If you look at their stats, Randle is just better. His stats are better than Jared Sullinger's already. You can technically even say this is Randle's first year. This one is on Ainge. Randle would be looking pretty good on this team right now.
Their advanced stats say just the opposite (Sullinger's advanced stats are much better too). Go to the last two lines in the link below and look at OWS (Offensive Win Shares) and other numbers to its right and Smart dominates him. The other numbers indicate that their true shooting % (TS%) are identical, Randle edge in rebounding is mostly negated by Smart's edge as a ballhandler, and Randle's slight edge overall offensively is overwhelmed by Smart's edge defensively.
http://bkref.com/tiny/m4d42
Looking at Randle compared to the top 30 PFs in minutes played per game and he's 21st in PER as an offensive indicator and 26th and 24th in defensive win shares and defensive box +/- as defensive indicators. It's a small sample, but he's not lighting the world on fire as a second year rookie.
This is a good post, but the eye test tells me Randle looks like a sure 15 and 10 in the future. I can't see Smart having that type of impact offensively. Also tbh, that would mean Randle has more value in the trade market, because I do not believe teams value Smart's defense the way us Celtics fans do. Just being honest.
You see, the whole point of the advanced stats was to disprove the whole notion of the "eye test". The eye test will tell you that Jeff Green was a better player than Jae Crowder was last season. He's a better athlete, he puts up higher numbers in the box score, and he's a highlight reel player. However, advanced stats showed that the Celtics played worse with Jeff on the court than without. Crowder by contrast, though he's not nearly as flashy as Jeff or puts up the same numbers, showed that he in fact made the Celtics better when he was on the court last season. Green may be better at putting up individual numbers, but Crowder makes his team better.
So even if Julius Randle does put up 15/10, the question is, does it help the Lakers win? Obviously, no it doesn't. The Lakers have one of the worst records in the league and the saddest part is, they've had the easiest schedule so far. Advanced stats show that Smart, though he may not be putting up the biggest numbers, helps the Celtics win. Not to mention, the Celtics have played some pretty good teams and Smart was the leader of a good fight against one of the league's best teams, the Spurs.
Randle is more offensively polished than Smart but that's about all he has going for him right now. His defense is embarrassingly atrocious and he's even had some dud games offensively. Smart is already one of the league's best defensive guards and in a league being taken over by talented point guards I think yeah other teams really would value someone like Marcus Smart and the defensive impact he can bring. Not to mention Smart is improving offensively. So far, Randle is the better scorer. Smart is the better winner.
And it's "the way we Celtics fans do", not "the way us Celtics fans do".
