I just got my Jaylen Brown jersey, only the 2nd Celtics jersey after Bird. You can bet that the next one will have "Smart" on the back of it.
The I Love Marcus Smart Thread
- Thread starter SeoulSoxFan
- Start date
Wait until the end. Put that C on Smart's jersey already
View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k3Aq8B_erU4
“From now on, that’s how you f—ing play,” Smart said. “I don’t want to see you putting your head down no more. You’re too good for that, baby.”
View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k3Aq8B_erU4
“From now on, that’s how you f—ing play,” Smart said. “I don’t want to see you putting your head down no more. You’re too good for that, baby.”
I also loved Jaylen's reaction. This team is just so damn likeable. A complete 180 from the Kyrie years.
I would not. It is pretty clear that Tatum, Brown, Smart view themselves as a trio. Why mess with that by elevating any one of them?
Tatum/Brown are on a different talent level. All-Star Games. All-NBA. MAX contracts. Best scoring duo over the last decade. Eventually ever? The JAYs NBA status is pretty much being cemented.
Marcus feels like a coach on the floor sometimes and that post-game comment to JB sounded like that. He is the heart & soul of the Celtic culture, strictly about winning.
I have zero special insight into the locker room, so take it with a grain of salt. I imagine Brad would only do it if Joe & the JAYs were cool with it.
Tek was never the best player on those Sox teams, but played with that same edge.
This is all true.
But I think there is a delicate balance that is working right now (Jaylen and Smart in particular have not always seemed to see eye to eye, at least based on public reporting), so I don't see a reason to change it. Going back to the preseason:
View: https://twitter.com/mikekadlick/status/1580722919818203136
Mike Kadlick: Per @SIChrisMannix, this #Celtics Sports Illustrated cover photo was only supposed to be Jayson Tatum and Jaylen Brown. The Jays, however, wanted Marcus Smart included. They got their wish.
If it were to be done, I think naming tri-captains would make more sense than just naming Smart. (And, arguably, Tatum and Brown asking that Smart be on the cover with them is also a type of leadership move).
IME talked about doing Captains last year but the players shot it down
on 12/18/2014, the Boston Celtics traded Rajon Rondo + Dwight Powell to the Dallas Mavericks, less than a year after being named Captain.
Rondo was just the 15th player to earn that honor. There hasn't been a Captain since, maybe a relic of a bygone era
https://www.nbcsports.com/boston/celtics/who-should-serve-celtics-captains-ime-udokas-new-team
I’d also be interested in how you would have done it. Legit intrigued.
the font is weird
The yellow in ‘on a’ weird
The shadows are weird
Covering almost all of ‘Sport Illustrated’ is weird
btw, I know nothing, this is novice opinion
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Yeah I don’t know shit about art directing but the shadows are incredibly strange as is the font for Men and Mission.
Man, there was a long time where the DJ analogy didn't work enough for me because Marcus just wasn't quite good enough as an offensive player. Seems silly now.
LOVE Smart's offensive approach this season.
Looking over the last 4 seasons, Marcus is scoring the least, shooting less, highest eFG%, highest 3pt% and by far the most APG (+his best A/TO ratio).
Embracing the facilitator role and feeding the rest
Looking over the last 4 seasons, Marcus is scoring the least, shooting less, highest eFG%, highest 3pt% and by far the most APG (+his best A/TO ratio).
Embracing the facilitator role and feeding the rest
The improvement overall is linear. The defensive baseline has somewhat leveled off but started much higher than most as a rookie. The offensive improvement is staggering.
I think giving Smart the C would be more about showing him how much the team appreciates him and the sacrifices he’s made. There’s no question that Brown and Tatum are better players and more important on court but Smart does really seem to embody the culture that the Celtics have (and want)
IMO, Smart has a bit of a chip on his shoulder and I think feels a little under appreciated for what he does. It’s not an issue at all but if you pay attention to his interviews he says a few little things that make me think he feels like he’s not getting his flowers
I am all for giving Smart the C and I think it would be well received in the locker room
Its funny. I never really looked at either's offensive numbers when regularly/incessantly making the comparison. (DJ's are better, no doubt). It was more of, "both of these guys are just so much more valuable than *any* numbers show (or in DJ's case, any numbers of that era *could* show)." Even when Smart was at his worst offensively, I thought that removing him from the team would seriously undermine the team's foundation. That's how I viewed DJ. I'm glad Brad Stevens apparently agreed with me!
