Help Fix Smart's Offensive Game

[spikelovetheCelts]

He has a shot coach. Last night i could see a better release. He also passed up a few shots and had 10 assists. I am excited about Smart. He is a keeper. He works hard to get better unlike some others on the team.

[ekosins3]

He takes to many 3s than he should but most of them are good shot attempts. I agree he does force a few that he doesn't have to.

Based on our offense when he's usually in the game he's forced to be around the 3 point line a lot more for spacing purposes as IT works in a pick and roll game with one of our bigs. Aside from that we have more plays that we run for Bradley and now crowder, marcus remains away from the play for spacing.

Marcus does get the ball on the wing from a hand off many times from what I've seen.

[manl_lui]

I mentioned about Smart's post game, but take a look at this

https://youtu.be/lNMefa1TG3Q?t=38s

this is what I hope happens more

[KGs Knee]

Smart needs to do a couple things to improve his offensive game.

• Get to the free throw line more - Smart doesn't have the burst or straight line speed to blow by defenders, but he has good handles.  Smart needs to learn to be more deceptive witht the dribble and force contact.  He should watch some tape of Pierce or Wade (later years).  This would help improve his efficency.
• Be more judicious with his three point attempts - This goes hand in hand with getting to the line more, he needs to take the ball to the hoop more and shoot less threes.
• Improve perimeter shooting - In addition to finding a better balance between perimeter jumpshots and drives to the basket, Smart just needs to improve his outside shot.  A consistent 35% three point shot would open up the game for him more.  Adding a ball fake would help too.

[Evantime34]

The past few games Smart has supplemented his normal shot selection with duck ins. Essentially Smart is cutting hard as if he is running from one side of the court to another, when the defender tries to beat him to the spot he just turns around, seals and gets an easy bucket off a smaller defender. That he was doing this to Felton last night is good, because he's pretty strong for a point guard.

Smart seems to be starting to figure out that in order for him to be a contributing offensive player he needs to find a way to consistently get easy buckets. Lately he seems to be doing that in the pick and roll/posting up which lately has helped to diminish his poor shooting.

It was also encouraging that he knocked down a 3 in crunch time last night. Last year, he might not have shot a great percentage but you could always count on him to knock down a spot up 3 when it mattered.

[ssspence]

Here's an idea: why not post him up against weaker guards. If he can't get to the basket facing up (and i think it's pretty scary that he can't), let him get to the line by using his strength.

Apparently, someone in the Cs org heard me -- his effort to get easy buckets down low has been noticeable the last couple of games.

Meanwhile, Csblog isn't the only place that's noticed that Smart's overly eager 3 point shooting is becoming a problem.

So, when do we start talking about how Smart is shooting 34 percent overall, and a disastrous 21 percent from deep? Smart is a multipositional terror on defense, and he has mastered some new tricks running the pick-and-roll. But it's hard to stay on the floor in the postseason when you're in sub-Tony Allen territory from the field.

Smart will can more jumpers at some point -- the revival may have kicked off in Dallas last night. . He hit 33 percent from deep as a rookie, a mild surprise, and a knee injury derailed him this season. Dialing back his shot selection might help. For a bad shooter, Smart launches a surprising number of contested 3s early in the shot clock -- including some off-the-bounce jobs that have little chance.

That may be partly a function of how tough it is for Boston to create separation when Thomas is on the bench, but Smart has been brick-y even alongside Thomas.

http://espn.go.com/nba/story/_/id/14598808/who-deserves-represent-their-conference-nba-all-star-game

[Hemingway]

eh, give the kid more time. He is doing a lot of things really well and me and Ainge's brain doctors think he will be all right!

[spikelovetheCelts]

eh, give the kid more time. He is doing a lot of things really well and me and Ainge's brain doctors think he will be all right!

He looks better with each game to me. Ainge has a great basketball mind as well.

[showtime]

Smart has played much better these last 3 games. He does a lot of things to help win games!!

[djbilly33]

Is it just me or am I the only one who thinks he sucks? I haven't seen any improvement since his rookie year.

[Evantime34]

Is it just me or am I the only one who thinks he sucks? I haven't seen any improvement since his rookie year.

You are definitely not the only one, if you read back to earlier in the thread a lot of people agree with you.

I think he's using his size better and playing better in the pick and roll this year as far as year over year improvements go.

[Chris22]

I can fix Smart's offensive game as well as Evan Turner.
Don't shoot threes.
You're welcome.

[KeepRondo]

Here's an idea: why not post him up against weaker guards. If he can't get to the basket facing up (and i think it's pretty scary that he can't), let him get to the line by using his strength.

Apparently, someone in the Cs org heard me -- his effort to get easy buckets down low has been noticeable the last couple of games.

Meanwhile, Csblog isn't the only place that's noticed that Smart's overly eager 3 point shooting is becoming a problem.

So, when do we start talking about how Smart is shooting 34 percent overall, and a disastrous 21 percent from deep? Smart is a multipositional terror on defense, and he has mastered some new tricks running the pick-and-roll. But it's hard to stay on the floor in the postseason when you're in sub-Tony Allen territory from the field.

Smart will can more jumpers at some point -- the revival may have kicked off in Dallas last night. . He hit 33 percent from deep as a rookie, a mild surprise, and a knee injury derailed him this season. Dialing back his shot selection might help. For a bad shooter, Smart launches a surprising number of contested 3s early in the shot clock -- including some off-the-bounce jobs that have little chance.

That may be partly a function of how tough it is for Boston to create separation when Thomas is on the bench, but Smart has been brick-y even alongside Thomas.

http://espn.go.com/nba/story/_/id/14598808/who-deserves-represent-their-conference-nba-all-star-game

They have been trying to post him up for a little while now. Before your post.

[KeepRondo]

eh, give the kid more time. He is doing a lot of things really well and me and Ainge's brain doctors think he will be all right!

I agree. The only time he played poorly last night was when he got gassed and tried forcing a drive at the rim and jacked up a bad shot. besides that, every thing was within his game, which tells me he's able to score 20 a game more often. He wasn't forcing much or getting lucky at the rim. It was a pretty efficient 20 points.