Smart wins DPOY award.

[colincb]

An example of what one is missing without a subscription to The Athletic:

Celtics’ Marcus Smart earns NBA Defensive Player of the Year honor: ‘Guards can get even more recognition’

By Jared Weiss 29m ago


With the entire Celtics organization gathered at the practice facility Monday, Marcus Smart walked out to the floor to see a Celtics alumnus ready to greet him. Gary Payton was waiting with a surprising prop to make a presentation, a printout of Smart tweeting The Athletic contributor Seth Partnow pontificating on the NBA Defensive Player of the Year award, one Smart has been actively eying.

As Smart has gone from the little guard engine who could to the central brain of the league’s best defensive hivemind, Payton has spoken about how much he appreciates Smart.

“You’re a guy that I think reminds me of myself,” Payton told Smart. “Everybody asks me about it all the time and it be you. You play the D the way you’re supposed to. You play it with a chip on your shoulder and with heart.”

Then he told Smart there was an error, that Smart’s Rule 47.1A had been amended.

“No guards without the initials GP or MS are allowed to win DPOY.”

Smart is the first guard to win the award since Payton 26 years ago, the first Celtics player to take it home since Kevin Garnett led the franchise to banner No. 17 in 2008. He joins Sidney Moncrief, Alvin Robertson, and Payton as the only players under 6-foot-6 to win the award since its inception in 1982.

It’s a historic moment for a game that has turned itself inside-out since those days. Since Michael Jordan won it in 1988, only Ron Artest, Kawhi Leonard and Payton could be considered non-bigs to have won the award, depending on how you want to categorize Giannis Antetokounmpo.

But Smart exudes that same defensive transcendence that makes him more than a guard, more than a certain role.

“I think I should be in the running for Defensive Player of the Year ’cause who is more unique to guard all five positions than me?” Smart told The Athletic in 2020. “The last guard to get it was Gary Payton. That’s without him guarding centers. I’m guarding guards and centers. So I think that’s a no-brainer. Stretch six, there you go.”

At that time, he touted his versatility as the ultimate virtue in a league that was emphasizing it. He and Rudy Gobert debated who had more impact in the pick-and-roll chain: the perimeter defender at the point of attack setting the tone for the play or the center who finished it off? Gobert argued he had to finish off every play, no matter who was coming his way. Smart argued he would have to take on the best player his team faced every night. Gobert won out in the end, as Smart’s sixth-place finish in the 2020 voting was still one of the highest results for a small guard in some time.

Then a new coach came in and decided to rebuild the system around Smart. Switch everything. Let Smart start on the team’s best guard, but end up covering every player, every play.

“That stretch-six, I mean that wholeheartedly,” Smart said Monday. “Just things that I’m able to do allows Ime (Udoka) and his coaching staff to come up with different schemes to keep guys (on) their toes and when you got a scheme and somebody that can run the schemes the way that you want them to run and not worrying about being a liability on that end, it makes a lot of things easier for a lot of people and that’s what it is.”

The Udoka switching scheme allows Smart to be more like a center, coordinating the defense from the center rather than up top. Because he no longer chases the ball or helps off the wing as he sticks to one man, he keeps himself in the middle of the play at all times. It allows him to use perhaps his greatest skill to make the Celtics defense finally reach the heights it has aspired to for years.

“My IQ is extraordinary, especially on that end,” Smart said. “I’m able to see things that most people aren’t able to see on that end, see things coming. My instincts go into that as well and I have really great instincts on that end. So for me to be able to communicate to guys, it makes their job a lot easier. They don’t have to think too much. They can just do it and react and trust that I’m actually telling them the right things to do.”

It was apparent this would come together early in the season. The Celtics were fighting through constant blown switches and confusion on closeouts when they left on a road trip to Florida a few weeks into the season. Before they faced Orlando, they had a team meeting trying to get on the same page for the first — and certainly not last — time. They held the Magic and Heat to 79 and 78 points, respectively. That was 50 fewer points than they had surrendered to Chicago to start the week.

