ESPN ranks Marcus Smart among Rising Stars

[saltlover]

Didn't Pelton rank Jaylen as a 2nd round pick according to his advanced stat model? Pretty sure he's never been high on him so that's not a surprise.

ESPN know who their audience is, their data is rarely honest. Take it with a pinch of salt

I don't remember where Pelton ranked Brown, but I'm 99% sure he said that Dunn would be the best PG on our team the minute he was drafted.

[mahcus smaht]

Pelton is a knucklehead.

These rankings might not be bad (havent seen them), but the knowledge that they are made by Pelton makes me really not care.

[bogg]

Didn't Pelton rank Jaylen as a 2nd round pick according to his advanced stat model? Pretty sure he's never been high on him so that's not a surprise.

ESPN know who their audience is, their data is rarely honest. Take it with a pinch of salt

I don't remember where Pelton ranked Brown, but I'm 99% sure he said that Dunn would be the best PG on our team the minute he was drafted.

That was Ford

[saltlover]

Didn't Pelton rank Jaylen as a 2nd round pick according to his advanced stat model? Pretty sure he's never been high on him so that's not a surprise.

ESPN know who their audience is, their data is rarely honest. Take it with a pinch of salt

I don't remember where Pelton ranked Brown, but I'm 99% sure he said that Dunn would be the best PG on our team the minute he was drafted.

That was Ford

I thought it was Pelton in a joint article between the two.  But I could be wrong.  They were both saying some crazy stuff last year.  I think Pelton said we should trade the #3 pick for Nurkic.

[BitterJim]

Marcus's free throw shooting is reason enough to keep the door open on Smarts potential 3 point shooting improvements.

That and his corner 3 point shooting. He hits them at an almost 50% clip

Edit: Basketball Reference actually puts him at exactly 50% from the corners right now

[celtics2030]

Smart is one of the few if not only player who is a big difference maker for this team. He may not have the value for other teams if he were on them now, but for the Celtics he is as big as they come. Not to mention he does the dirty work that frankly players today can care less about because they want to get "stats"

[footey]

Brown ranked 41.

[RockinRyA]

Smart is 2.5 years in and still a terrible shooter.  It seems pretty likely he will never develop the shot based on where he is currently at.  The fact that he is ranked ahead of someone like Tobias Harris shows how good Smart's defense is and how much respect he gets because of it.

Why does it seem pretty likely he will never develop the shot? You just said he's only 2.5 years in. Is that a long time? Isn't he still further than 2.5 years away from his prime?

TB12 taught me to no longer constrain my thinking to "well, the statistics show it's unlikely" or "this guy can't improve".

I never understand the pessimistic view point while watching sports. Seems way less fun.

Because Smart was a bad shooter in college also and hasn't shown any real ability to be a good shooter at the professional level.  And this isn't a case of a guy not getting consistent playing time or barely shooting from 3 where it is hard to find a groove.  I can't think of a single guy that all of a sudden had a shooting breakthrough that people on here expect Smart to magically have. 

Smart just needs to stop shooting from outside.  In fact, that would greatly improve his offensive output as you can at least be good (if not great) offensive player without having three point range, but you can't shoot the ball as much as Smart does and do it.

Jimmy Butler's FG/3pt%

Age 22: .405/.182
Age 23: .467/.381 
Age 24: .397/.283
Age 25: .462/.378


He became a much more consistent shooter once he hit 25. His FTAs per minute played also increased drastically.

Its Moranis, stats like this go ignored.

[DrJasper]

I think we can't complain about Smarts production. His scouting report badically said: winner. And I think thats exactly what he has done, imo he created the winning mentality which made this team exceed expectations and return to the playoffs in the just second year of the rebuild. I couldn't care less about those rankings, because they don't show which impact he has on the other players of this team.

Of course he can get better, and I think he will. But I think he already has the impact of an fringe all star even if the stats don't show it.

[Bobshot]

Smart is all about toughness. He makes them tough defensively. Forget the rising stars crap.
He's a veteran now who gives them critical toughness and defense.

