would you be disappointed if Smart turned out to be Bowen/Tony Allen?

[Tr1boy]

Smart is not a natural on the offensive end.  In college he was able to score alot of points by

1) bullying his way to the basket
2) taking a ton of shots.  But not in an efficient manner

In the nba you can see the holes.  His handles is shaky , especially when getting close to the paint.  Gets stripped, loses the ball, and more often than not looks like is going through an adventure instead of things going smoothly.    On the celtics team outside of Lee, prob has the worse shooting touch.  Ugly stroke also.  He should get it fixed instead of trying to improve the "ugly".

At best hoping for a "fixed" jump shot,  more explosive body and do more around the rim (wishful thinking)

Hopefully -  Fixes jump shot. At least can help the team on the offensive end by making open jump shots on a consistent basis.   Turn into a bigger Derek Fisher

Worse case -  what we see now. Like a Tony Allen.  Still impacts the game. May score 12 one game and 2 the next. I mean he was 0-5 tonight but was still a +11. When do you normally see this happening? Just plays great defense

Smart is going to make 1st team all defensive team one day.  Min 2nd team.

But I think we may have to lower our hopes that he becomes someone dependable on the offensive end.   

[alldaboston]

I'd be disappointed if he did, because I know he won't. He has too much talent to simply be a Tony Allen. We've seen flashes this season. You have to be patient. Hopefully Turner will be gone soon so Marcus can have the ball in his hand full time. He is better than advertised running pick and roll, can find guys great looks. He's learning the NBA offense. It'll take time but it'll be worth it.

I'm also disappointed at the varying opinions we have on this board. If he scores above 12 points or something we cheer and proclaim he's the future. If he scores single digits on more misses than makes we admonish him and call him a role player for his career.

[GreenWarrior]

"would you be disappointed if Smart turned out to be Bowen/Tony Allen?"

this is exactly where I ultimately see him as a player.

now for where he was drafted, most will say he's not worth holding onto.

[Surferdad]

Bruce Bowen eventually developed a pretty consistent 3-point shot later in his career. Tony Allen near did. I think Smart will end up being closer to Bowen, perhaps better, but far better than Tony Allen overall.

Smart is a pretty good passer too.

[kevbo]

Just talking about this very comparison with a friend earlier today. He's stronger and got less sloppy handles, but he basically is Tony Allen already. (I should clarify. Tony Allen's handles were/are even sloppier to my eye than Marcus's fundamentally) If, and it's a huge multi-million dollar if, he can improve his shooting to be a basic threat, his ceiling gets a lot higher. In the meantime though, offensively his brutal shooting really craters the spacing, so it makes everything he gets going to the basket that much tougher work.

The big question is, the Warriors showed last playoffs how you basically turn Tony Allen into a non-factor in a playoff series. So to what extent is Smart really a piece to build around? I don't know, but don't misconstrue that as not really liking him as a Celtic.

[The One]

Yes, I would.

He will be much better than that, imho.

Once Turner is gone, he'll get the time he needs to develop.

[jpotter33]

I can't speak for Bowen, because I never watched him play in the past. However, I don't like the Allen comparisons. Smart has shown us in the last month or so that his offensive game is much more polished than Allen's ever was. Smart's passing, ball-handling, and post game (from what I remember) are all already superior to Allen. The only real similarities between the two are that they are both elite defenders with shaky jumpshots.

I'm convinced if Smart was given a larger role in the ball-handling and offense we'd see a much different Smart out there. He's really limited as an off-ball player with Turner.

[straightouttabahstun]

I still see him as a Gary Payton type. His offense wasn't all that much his first couple of seasons, but it came along. I see the same with Marcus. I don't think we get to see the full extent of Marcus' game develop because half the time he's on the court with IT or Turner. When Turner's gone next season, Smart gets the keys to that second unit unless IT is traded or put back on the bench and he gets his chance to start again.

[Dino Pitino]

It's possible to hope for better but not be disappointed. Tony Allen 2.0 would be a pretty valuable player.

I think he's part Tony Allen, part Ron Artest, and part Dwyane Wade. The question to me is how the parts get mixed. 80% TA, 10% Artest, 10% Wade would be good. 50% TA, 25% Artest, 25% Wade would be really good. I'm hoping for 33%, 33%, 34%...he has just enough Wade-ish moments to hope for that someday.

I still don't see a point guard, though.

[rocknrollforyoursoul]

Yes. A team needs to get more than a Tony Allen with the No. 6 pick.

If you draft at No. 6 and you get the greatest defensive player ... ever ... in the history of the world ... that would be okay. Marcus Smart is not that, so he needs to become a consistent contributor on offense as soon as possible. Or, if Danny can surround Marcus with 4 legit scorers, then it might be okay if he didn't improve much offensively.

[PhoSita]

Use a top 10 pick on a defensive specialist?  A passable version of that kind of player is available in free agency for less than $10 million per year pretty much every off-season.

Of course that'd be disappointing.

[MBunge]

Smart already looks better on offense than TA.  The question is would you be disappointed if Smart became a better version of TA that still couldn't shoot.  I don't think I would.

Mike

[Kane3387]

Yes. Very.

[chambers]

He's shown flashes of his offensive potential.
He just hasn't had enough of the ball and been allowed to create on his own yet, although Stevens is starting to loosen the leash a little bit.

He's shooting a lot more shots closer to the basket since returning from injury which is a good sign.

I actually think his handle looks great and he's starting to learn how to split the ICE and pick and roll defenders with the Russell Westbrook 'push' dribble between defenders.

As alldaboston says, I'd be disappointed because he still projects as a much better offensive player.
His handles in highschool and college were great and it wasn't just his brute strength. Watch some highlights of him in highschool before he went to Oklahoma State.

I agree with MBunge that he's already a better offensive player than Tony Allen, and his absolute floor is Tony Allen overall- which I'd be disappointed with.

He's got a different kind of freak athleticism that will help him as he gets more control as the ball handler in the pick and roll. He'll be able to burst to the rim and get to the line and I think we'll start to see this more and more next season once our guard log jam is cleared up.

He's a 2nd year player and has played like 80 games over those 2 years, with many of those games recovering from injury or playing with nagging injuries like his hand and his ankles.

So much potential for this guy on the offensive end.
The reason I have so much faith in him is because of his work ethic, IQ and strength/athleticism.
He's only scratched the surface so far as a 2nd year player coming off the bench.

[wiley]

I don't see the Bowen part.  Bowen is on defense is more like a bigger Avery Bradley. An excellent one on one defender who can shut down an assigned guy in spurts.  Smart is in another category on defense.  I think he makes more than one player at once nervous...more prone to flashes of defensive brilliance, i.e...taking the game over.  We'll see if Smart gets to Bowen's level as a three point specialist.  I'd rather see him (for now) continue to improve taking it into the paint.  It took Avery a while to improve his handle, but he has.  Once Smart improves his you'll see a big difference in his offensive impact. He's already a good passer and that will get even better once the handle improves.  I see Smart as a starting two guard back-up PG.

Edit:  still a little ticked that TA didn't get more playoff minutes.  There were times none of our aged ones could even get to a loose ball they were so cooked.  When Ray wasn't hitting it was painful not to have TA in on defense.  As much I liked TA, from the moment he arrived in Boston, I think Smart is a much better all around player.  Tony was always more of an athlete than Smart.  Tony could fly when he got to the league.