He's always been a streaky shooter, he showed it last year and he showed it so far this year. In his last 8 games he's shooting 39.5% from 3.

What you have to love about him is that regardless of if his shot is falling, he's defending at a high level and doing all the little things to win games.

It's been really encouraging that he is attacking the hoop more, and getting more quality shots closer to the hoop than he was last year will decreasing the number of 3's he's taking.

TP for this

TP, Rollie.

Since returning from injury, Smart has really taken a step forward on the offensive end. His raw stats look better, but more importantly he's being featured as a primary ball-handler, making excellent passes/reads, driving to the rim with authority, running the P&R well and recently even his shot has been starting to fall. All those things are great for his future, and like you said he's only 21! This isn't even the start of what he can be if all goes right for him.

The "bust" idea was ridiculous anyway. A guy who's a future-DPOY candidate and isn't a total zero on offense is a very valuable player, especially with the game moving towards the perimeter. Last season, Stevens purposely put Smart out there with Rondo, Thomas or ET and pretty much never let him run the offense, keeping him out at the 3 and leaving him as the 5th option. The fans may not have liked it, but Smart's defense made him deserving of major PT but his offense just wasn't there yet. Were starting to see the fruits of the gradual learning curve CBS has given Marcus.

It's amazing how good a coach CBS is. Just this year alone, Thomas, Crowder, Bradley, Olynyk, Smart and Turner (even Sully to some extent) have really improved their games. Every single one of those guys is more valuable right now than they were a year ago. Crowder went from a throw-in on the Rondo deal to being discussed as the headliner for a potential Blake Griffin or Kevin Love trade. In just one year! Amazing. Can't wait to see what he can do with this team as it grows and adds for talent.

Quote from: Evantime34 on February 01, 2016, 10:05:53 AM

He's always been a streaky shooter, he showed it last year and he showed it so far this year. In his last 8 games he's shooting 39.5% from 3.

What you have to love about him is that regardless of if his shot is falling, he's defending at a high level and doing all the little things to win games.

It's been really encouraging that he is attacking the hoop more, and getting more quality shots closer to the hoop than he was last year will decreasing the number of 3's he's taking.

He was 3 for 7 on those "quality" looks (most of them looked like pretty ugly out of control layups to me, but I digress). I'm not sure I like the new "heat-check" Marcus and his 0 assists any better. The three point shooting isn't sustainable, and our team lost the game yesterday because they stopped moving the ball.

I love how people use "isn't sustainable" as a an argument for why positive things won't continue but never as an explanation for why negative things will turn around.

His initial 3 point shooting percentage in the teens wasn't sustainable but no one used that argument while it was happening. Of course he isn't going to shoot near 40% on the season but his shooting splits this year and last year indicate that he is capable of hot shooting for stretches as well as poor shooting for other stretches.

Regardless of this variation when Smart shoots poorly people hit the boards to say "see he can't shoot!" then when he shoots well they say "of course it won't last".

I expect him to finish the season with a similar 3 point percentage than he did last year and would be willing to wager TPs on this. He's going to do this while shooting more shots close to the hoop and a higher percentage from 2.

While he didn't shoot a great percentage on the drives to the hoop last night he is shooting a higher percentage on 2 point shots while taking more of them per game than he did last year.

The lack of ball movement didn't help last night but we lost the game because of our defense not our offense. We gave up 119 (even if some of those points were foul shots at the end the Magic were at about 110 when we started fouling), it's not fair to blame the offense for a loss when you give up that many points.

Quote from: Evantime34 on February 01, 2016, 10:05:53 AM

He's always been a streaky shooter, he showed it last year and he showed it so far this year. In his last 8 games he's shooting 39.5% from 3.

What you have to love about him is that regardless of if his shot is falling, he's defending at a high level and doing all the little things to win games.

It's been really encouraging that he is attacking the hoop more, and getting more quality shots closer to the hoop than he was last year will decreasing the number of 3's he's taking.

He was 3 for 7 on those "quality" looks (most of them looked like pretty ugly out of control layups to me, but I digress). I'm not sure I like the new "heat-check" Marcus and his 0 assists any better. The three point shooting isn't sustainable, and our team lost the game yesterday because they stopped moving the ball.

He'd probably get more if ET wasn't the one bringing the ball up every possession.

marcus low shooting % has been result of coming back from injuries,he was just out of pain during off season-then the fingers,tell me that wouldn't mess up your shooting percentage and just getting comfortable  then his knee injury
 last night obviously he hit some hail mary's but when he doesn't rush his shot,
his shooting form is nice
he tried a floater in lane,he has been using fall away post ups all a work in progress
-i don't think anybody can guage his 3 point % because of injuries
 a previous poster wrote about an off season to work on it and the balance of this years experience
-remember marcus vs oklahoma right before he got hurt another stunning game-
marcus is just a force-reminds me of tyson when he was young-tyson was actually well schooled and in his own way brilliant in his bobbing and weaving tactics-
so marcus is anything but a bust

Seems like Marcus is on a hot streak now after coming back cold from injury.


What I'd love to see from Marcus is a month or two shooting 33-35% from deep, along with a healthy percentage from the rest of the floor.  Not 38% one month, 27% the next month.


I have a feeling that Marcus might just be a streaky shooter.  But a streaky shooter who has stretches where he's lethal and stretches where he's a total bricklayer is better than a non-shooter, so I'll take it.

Quote from: alldaboston on February 01, 2016, 10:53:59 AM

Quote from: kozlodoev on February 01, 2016, 10:11:06 AM

Quote from: Evantime34 on February 01, 2016, 10:05:53 AM

He's always been a streaky shooter, he showed it last year and he showed it so far this year. In his last 8 games he's shooting 39.5% from 3.

What you have to love about him is that regardless of if his shot is falling, he's defending at a high level and doing all the little things to win games.

It's been really encouraging that he is attacking the hoop more, and getting more quality shots closer to the hoop than he was last year will decreasing the number of 3's he's taking.

He was 3 for 7 on those "quality" looks (most of them looked like pretty ugly out of control layups to me, but I digress). I'm not sure I like the new "heat-check" Marcus and his 0 assists any better. The three point shooting isn't sustainable, and our team lost the game yesterday because they stopped moving the ball.

He'd probably get more if ET wasn't the one bringing the ball up every possession.

He managed 16 shots, so I'm thinking he had the ball in his hands enough.

So when he doesnt take shots people get mad, but when he takes shots people still get mad? smh