Bench Smart / Marcus Calls Out The Jays

[Roy H.]

Agreed with Nick.  A crappy role player doesn’t get to disrupt chemistry / upset other players to get his own game going.  And, it’s not even like Smart played exceptionally.  Rather, we got good defense and bad offense, which used to be an average game for him.  (These days, the norm is below average to bad defense, and bad to terrible offense).

[Ogaju]

Maybe Horford had more to do with the team coming together than a guy that called out his teammates publicly.

A. Sherrod Blakely: Following the #Bulls loss on Monday, Celtics Rob Williams said Al Horford sat the whole team down, telling them to “embrace the loss and keep pushing.” Boston hasn’t lost a game since. – via Twitter ASherrodblakely

This really makes no sense. Just reveals your anti-Smart agenda. ‘Embrace the loss’? Really? Doesn’t look like the Cs ‘embraced’ the loss.

[Roy H.]

Enough with accusing people of having an agenda.

[nickagneta]

Maybe Horford had more to do with the team coming together than a guy that called out his teammates publicly.

A. Sherrod Blakely: Following the #Bulls loss on Monday, Celtics Rob Williams said Al Horford sat the whole team down, telling them to “embrace the loss and keep pushing.” Boston hasn’t lost a game since. – via Twitter ASherrodblakely

This really makes no sense. Just reveals your anti-Smart agenda. ‘Embrace the loss’? Really? Doesn’t look like the Cs ‘embraced’ the loss.

I don't have an anti-Smart agenda. In another thread I even mentioned liking Smart for some years before his game started going downhill after his first 1st team All-Defense honor. His game has gone downhill since then.

And since then he exploded on coaches and players after a playoff loss because the coaches and teammates questioned his poor shot selection. He wanted to fight people. He also missed a team flight. And now went public about the team's best players not passing to him.

My distaste for Smart is due to all this. If he starts playing 1st team All-Defense defense again and starts shooting better and stop disrupting team chemistry through immature actions, I will gladly once again like his game and be glad he is a Celtic.

[nickagneta]

Enough with accusing people of having an agenda.

Sorry Roy. I defended myself before seeing your warning. Delete the post if it's an issue

[Ogaju]

Maybe Horford had more to do with the team coming together than a guy that called out his teammates publicly.

A. Sherrod Blakely: Following the #Bulls loss on Monday, Celtics Rob Williams said Al Horford sat the whole team down, telling them to “embrace the loss and keep pushing.” Boston hasn’t lost a game since. – via Twitter ASherrodblakely

This really makes no sense. Just reveals your anti-Smart agenda. ‘Embrace the loss’? Really? Doesn’t look like the Cs ‘embraced’ the loss.

I don't have an anti-Smart agenda. In another thread I even mentioned liking Smart for some years before his game started going downhill after his first 1st team All-Defense honor. His game has gone downhill since then.

And since then he exploded on coaches and players after a playoff loss because the coaches and teammates questioned his poor shot selection. He wanted to fight people. He also missed a team flight. And now went public about the team's best players not passing to him.

My distaste for Smart is due to all this. If he starts playing 1st team All-Defense defense again and starts shooting better and stop disrupting team chemistry through immature actions, I will gladly once again like his game and be glad he is a Celtic.

I appreciate your response.

Go Celtics!!

[liam]

Proof is in the pudding.

Smart calls out the Jays for not passing. The Jays then average a combined 5 assists per game for the next two games.

The Jays were averaging a combined 6.2 assists per game before Smart's call out this year.

Last year the Jays averaged a combined 7.7 assists per game.

Where is this pudding with the proof exactly? Where exactly did Smart's comments help?

What Smart said wasn't helpful. What was helpful was the entire team deciding to play defense in unison. That's why they won those last two games.

Yeah..they just decided to play better after one player spoke up and called out the ball hogs damaging the team.

Yes. The team won in spite of what Smart said not because of what he said because the part of the game and team Smart called out, didn't get better, it got worse. What Smart didn't mention was the defense and that's the part of the game that the team improved on to win those two games

Your analysis is too narrow. The team was playing terribly. You were one of the ‘nothing to see here’ crowd preaching patience when the team was underperforming. Anyone that has played any team sport knows ball hogs depress team productivity. Those two Jays are terrible ball hogs that just don’t care to move the ball. Their act had worn thin, and it obviously affected Smart because he called them out. There is no saying who else it affected on the team. The statement led to a player’s only meeting and the team comes out of that more engaged and focused, and you guys don’t think there is a cause and effect just because you don’t like Smart. I don’t know what happened in the meeting but we see what happened after it, and we know what led to the meeting.