There was a moment early in the Orlando game when their scheme wasn’t working and Smart walked over to Udoka during some first-quarter free throws. He told Udoka they had to stop switching on Cole Anthony’s pick-and-rolls and Udoka listened. Smart locked up Anthony the rest of the night, and the Magic scored just 65 points over the next 45 minutes as the Celtics crushed them. From that point on, the team started making the reads on whether to switch instead of just doing it blindly, and the defense transformed.

Even before Udoka tweaked the scheme to move Rob Williams into his backline role, the team climbed into the top five in defensive rating after that night in Orlando. The scheme became more complex and unpredictable on a nightly basis, with Smart popping up in different spots every game to wreak havoc. It had become clear that he wasn’t just the heart and soul of the defense, but he was its inspiration.

“I’m one of the guys to lead that charge, so it’s definitely a great feeling,” Smart said. “Something different has hit in the way the game is being played, how it’s shifting, how guard-based and perimeter-based it is. From that standpoint, guards can get even more recognition.”

When the Celtics catapulted to the top defensive rating in the league during their remarkable second-half turnaround, the national discussion started to turn Smart and Williams’ way. To the outside, it looked like the classic guard-center dichotomy: Smart sets them up so Williams could knock them away. But things changed when Williams was asked why he thought he should win DPOY himself.

“I think Smart deserves it, to be honest,” Williams said last month. “A lot of my defensive grit and my will to fight out there, I get from just watching him. Even in practice, him being vocal, him on the court. He’s a great defensive anchor for us, but he’s a better leader and he doesn’t even know it. He’s always talking, putting guys where they need to be. I feel like Smart should be the No. 1 runner for that.”

The recognition from the outside world wasn’t always there. He was a great defender early in his career, but was still a sixth man and couldn’t quite get in the conversation. The 2019-2020 season saw him finally breakthrough, but the defense was a letdown last season and his offensive shortcomings and instability always overshadowed his reputation. Yet, he continued to evolve and become more than a maniacal hustler who became revered in Boston for his unforgettable plays more than his body of work.

“I found something that works for me, that I’m really good at and I’ve tried to master to the best I can,” Smart said. “To be able to win this award, I’m ecstatic, it means a lot. It shows that the hard work I’ve been putting in has finally paid off and the recognition has finally come.”

All the factors — from individual performance, team success and national narrative — came together for him this season. But he feels he never would’ve made it this far without the fight to win hearts and minds along the way.

“I’ve always said that without those naysayers, doubters or what we like to call haters, I wouldn’t be able to go out there and do what I do,” Smart said. “It inspires me to continue to strive to be the greatest I can be at what I do. What I have to say to them is thank you, keep it up.”

[colincb]

Awesome and well deserved!

How many PG’s have ever won this award? I wonder….

Smart is the 2nd ever. Gary Payton the first.

Alvin Robertson and Sidney Moncrief are similar sizes to Smart.

All 4 are the only players below 6'6 to win DPOY.

[Jvalin]

Had we not extended his contract last year, he would have been eligible for the super max in the off season. That extension is looking good right now. Seems like we got him for a reasonable price after all. Congrats to Marcus! He's officially one of the best guard defenders in NBA history!

Question for old school fans: Never saw Dennis Johnson in action. Smart vs DJ: Who was a better defender?

I distinctly remember Smart being scapegoated early in the season. The majority of this board wanted him gone. Speaks volumes of how impatient we (the fans) can be, if not straight up ignorant.

[Kiorrik]

Had we not extended his contract last year, he would have been eligible for the super max in the off season. That extension is looking good right now. Seems like we got him for a reasonable price after all. Congrats to Marcus! He's officially one of the best guard defenders in NBA history!

Question for old school fans: Never saw Dennis Johnson in action. Smart vs DJ: Who was a better defender?

