On the B.S. Podcast, Brad Stevens said of Marcus Smart:
"I think his greatest strength will always be that he's a guy that makes winning plays that aren't quantified."
That really does seem to encapsulate Marcus Smart's "deal" so far as an NBA player: Most people that actually watch him play seem to agree that he's a tenacious, versatile defender, and find it easy to recognize his hustle and willingness to do whatever he can to help the team win (even if that means, ahem, flopping like a fish out of water). At the same time, Smart's statistical output is ... well ... it's not super pretty for a guy taken #6 overall. Yet he has earned a lot of playing time and stands out as one of the team leaders despite his struggles to make a consistent impact on the box score.
What are some other guys in the history of the NBA who have stood out in that way, guys who made a huge impact on their team's success despite the fact that their impact was very difficult to quantify?
How do we distinguish those players, in retrospect, from guys who weren't that good but benefited from playing a limited role on a very good team?
Topic: All-Time Intangible Impact Guys? (Read 6615 times)