[action781]

Smart is 2.5 years in and still a terrible shooter.  It seems pretty likely he will never develop the shot based on where he is currently at.  The fact that he is ranked ahead of someone like Tobias Harris shows how good Smart's defense is and how much respect he gets because of it.

Why does it seem pretty likely he will never develop the shot? You just said he's only 2.5 years in. Is that a long time? Isn't he still further than 2.5 years away from his prime?

TB12 taught me to no longer constrain my thinking to "well, the statistics show it's unlikely" or "this guy can't improve".

I never understand the pessimistic view point while watching sports. Seems way less fun.

Because Smart was a bad shooter in college also and hasn't shown any real ability to be a good shooter at the professional level.  And this isn't a case of a guy not getting consistent playing time or barely shooting from 3 where it is hard to find a groove.  I can't think of a single guy that all of a sudden had a shooting breakthrough that people on here expect Smart to magically have.

Jason Kidd and Andre Iguodala come to mind.  Also Derrick Rose, although he reverted back after coming back from injury.

[droopdog7]

Is there a link somewhere?

[TheSundanceKid]

Didn't Pelton rank Jaylen as a 2nd round pick according to his advanced stat model? Pretty sure he's never been high on him so that's not a surprise.

ESPN know who their audience is, their data is rarely honest. Take it with a pinch of salt

I don't remember where Pelton ranked Brown, but I'm 99% sure he said that Dunn would be the best PG on our team the minute he was drafted.

That was Ford

I thought it was Pelton in a joint article between the two.  But I could be wrong.  They were both saying some crazy stuff last year.  I think Pelton said we should trade the #3 pick for Nurkic.

I remember that! Now look what the value of Nurkic is... They did seem very decided that keeping the pick would be no good for us

[RGow8]

Can the guy who said Jaylen Brown is 22 explain why he said that? Don't think it was a trolling because he went on to defend him and say Okafor was too high, so a typo maybe?

[Moranis]

Smart is 2.5 years in and still a terrible shooter.  It seems pretty likely he will never develop the shot based on where he is currently at.  The fact that he is ranked ahead of someone like Tobias Harris shows how good Smart's defense is and how much respect he gets because of it.

Why does it seem pretty likely he will never develop the shot? You just said he's only 2.5 years in. Is that a long time? Isn't he still further than 2.5 years away from his prime?

TB12 taught me to no longer constrain my thinking to "well, the statistics show it's unlikely" or "this guy can't improve".

I never understand the pessimistic view point while watching sports. Seems way less fun.

Because Smart was a bad shooter in college also and hasn't shown any real ability to be a good shooter at the professional level.  And this isn't a case of a guy not getting consistent playing time or barely shooting from 3 where it is hard to find a groove.  I can't think of a single guy that all of a sudden had a shooting breakthrough that people on here expect Smart to magically have. 

Smart just needs to stop shooting from outside.  In fact, that would greatly improve his offensive output as you can at least be good (if not great) offensive player without having three point range, but you can't shoot the ball as much as Smart does and do it.

Jimmy Butler's FG/3pt%

Age 22: .405/.182
Age 23: .467/.381 
Age 24: .397/.283
Age 25: .462/.378


He became a much more consistent shooter once he hit 25. His FTAs per minute played also increased drastically.

Its Moranis, stats like this go ignored.

Butler didn't get consistent playing time or a lot of looks his rookie year so that one wouldn't count.  His second year he shot over 38% from three.  Has Smart come anywhere near that?  Butler obviously regressed in year 3 (though did miss 15 games via injury), but then bounced back.  Butler was also a pretty good shooter from outside in college. 

Again, that isn't Smart.  Smart has gotten 4 or more looks a game every single season, his shooting percentages are 33.5, 25.3, and 31.5.  In his two college seasons he shot 29 and 29.9 from three (and he was a respectable foul shooter then as well).  Marcus Smart has always been a terrible three point shooter and has shown nothing that would lead anyone to the conclusion he will ever be anything more than a bad shooter.