Danny liked to win at every turn. While the Celtics benefitted by creating more payroll space. I believe having Happy Walters come back hat in hand after a failed RFA summer probably tweaked Smart (along with Terry getting his Charlotte bag for being a chucker his last season). Money/salary is how
@benhogan , not much Marcus can do about the money, right? He's signed through 2026.
I think he's not so much bitter about the organization as he's still hungry. And like... Good for him! He should continue to elevate his game. He's got room to grow as a shooter and around the rim, and has gotten increasingly crafty about the latter. He's about as efficient as he's ever been.
I think the chip on his shoulder is perpetual and It's a great part of his personality. He has a chance to age really well in this game. He's not a guard who relies on his quickness, he's strong like Chris Paul. If he can elevate his three-point shooting one more time, he has a chance to secure another big contract.
I think he's not so much bitter about the organization as he's still hungry. And like... Good for him! He should continue to elevate his game. He's got room to grow as a shooter and around the rim, and has gotten increasingly crafty about the latter. He's about as efficient as he's ever been.
I think the chip on his shoulder is perpetual and It's a great part of his personality. He has a chance to age really well in this game. He's not a guard who relies on his quickness, he's strong like Chris Paul. If he can elevate his three-point shooting one more time, he has a chance to secure another big contract.
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You were right all along. The intangibles/little things space that he occupied was always important. But there were a few games along the way where he tooketh away as much as he gaveth. Regardless, he's the package now.
I was always a stan since his college days, but I got the frustration with him. Also was a DJ stan. It was always the right comp, but it's more right now (if that makes sense).
FWIW, Mannix immediately backtracked on this.
View: https://twitter.com/SIChrisMannix/status/1580748389443989504
The revelation about Smart is that he is a very creative distributor who has another level to that aspect of his game. At least some of the Cs offensive success is a result of Smart knowing his teammates and where their spots are.
He is now experienced enough to not only feed teammates where they thrive but also create for them too by reading defenses and directing traffic. The pursuit of highlight dimes can be an issue but they seem to work most of the time. More to the point, as with all things Smart, its simply part of the package. He may not be Point God or whatever but damn he is very good running point.
He is now experienced enough to not only feed teammates where they thrive but also create for them too by reading defenses and directing traffic. The pursuit of highlight dimes can be an issue but they seem to work most of the time. More to the point, as with all things Smart, its simply part of the package. He may not be Point God or whatever but damn he is very good running point.
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It’s that plus people always questioning if he’s really a PG, etc..
I want to make it very clear that I don’t think this is a situation where Marcus is unhappy or is a malcontent or whatever. I think it’s probably healthy that he has this chip and it helps fuel him…
I also think that because of these things, the gesture of being made captain would mean more to him than the Jays and be appreciated more honestly. I think it’s well deserved and disagree that it’s putting him on a pedestal or would upset the Jays (obviously you didn’t say that benhogan I am just saying in general
Those turnovers stick out, but Smart just doesn't turn the ball over all that much for a guy who gets as many assists as he does. Smart is one of 9 players averaging 7+ assists, and of that group only Haliburton has a better A/TO ratio.
Smart has a ridiculously low 16% usage rate. Every guy above him on that list is in the mid 20's to high 30's. His assist to turnover ratio damn well better be as good of all the guys above him
The lighting is flat out terrible, the green on Tatum’s face is so bad that it looks like it was painted on in Photoshop even though it’s probably caused by the gawdawful lighting. We won’t even talk about the jaundiced yellow. The sickly bluish color all over Marcus and Jaylen is nearly as bad. That’s before we get into what the hell the point of emphasis is. None of the font choices or colors make any sense at all. And that’s before we get into the bloody composition. If I were in charge I’d be firing that art director with a machete.
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That's a fair point. Since he's not actively creating for himself against defenses trying desperately to stop him, he's not getting the all hands treatment. That said, 29.7 ass% is really fucking good and comes with a pretty modest 18% turnover rate considering the former. If anything we should be applauding his getting the ball to better offensive players instead of forcing offense himself.
This is exactly where I am right now. He's taking fewer shots, seems to be consistently making more of them, and is really becoming a good pass-first guard. He sometimes gets too cute with the passes, but I'm no longer worried that if he makes a couple of three-point shots early, he's going to take 10 more.
FYI
I showed the cover to my website builder/graphic design wife who not only hit all the points you did, but also gave me a 10 minute dissertation about “Too many fonts that don’t work together”.
Cleaning the glass, which elimiates garbage time, etc, has Marcus with a usage rate of 20%, which is the 26th percentile for point guards (ie, 74% of PGs have higher usage). He's at 61st percentile in points per shot attempt, a little above average, and 47th percentile in assist rate - average among PGs or a touch below.
