I like Marcus Smart

[Khelsier]

Just wanted to put it out there. There seems to be a lot of sceptisism (to put it mildly) about Smart on this blog. Why? There are soo many concernes about his offensive production. Why? He is playing within the offense, mostly off ball right now. His shot selection might not be great, but his shot is not broken. I think he can and will improve his offense. Give him some time, he has not even played 82 games. On the other side he is already a really good defender. It is a joy to watch him play defense. He has the potential to be an All-NBA defender.  He also seems to have all the right intangibles.
I think he is going to be a really good player and I really like watching him play.

[coffee425]

The Cs have turned into a development-focused team, as slow and painful as it takes. If there's been any testament to this, look at Avery Bradley.
Marcus is only averaging 9 attempts a game, identical to how many Avery had in his 3rd year.
Frankly, the Avery ex-haters are just echoing the same impatience onto their new target in Marcus.


If you want to rush the development of a point guard, please refer to the following experiments and how that's translated into wins/losses for their first 3 years.

• MCW
• Austin Rivers
• Trey Burke
• Kemba Walker

Anyone can have the green-light, it takes discipline on CBS to not give that to Marcus.
Patience, grasshoper.

[GreenWarrior]

The Cs have turned into a development-focused team, as slow and painful as it takes. If there's been any testament to this, look at Avery Bradley.
Marcus is only averaging 9 attempts a game, identical to how many Avery had in his 3rd year.
Frankly, the Avery ex-haters are just echoing the same impatience onto their new target in Marcus.

ehh way to label people who have objective opinions. I for one liked AB a lot more before he became a bad shot taker. it seemed like something that has developed over time and become a staple to his game. he's good at it but come playoff time those shots won't fall, as it is teams are scouting him way more now.

Smart on the other hand takes some ill advised shots occasionally but it seems a bit overblown imo. then again it seems everyone here expects marcus to avg. 20-9-9 or else he sucks. when I feel marcus will never come close to averaging those numbers in his career. and i'd still take him over Bradley. the things Smart brings to the table impact the game way more than any pts. AB is ever going to score.

I know Smart gets compared to Marcus Banks around here a lot and all I can do is wonder how these same people actually type coherent sentences.

[BitterJim]

The Cs have turned into a development-focused team, as slow and painful as it takes. If there's been any testament to this, look at Avery Bradley.
Marcus is only averaging 9 attempts a game, identical to how many Avery had in his 3rd year.
Frankly, the Avery ex-haters are just echoing the same impatience onto their new target in Marcus.

ehh way to label people who have objective opinions. I for one liked AB a lot more before he became a bad shot taker. it seemed like something that has developed over time and become a staple to his game. he's good at it but come playoff time those shots won't fall, as it is teams are scouting him way more now.

Smart on the other hand takes some ill advised shots occasionally but it seems a bit overblown imo. then again it seems everyone here expects marcus to avg. 20-9-9 or else he sucks. when I feel marcus will never come close to averaging those numbers in his career. and i'd still take him over Bradley. the things Smart brings to the table impact the game way more than any pts. AB is ever going to score.

I know Smart gets compared to Marcus Banks around here a lot and all I can do is wonder how these same people actually type coherent sentences.

It's not "people" referring to Smart like that, it's a single person

[2short]

The Cs have turned into a development-focused team, as slow and painful as it takes. If there's been any testament to this, look at Avery Bradley.
Marcus is only averaging 9 attempts a game, identical to how many Avery had in his 3rd year.
Frankly, the Avery ex-haters are just echoing the same impatience onto their new target in Marcus.


If you want to rush the development of a point guard, please refer to the following experiments and how that's translated into wins/losses for their first 3 years.

• MCW
• Austin Rivers
• Trey Burke
• Kemba Walker

Anyone can have the green-light, it takes discipline on CBS to not give that to Marcus.
Patience, grasshoper.

Tp for that last line

[ManUp]

The problem is that Smart is playing in a system for shooters that has no shooters. Only three guys in the regular rotation shooting over 35% from three in a system that promotes shooting. Smart is encouraged to shoot Threes and he hasn't hesitated. The problem is that he's not a good 3 point shooter. He averages nine shots a game and almost half of them are threes when he shoots them at a 25% clip. Stevens needs to encourage him to drive the basket more, contrary to popular CB belief I think he's capable of it.