Smart had been made a scapegoat early in the season. The majority of this board wanted him gone. Speaks volumes of how impatient we (the fans) can be, if not straight up ignorant.

Indeed. See signature.

[ozgod]

Well deserved!

[MarcusSmartFanClub]

I think back to draft night and the choice between Julius Randle and Marcus Smart. Phew! Great pick Danny.

[Vermont Green]

Had we not extended his contract last year, he would have been eligible for the super max in the off season. That extension is looking good right now. Seems like we got him for a reasonable price after all. Congrats to Marcus! He's officially one of the best guard defenders in NBA history!

Question for old school fans: Never saw Dennis Johnson in action. Smart vs DJ: Who was a better defender?

I distinctly remember Smart being scapegoated early in the season. The majority of this board wanted him gone. Speaks volumes of how impatient we (the fans) can be, if not straight up ignorant.

Smart is better.  DJ had the smarts, the poise, the all-court awareness that all good defenders have but Smart has a little something extra in my opinion.  I would say that Gary Payton and Dennis Johnson were more similar to each other than either is to Marcus.  I can't describe it specifically what it is that Marcus has but we all see it on the court.  It stems from his willingness to simply do whatever it takes, which sounds trite, but somehow is real.  He has a natural killer instinct or a hunter's mentality that allows him to be thinking 3 steps ahead, not just one step.  That part, that inherent intensity, to totally consume himself in his defensive effort (both physical and mental) is similar to KG.

I love Marcus.  I believed in him as our PG.  He means more to the team, both in terms of tangibles and intangibles, than can ever be measured.  He will probably never be an all star, understandably, but he is just one of those guys.  You have to watch him play and really pay attention to appreciate what he does for a team.

[td450]

Had we not extended his contract last year, he would have been eligible for the super max in the off season. That extension is looking good right now. Seems like we got him for a reasonable price after all. Congrats to Marcus! He's officially one of the best guard defenders in NBA history!

Question for old school fans: Never saw Dennis Johnson in action. Smart vs DJ: Who was a better defender?

I distinctly remember Smart being scapegoated early in the season. The majority of this board wanted him gone. Speaks volumes of how impatient we (the fans) can be, if not straight up ignorant.

I can speak up as someone who got Marcus Smart wrong.

Smart is 28 years old, and had played his entire career with the same stubborn habits. I can't praise him enough for finding the will to change this late in his career, but that sort of newly found discipline for a player that age is very, very rare. He has never had a sustained run like this where he shows consistent discipline. I'd guess Udoka deserves a lot of credit too. Impatience is not a reasonable claim.

DJ was better on the ball than Marcus, but overall, especially this year, Marcus has been more impactful on defense.

[rocknrollforyoursoul]

Congratulations, Marcus! Well-deserved.

[SDceltGuy]

Smart is 28 years old, and had played his entire career with the same stubborn habits. I can't praise him enough for finding the will to change this late in his career, but that sort of newly found discipline for a player that age is very, very rare. He has never had a sustained run like this where he shows consistent discipline. I'd guess Udoka deserves a lot of credit too.

This is also the first year that he was put in this role offensively and he finally has teammates he can trust and everyone fits neatly together.

[cltc5]

Congrats to Marcus smart.  He exemplified that team basketball is more than just putting buckets in.

[makaveli]

I've been rooting for this to happen since day one.

no one deserved it more than him, he has been the best all around lock down defender for years

now let's get the big trophy!!!!

[Surferdad]

Props to Marcus, well-deserved.

Celtics had 3 of the top-10 vote getters with Robert Williams III and Horford the other two.  Wonder how often that happens (guessing not very often).

[celticsclay]

edit wrong thread.

[nickagneta]

Regarding Marcus vs Payton or DJ, remember, those guys didn't switch or guard 1-5. Both pretty much locked up with a guard or SF they were assigned to and shut those players down. Marcus has a very different overall effect on the defense due to how he is utilized.