looks like danny was as underwhelmed by Smart's rookie campaign as I was.
But I don't think this means we'll dump him. It means we'll try to combine him with a bunch of other assets and get a superior prospect like Noel or Embiid.
Good luck, Danny.
Dude, stop patting yourself on the back, cause your not even correct. It's pompous. Smart is the prototypical Ainge player. Tough, defense first combo guard with versatile skills and huge intangibles/BBIQ. They rave about him all the time, and not just for show.
But Ainge knows if he's going to bring a star player here outside of FA, Smart is going to be involved. He's our most valuable player right now trade wise. All he's doing is letting other GMs know that if the right deal comes along, Smart can be involved. He's not looking to trade him because "he was as underwhelmed with his rookie campaign as you", that's ridiculous. He just knows that Smart has the most value, the Sixers have lots of bigs and would love to have Smart, and we need a good young big. Fact is Noel won't fit next to Okafor or Embiid, so Ainge sees a chance to make a deal. Bit that only happens if Smart is involved.
See, Ainge understands the game and knows that Smarts rookie season was far from underwhelming. Maybe if the only thing you pay attention to is the stat line. But he was a major contributor on a team that was one of the best in the league after the ASG who played truly excellent defense, made big shots and within the context of his role, exceeded expectations. We were trying to win games. Smart didn't even bring the ball up much, his role was to play great defense and hit open jumpers. That's it. You can't score 15 a game of the ball isn't in your hands a lot. You can't drive to the hoop unless your plays are run for you to open up a driving lane, which happened progressively more toward the end of the year with success. You can't post up smaller guards unless there's a designed action to pull the bigs away from the rim. You can't generate a lot of assists unless your a primary ball handler. His defense was clearly much better than his offense, so good in fact it demands major playing time because he was often the best defender on the floor. But since his offense isn't as fully developed, playing him off the ball, working on his jumper and slowly inter grating him into a larger role was the right thing to do.
Smart was only underwhelming to people who care more about the box score than what happens on the court. DA isn't one of those people. If he's "shopping" Smart, it's only in a trade for a real difference maker. For what it's worth, I think Bradley is the one on the move. Rosier is the perfect replacement for him, and Bradley/Sully or KO and Hunter are valuable enough to get us a legit 5.
Topic: Source: Celtics will continue shopping Smart after getting Rozier (Read 26045 times)