Smart said what needed to be said, he called out the ball hogs. When you call out ball hogs your in effect reminding them this is a team sport. When you get that into everybody’s head and they come out playing as a team both defensively and offensively you must credit the guy who had the guts to speak up. We know y’all would have dumped on him if the energy of the team had gone south after he spoke up. Hey the result has been great and you are still dumping on him.

Maybe he should call himself out for terrible shooting.  Or Jaylen should call him out.  Inevitably, that will lead to positive results, correct?

No Roy. You got that wrong. Jaylen needs to call out Smart's dribbling and that will make Smart and the whole team shoot better after, of course, Smart and Udoka says Brown calling out Smart's dribbling isn't productive.

Udoka…yeah. You supported him as experienced enough. Do you care to review your comments about him in the game thread after your lavish praising of his credentials. Fact is both you and Roy are arguing against the evidence.

Want to move the goalposts much because your argument makes no sense? Want me to address Udoka, make an Udoka thread for me to respond in.

Let's concentrate on your comments about the supposed soft, ball hogs. Smart called out their passing. Udoka and Jaylen said it wasn't helpful. A team meeting happened. After the meeting the team defense plays tremendously over the next two games resulting in wins. Meanwhile, the soft ball hogs actually had their assists decrease by 20%.

Where is the evidence that Smart calling out passing made the team play better defense, which is why the team won the last two games?

Marcus' play improved a lot once he called others out. Maybe that's what he has to do to get going.

Maybe Smart should call himself out more. Or just play better and keep his mouth shut.

He should seriously be looking into a mirror regarding how his game has gotten much worse over the last two and a half seasons and try to do all he can to get better rather than calling out the guys that have led this team to four consecutive playoffs and two ECFs.

Agreed but if that's what he needs to do to up his own game then so be it. Smart played his ass off against Miami. Marcus needs to stop with his attempts at fancy passing. He made a number of really dumb hotdog passes and was lucky to only have 3 turnovers.

Not sure I agree with the bolded. He shouldn't have to call his teammates out publicly in order for him to get his game together. If that's what it takes to get him going, he needs to be traded because that isn't good for team dynamics, especially if you aren't a top 3 player on your team

He shouldn't have to but he played his ass off after that.

[gouki88]

2-0 since Smart put a little pressure on everyone.

Too bad master motivator Smart hasn’t improved his own play those two games.

5-for-14 FG, 3-for-11 3PT, 3.0 assists, 2.0 turnovers, 8.5 points, one technical from the bench

Doesn’t matter….he said what needed to be said.

We're paying him to play, not to do what the coach should be doing. And he's been bad at playing for a long time now

[gouki88]

Maybe Horford had more to do with the team coming together than a guy that called out his teammates publicly.

A. Sherrod Blakely: Following the #Bulls loss on Monday, Celtics Rob Williams said Al Horford sat the whole team down, telling them to “embrace the loss and keep pushing.” Boston hasn’t lost a game since. – via Twitter ASherrodblakely

This really makes no sense. Just reveals your anti-Smart agenda. ‘Embrace the loss’? Really? Doesn’t look like the Cs ‘embraced’ the loss.

"Anyone who disagrees with me has an agenda"

[ozgod]

I thought maybe in the spirit of public fingerpointing, Tatum might have thrown Smartacus under the bus for his impulse foul which gave the Mavs the last shot, as well as his ill-advised chucking up the ball to try and draw a foul on the last Cs possession, but fortunately for the team Tatum took the high road and said "I have to be better".

[gouki88]

I thought maybe in the spirit of public fingerpointing, Tatum might have thrown Smartacus under the bus for his impulse foul which gave the Mavs the last shot, as well as his ill-advised chucking up the ball to try and draw a foul on the last Cs possession, but fortunately for the team Tatum took the high road and said "I have to be better".

It’s almost as if Tatum is a mature guy who has led the team for years, as opposed to a crappy overpaid role player with a deluded ego

[LilRip]

2-0 since Smart put a little pressure on everyone.

Too bad master motivator Smart hasn’t improved his own play those two games.

5-for-14 FG, 3-for-11 3PT, 3.0 assists, 2.0 turnovers, 8.5 points, one technical from the bench

Doesn’t matter….he said what needed to be said.

I would be surprised if this was true (although Woj’s report kinda contradicts it with the whole “it wasn’t productive” sentiment). Unfortunately, no way to factually prove or disprove these fan theories of Smart rah-rahing the team to 2 straight wins.

