The Oracle,
You are missing the point.
Smart is shooting 35 percent. It's much easier to go from a 41 percent shooter to a respectable 46 or higher than a 35 percent shooter to the same 46. Any GM is going to pick the 41 percent shooter even tho they have the same Efg. It's easier to improve from 41 than 35.
Bringing up Efg is just a lazy way to disregard Smart's shooting problems.
It also is not a complete argument anyways as it doesn't take into account what type of shots the player is taking.
You're not accounting for that fact that a 1% increase in 3pt% is the same as a 1.5% increase in 2pt%.
Suppose a 41% guy shoots only twos and goes to 46% on twos alone. Like you said.
The same player shooting 27% on 3s only (41% eFG) only needs to improve to a little better than 30% in order to reach 46% eFG.
So it's not whether it's easier to improve from 46% from 35% or from 41%.
It's whether it's easier to improve 2pt% by 5 points, or 3pt% by around 3 points.