I think Smart-haters need to rightfully acknowledge that Smart does some incredible things on the court that seemingly no one else on the team is willing or able to do. If he's not going to play, we will be giving up those plays, etc.
I think the Smart-lovers need to not simply assume that one great play at the end of the game makes up for 4-5 bad plays leading up to that point. I've watched too many game threads where Smart is playing horrible all game (bad shot selection, missed easy shots, turnovers, etc) and then makes a great defensive play in the 4th and we get 20 "That's why you need Marcus Smart" posts. Well, we should probably also consider if we would actually need that great defensive play if not for that dumpster of bad plays before.
If we could sign the Marcus Smart that makes incredible defensive plays, bothers their best scorer, makes solid assists and stays within himself on offense (mostly high percentage drives)...EVERYONE would be on board to resign that guy. Unfortunately, most of this year it's felt like a guy who's agent has told him no one will pay big money to a defense-only guy who's a liability on offense and he's determined to not let that happen.
I just want to note that this i one of the most true posts I've seen in regards to Marcus Smart - it's something that I note all the time, and rarely do any other people ever seem to acknowledge it. TP for your truth.
There is a reason why Marcus Smart's advanced 'win based' stats aren't anything special this year - RPM, Net Rating, VORP, Win Share, etc. Kyrie, Horford, Brown, Tatum and even Rozier rate above him in the majority of those stats.
Nobody can deny all of the great things that Smart does on the court. The problem is that Smart is such a blue-collar guy (and so many of his big plays are so dramatic / memorable) that people tend to remember all of the big game winning plays that he makes, but forget all about all the bad plays he makes.
I've always been bewildered by the mentality of some fans on this board.
There tends to be certain players who can do no wrong, and can pretty much get away with murder and still cop praise 24-7. Marcus Smart could shoot 1-10, commit 8 turnovers, get 4 offensive fouls, and people would still rave about how amazing he is because he happened to save one big loose ball with 90 seconds left in the game.
But then there are other guys who do pretty much nothing but great things 90% of the time they're on the court and get zero recognition, only to get absolutely drilled every time they make one or two small mistakes. For example Avery Bradley could score 20 points on 10-18 shooting, play suffocating defence on his opposing guy (holding him to 3-12 shooting), hit 3 of Boston's final 4 shots to bring the back in the game after being down by 5...and all you'd hear is people whining about that one time at the 90 second mark where he took a semi-open three while another guy had a slightly better shot.
Rozier is another guy who falls in the AB category. The guy has put up four straight games with 13+ points on >50% shooting, has made multiple huge clutch defensive plays and clutch shots towards the end of games, rarely ever commits a turnover, and yet the instant he takes even ONE questionable shot or holds the ball for 2 seconds longer then he should the CB fanbase turns "ultimate hater" and flames the hell out of him.
I mean seriously, look at all the threads about Smart right now because of what he did in the Houston game. How many threads about Rozier? Do you guys realise he had one or two huge defensive plays and something like 6-8 points in that final quarter, and was absolutely instrumental to bringing Boston back from that hole they were in?
If you're going to shower Smart with praise for the (undeniably huge) plays he made, then you should show just as much recognition to guys like Marcus Morris, Al Horford, Kyrie Irving and Terry Rozier - because those four guys did probably 70%-80% of the workload in terms of digging Boston back from a 26 point deficit, and if those guys didn't bring the game back to within striking distance, there would have been no opportunity for Smart to even make those heroic plays.
Hell even Baynes deserves a ton of credit for making a bunch of huge defensive stops and securing a number of critical rebounds. And Shane Larkin for the energy he brought on defense. And Jayson Tatum, for making a number of absolutely critical defensive stops AND a couple of very important baskets in the last couple of minutes.
This was not a game won by Marcus Smart. This was a game one by
the Boston Celtics collectively, as a unit - everybody stepped up when they were needed and each of those guys made their mark as much as the other.
