easy. it's gotta be AB and Smart with IT4 off the bench. The backcourt picture is a lot clearer than the frontcourt.
Statistically, IT/Smart is BY FAR our best backcourt (I did a long post on this a few weeks ago). AB is statistically bad in every lineup.
People fear IT is a defensive liability, but this is WAY overrated. He is a big plus when on court due to two facts: He adds a lot more on offense (elite penetration, gets to FT and knocks them down, good 3pt, GREAT pick and roll) than he detracts on defense. Both his offensive and defensive numbers are also inflated due to PACE.
Smart has the size and defensive chops to guard most shooting guards in the league, and very few PG will post up IT (I think there are like 3-4 PG who do this on a high level), so his size is not that big a problem.
We can't EVER have IT and AB together since AB cannot guard big shooting guards - of which there are PLENTY....
The IT+AB duo posted a defensive rating of 105.9 (to go along with an offensive rating of 113.0). Not great. But hardly a defensive disaster. As a whole, the Celtics surrendered 105.2 points per 100 possessions for the season (per nbawowy.com). According to basketball-reference.com, 105.6 was league-average.
The net +7.1 points per 100 suggests that AB may not have been 'statistically bad in every lineup'. Obviously a huge portion of the offensive credit has to go towards IT's presence on the floor, but I'm just noting that it wasn't all as bad with AB on the floor as you suggest.
I do concur that IT + Smart was a preferable duo, and that twosome performed fantastic overall on both ends of the court.
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