[greece66]

Smartacus discussing strategy with CBS

[DefenseWinsChamps]

The problem is that Smart is playing in a system for shooters that has no shooters. Only three guys in the regular rotation shooting over 35% from three in a system that promotes shooting. Smart is encouraged to shoot Threes and he hasn't hesitated. The problem is that he's not a good 3 point shooter. He averages nine shots a game and almost half of them are threes when he shoots them at a 25% clip. Stevens needs to encourage him to drive the basket more, contrary to popular CB belief I think he's capable of it.

He is 32% for his career so far. Most of our team shot poorly to begin the year, and Smart hasn't had the opportunity to get into mid-season form and improve with the rest of the team.

Let's not make it sound as bad as possible.

[spikelovetheCelts]

The problem is that Smart is playing in a system for shooters that has no shooters. Only three guys in the regular rotation shooting over 35% from three in a system that promotes shooting. Smart is encouraged to shoot Threes and he hasn't hesitated. The problem is that he's not a good 3 point shooter. He averages nine shots a game and almost half of them are threes when he shoots them at a 25% clip. Stevens needs to encourage him to drive the basket more, contrary to popular CB belief I think he's capable of it.

He is 32% for his career so far. Most of our team shot poorly to begin the year, and Smart hasn't had the opportunity to get into mid-season form and improve with the rest of the team.

Let's not make it sound as bad as possible.

He has worked on his form. He is determined to be better. I believe in his drive and work ethiic. He just needs to keep defenders honest with his three stroke. CBS will allow him to drive, He has tow good ones to watch in Thomas and Rozier. I think he will be a top 5 pg late next year.

[playdream]

The Cs have turned into a development-focused team, as slow and painful as it takes. If there's been any testament to this, look at Avery Bradley.
Marcus is only averaging 9 attempts a game, identical to how many Avery had in his 3rd year.
Frankly, the Avery ex-haters are just echoing the same impatience onto their new target in Marcus.

ehh way to label people who have objective opinions. I for one liked AB a lot more before he became a bad shot taker. it seemed like something that has developed over time and become a staple to his game. he's good at it but come playoff time those shots won't fall, as it is teams are scouting him way more now.

Smart on the other hand takes some ill advised shots occasionally but it seems a bit overblown imo. then again it seems everyone here expects marcus to avg. 20-9-9 or else he sucks. when I feel marcus will never come close to averaging those numbers in his career. and i'd still take him over Bradley. the things Smart brings to the table impact the game way more than any pts. AB is ever going to score.

I know Smart gets compared to Marcus Banks around here a lot and all I can do is wonder how these same people actually type coherent sentences.

This two point agreed 100%

[Smartacus]

Smartacus discussing strategy with CBS

The game of basketball is like a sword fight... you must think first before you move!

[Sketch5]

After watching Summer League you could see the improvement from one year to the other. He was hitting the out side shot and taking it to the hoop and dominating on both ends. Yes it was SL, but it's guys on the same playing level.

Once he can keep it on the floor for a better amount of time and get consistency and maturity then he may step up to be on the "the" guys on the team. He seems to hit big shots when needed and doesn't back away from that. His ball handling got much better and his D as well. Thats all I look for right now out of him, improvement.

Now if we are getting to the end of his rookie contract and we are still needed to see a lot of improvement, or see no improvement from one year to the next, then we have some thing to worry about.

[ssspence]

Trade him now!!

[ssspence]

(Just kidding)

[loco_91]

It's weird how much criticism he gets when, in fact, Smart has been very good to great, and he's been much better than a lot of guys who were drafted ahead and around him - better than everyone but Wiggins, arguably.

Most guys, even the ones who are solid defenders in college, are bad defensively as rookies. Smart was an outstanding defender last year, not only compared with other rookies. If Smart were that good offensively, he'd be averaging 20ppg on high-40s shooting and everybody would be calling him a future hall of famer. Meanwhile, guys like Randle and Parker would be putting up ghastly shooting numbers and everyone would be calling them busts.

Instead, Smart has been a mixed bag offensively, but there's a lot to like for a guy whose primary calling card is his outstanding D. I totally disagree with the characterization that he shoots too many 3's. He is shooting a high volume of 3's and making almost a third of them. That isn't awesome efficiency, but it isn't troublesome, either; if he bumps his pct up from 32% to 35%, which would be very modest, then that shot becomes a clear positive for the team. It's easy to see him getting to around 38% on slightly higher volume, which would make him a very good shooter.

I'm much more concerned about his 2p%, which is 41% on poor volume, and his free throw rate, which is lower than expected from college performance. The narrative entering the season is that his ankle injury hampered him from driving aggressively to the hoop, and it remains to be seen whether he can be more aggressive once he is fully healthy.