!?TeamID=1610612738&VsPlayerID=203471

Smart isn't the problem.  He does make winning plays.  He doesn't make many winning shots.  I'd argue Tatum's play has been more of the problem, and I don't get the Schroder love, but whatever.  But the real problem is this guy:
https://www.nba.com/stats/vs/advanced/#!?TeamID=1610612738&VsPlayerID=1626196


I liked the move over the summer, but it is not working out with him yet.

EDITED due to bad links.

How dare you bring facts into this. Don’t you know Smart shouldn’t call out what everyone knows that Tatum and Brown are ball hogs. Selfish ball hogs. Everyone says it. I am glad Smart finally put these two selfish ball hogs on blast.

Yeah, What's Smart doing? ZERO assists. ZERO!

Zero assists doesn't mean he didn't pass, you know.

It means not one of his passes resulted in a bucket, though.   Every player that played more than two minutes had an assist other than our starting point guard.

Smart's passing ability is drastically overrated by Celtics fans, and has been for years.  He is neither the most willing passer nor the most competent.  Last I checked his turnover rates on bad passes were not great, his assist rate has never been great, and his assist:TO rate has been pretty poor his entire career. 

Smart really is not a natural PG and never has been.  The only reason I prefer him at the PG spot is because his mediocre ball handling and play-making abilities are slightly less of a liability to the team then his downright horrendous shooting ability and atrocious shot selection...and he seems to shoot more when he's playing toff the ball.

The only way Smart can ever truly add value to a team is if he plays off the ball, dedicates all of his energy into hustle and defence, and commits to NEVER taking a shot unless he is absolutely wide open.  If he can't do that then he's a liability to the team and should have been axed years ago.

[nickagneta]

Never understood Brad's love affair with him I would start Pritchard, not losing that Cleveland game and ending up with Smart instead of Gordan set the franchise back, in hindsight they should of taken Randle

I would bet money Pritchard would get eaten alive as a starter.....

I remember some years back during our rebuild, when we had guys like Keeyon Dooling, Marquese Daniels and Mikael Pietrus starting, with Avery Bradley as our "#1 guy". 

That team was outmatched on talent almost every time they stepped on the court, but you know what?  I was kinda OK with it because no matter what I knew that every single night every one of those guys would go out there on the court and they would leave absolutely everything they had on the floor.  And even though they would be outmatched on talent, they won games simply by playing as a team and just out-hustling every team they came up against, and I respected the crap out of that.

We might have glorious young talents like Brown and Tatum, but there hasn't been a single game ive seen this year (and not many last year) where I watched this team play and felt even the slightest semblance of pride that I felt when I watched those old teams full of scrubs go out there and compete every night.

So at this point I honestly don't care if Pritchard gets outplayed every night, and if every opponent scores 30 on him.  If he goes out there and plays with maximum effort then I'll take it. 

I'm sick and tired of watching these prissy, entitled Gen Z prima-donnas go out there acting like merely being present and putting on their jersey is enough to justify their multi million dollar paychecks...like hard work, sacrifice and dedication are merely 'inconveniences'.

Maybe it's time to find another team to cheer on then if you feel such disdain and disgust not only about our players but what you think they are as people too.

I don't know. I like Brown, Tatum, Horford, Timelord, Pritchard, Nesmith and Schroder. I sure as heck like them better as players than Bradley, Daniels, Pietrus and Dooling, that's for sure. I think they will turn things around and be a helluva team. And since I know none of them, I'm not going to make judgments of them as people.