The results on the court contradict Woj. The proof of the pudding is in the eating. Woj was hasty in his assessment. Smart’s statement led to a player’s only meeting…something I have been suggesting for a long time. That alone was a positive development. Woj is the only one that knows what he means by it wasn’t productive, but what remains true is that the team played with more focus and energy in the next two games and blew out a good Miami team on the back end of a back to back. The result on the court is what matters not the nature of the tenor of the meeting itself. So far the result has been good.

Nope, this is you pushing a narrative that sounds nice based on incomplete info instead of anything based on fact. We as fans complain about media sensationalizing everything and well, this is a perfect example of fans doing it as well.

If anything, it seems like Horford being a leader behind the scenes had more to do with the team rallying and playing better. Of course, it could also be the team not shooting 0-for-XX

[LilRip]

On the thread title though… that was a really bad shot by Marcus to try and draw the foul, and a really bad foul to give the Mavs the last shot. Granted, it looked like he got fouled but the refs have:
a) allowed more contact this year
b) allowed more contact during closing moments of games
c) given benefit of doubt mainly to star players, but less likely role players (Smart is the latter) in those clutch situations

I really wish the C’s found a way to get the ball back to Tatum somehow so he could attack/create before the double came. Then again, I wish Smart didn’t give up the “foul to give” and let one of the best closers in the game try to end the game at the buzzer. Even if Luka made it, there was about a 4 second differential.

[Jvalin]

It bothers my that Smart has been made a scapegoat for everything that has been going wrong lately. We were doing the same thing last season with Kemba. It seems like we always need to create a scapegoat.

Pretty much all our players underperform. I would argue this is a strong indication that we are a poorly coached team. The two notable exceptions are Brown and Horford. G-Will had a terrific start to the season, but he ain't even playing that much lately. I mean, he averages 8.5 minutes per game in November. He played only 5 minutes last night. Even Tatum is underperforming and he's transforming into an iso chucker (to his credit, he was great last night).

Brad knew how to put his players in a position to succeed. Hate to say it, but I can't say the same thing about Ime. I've elaborated on this in other threads. Long story short, we run a switch-heavy defensive scheme with 2 drop bigs in our starting lineup. This is madness! We also abandoned our PnR-heavy offense in favour of an iso-heavy style. Feel free to check the numbers yourself. Last season, Tatum was scoring 27.8% of his points via PnR and 18.6 via isolation. The respective numbers for this season are 17.7% via PnR and 23.3% via isolation (ranks 4th in the NBA in iso frequency). Kemba was scoring 47.2% of his points via PnR and 5.5% via isolation last season. Schroder is scoring 31.9% of his points via PnR and 16.6% via isolation this season. We don't know how to use Timelord either. He's a terrific roller, but we don't run the PnR as much as we used to. Our offense is stagnant and ugly to watch. But sure, let's blame Smart. It's easy to blame the guy who just got paid and doesn't fill up the box score.

[td450]

It bothers my that Smart has been made a scapegoat for everything that has been going wrong lately. We were doing the same thing last season with Kemba. It seems like we always need to create a scapegoat.

Pretty much all our players underperform. I would argue this is a strong indication that we are a poorly coached team. The two notable exceptions are Brown and Horford. G-Will had a terrific start to the season, but he ain't even playing that much lately. I mean, he averages 8.5 minutes per game in November. He played only 5 minutes last night. Even Tatum is underperforming and he's transforming into an iso chucker (to his credit, he was great last night).

Brad knew how to put his players in a position to succeed. Hate to say it, but I can't say the same thing about Ime. I've elaborated on this in other threads. Long story short, we run a switch-heavy defensive scheme with 2 drop bigs in our starting lineup. This is madness! We also abandoned our PnR-heavy offense in favour of an iso-heavy style. Feel free to check the numbers yourself. Last season, Tatum was scoring 27.8% of his points via PnR and 18.6 via isolation. The respective numbers for this season are 17.7% via PnR and 23.3% via isolation (ranks 4th in the NBA in iso frequency). Kemba was scoring 47.2% of his points via PnR and 5.5% via isolation last season. Schroder is scoring 31.9% of his points via PnR and 16.6% via isolation this season. We don't know how to use Timelord either. He's a terrific roller, but we don't run the PnR as much as we used to. Our offense is stagnant and ugly to watch. But sure, let's blame Smart. It's easy to blame the guy who just got paid and doesn't fill up the box score.

This is a fan blog.

The team's 3 most important players are A) Tatum, B) Brown and C) Smart.

The team has played badly. You would agree, right?

Most of the comments here have criticized Tatum and Smart. They have both played quite badly. You would agree, right? Their stats would be an absolute disaster if they continued over the long haul.

There are also a substantial number of comments about the coaching.

Sounds to me like this blog is registering just about the correct collective dissatisfaction.