I think some of that is because the Celtics have a lot of guys who pass it well - this isn't the Pierce/KG Celtics where everything went through Rondo. Tatum is in the 90th percentile among forwards for assist rate (though his assist rate is well below Smart's), Brogdon is 90th percentile among combo guards, Brown is 78th percentile among wings, Al is 65th percentile among Bigs.
But things flip around if you look at assist:usage. Smart is 79th percentile among PGs there. Al is 90th percentile among bigs. Brogdon 73rd, Tatum 46th, Jaylen 35th.
It does have Smart with a turnover issue. He is 21st percentile among PGs. Brogdon not much betterm 29th percentile among combo guards. Brown also a bit below average, 41st percentile among wings. Tatus is above average, 67th percentile among forwards.
It was really noticeable at the game last night -- had to be three to five Smart drives where you're thinking he's going to take a contested layup against two collapsing defenders, but instead his head is on a swivel searching for the open shooters. My son at one point leaned over to me and said, "Last year, he probably takes that shot. The years before that, he definitely does."
Sorry, have been driving to the in-laws, but all of this and more. Beyond all the technical details (the shadow from Marcus’ arm alone would have gotten me fired from jobs in the early 2000s) it’s big picture bad.
The point of putting people on the cover is that you see their faces, you’re pulled in by them because they’re famous or interesting or whatever. The job of the photographer is to give you a peek inside by capturing something revealing.
Jaylen? You can barely see his face given the weird angle he’s cocked himself at. Tatum looks either bored or sort of caught unawares. Maybe Smart looks tough, but it seems overly posed and like the three of them are photoshopped together.
Is that really the best photo they got? At an SI-level shoot? It’s shocking to me. Legit amateurish.
And while it’s standard to have the image crash the logo, to create dimension, I don’t know that I’ve ever seen an image crash THE HEADLINE. It makes the headline recede and it’s not actually clear it even goes with the image. There should be a hed across their chests or something (with a different photo/frame) so that the image and hed are in tight coordination. They go together. Here, it’s just some words in the background.
The whole thing is just college-newspaper bad. I don’t get it.
There's a video on Smart's instagram that shows the proposal involving a video from Will Smith. You gotta swipe or click the arrow on the right of this pic to get to the video.
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Its remarkable to me how taking just 0.7 fewer shots per game and making .013 (pct pts) more of them (.034 on 2-pointers) has such a dramatic impact on perceptions.
He's always been a +/-, ON/OFF stud and added value when he played.
His shot selection, his focus on distributing, and his continued development as a PG are improving. The culmination of several things for Smart.
The larger perception shift around here was the concept of replacing Kemba as the starting PG with Smart or
passing on re-signing Gordon Hayward and putting Marcus in the starting line-up.
I think "SI-level" has to be in quotes. Especially the "SI" part. It's not the same entity as the one in which "SI-level" meant something.
Agreed with this, especially the bolded. It wasn't--or at least shouldn't've been--about Marcus taking too many or too few shots per se. It's about the quality of shots that he takes now and the focus on distribution. When he comes down court, his primary goal is to get good looks for others, often through drive and kick. Sometimes he's backing down a smurf and getting a bunny or kickout to open 3. And when he does take his own 3, it's in the flow of the offense almost exclusively.
To be fair, Joe and the other players deserve some of the credit for filling the "well if nobody is gonna take this, I will" offensive vacuums that Marcus would fill in the past, since the flow has been so ice this year. But a lot of that credit goes to Marcus for rebranding himself at that end somewhat as a guy whose primary job is to get dudes good looks and to get his own bunnies and layups when the defense gives it to him. He has become a wildly efficient version of himself. Career high TS% by a lot, reduced usage, highest assist% by a lot, highest assist%/turnover% ratio, etc. Infinitesimal rate of 16-3PT (.017), which is probably all shot clock beaters. No appreciable dropoff in defense.
From Zach Lowe
Smart has grown into an almost perfect point guard for these Celtics. Smart can start possessions, but he doesn't have to; he's happy working off the ball, or screening for Jayson Tatum and Jaylen Brown.
Smart runs 18 pick-and-rolls per 100 possessions, according to Second Spectrum data -- one more than Brown, three fewer than Tatum. That's healthy balance.
When Smart initiates, he doesn't hog possessions from start to finish. He gets off the ball early, content to work from there as a connector:
That is where Smart's passing sings -- mid-possession touches that keep the machine moving, keep the defense scrambling, and get the ball back to Boston's stars. Smart knows Tatum will relocate to the corner there. He wastes zero milliseconds returning the ball to Tatum. Tatum catches Smart's pass with Joe Ingles still moving toward him -- easy prey for that blow-by.
Boston's assist rate is at its lowest when Smart rests.
Smart is posting up more and is emerging as an ace inside-out distributor. Boston has averaged almost 1.25 points when Smart shoots out of the post or dishes to a teammate who launches -- eighth among 81 players with at least 20 post touches, per Second Spectrum tracking. Only four players have higher assist rates out of post-ups.
The only flaw -- the "almost" in "almost perfect" -- is Smart stalling out as a 33%-ish 3-point shooter.
https://www.espn.com/nba/insider/story/_/id/35389441/lowe-10-things-luka-doncic-marcus-smart-nba-card-counters
Smart has grown into an almost perfect point guard for these Celtics. Smart can start possessions, but he doesn't have to; he's happy working off the ball, or screening for Jayson Tatum and Jaylen Brown.
Smart runs 18 pick-and-rolls per 100 possessions, according to Second Spectrum data -- one more than Brown, three fewer than Tatum. That's healthy balance.
When Smart initiates, he doesn't hog possessions from start to finish. He gets off the ball early, content to work from there as a connector:
That is where Smart's passing sings -- mid-possession touches that keep the machine moving, keep the defense scrambling, and get the ball back to Boston's stars. Smart knows Tatum will relocate to the corner there. He wastes zero milliseconds returning the ball to Tatum. Tatum catches Smart's pass with Joe Ingles still moving toward him -- easy prey for that blow-by.
Boston's assist rate is at its lowest when Smart rests.
Smart is posting up more and is emerging as an ace inside-out distributor. Boston has averaged almost 1.25 points when Smart shoots out of the post or dishes to a teammate who launches -- eighth among 81 players with at least 20 post touches, per Second Spectrum tracking. Only four players have higher assist rates out of post-ups.
The only flaw -- the "almost" in "almost perfect" -- is Smart stalling out as a 33%-ish 3-point shooter.
https://www.espn.com/nba/insider/story/_/id/35389441/lowe-10-things-luka-doncic-marcus-smart-nba-card-counters
On three pointers, he went from 6.4 attempts per 36 minutes last year to 5.6 this year, so that's a 13% reduction -- not huge, but what seems different is when he's taking them. I've watched most of the games this year, and he seems to be taking more three-pointers in the flow of the offense. Pass, drive, kick out, pass, pass over to Smart. Last year, there seemed to be more games where he'd make one or two three-pointers early, then start chucking them up early in the shot clock, or at other times when the offense was stagnant.
Mostly I'm thrilled he's embraced this point guard role, and hope that his injury last night doesn't sideline him too long. On the plus side, Pritchard could get some playing time, and that wouldn't be such a bad thing, to develop some of their depth.
I have no idea how Smart found Williams for a slam while 1. getting fouled 2. fumbling with the ball 2. having his back 180° away from TL.
This man has become the perfect PG for this team. Kudos to Stevens for signing him for $77m/4yrs that runs through the 2025-'26 season (ages 28-31). The contract now seems like one of the best bargains in the league.
This man has become the perfect PG for this team. Kudos to Stevens for signing him for $77m/4yrs that runs through the 2025-'26 season (ages 28-31). The contract now seems like one of the best bargains in the league.
I just finished this Marcus Smart pastel drawing, he's my favorite post-Bird Celtic (Pierce was obviously a far better player, but goddamn I love Marcus Smart).
That is amazing. Great work @The Talented Allen Ripley ! I would buy a print of that. Smart is my daughter's favorite Celtics player and she has a birthday coming up. It would make a great gift.
Amazing work. I have no idea how people can take an image in their head and make their hands draw/paint it as they envision it. What a talent, what a gift.
I started out down on Smart, started coming around on him because of his hustle, eventually began recognizing his talent, and am full-on fanboy now. Where I struggle with Marcus is where I also struggled with Rondo--namely, the ability to do a bunch of brilliant things interspersed with some terrible shooting decisions. Obviously they won last night, the play you mentioned was awesome, and 16 points & 10 assists is perfectly respectable if not lights out, but there were a number of WTF-level decisions he made as well.
Shit, I'd settle for 5% of Rip's artistic talent.
I've made my peace with the notion that what makes Marcus Smart great is his willingness to be utterly reckless on the court. His hustle plays, his aggression, his calmness and self-assurance, is all the other side of the coin from his confidence in taking a terrible shot or trying to attempt a pass that would look super cool if it came off (but it got picked off). I don't think one can exist without having to put up with the other. All we can root for is for him to improve specific skills at the margins to minimize the impact of those decisions (like becoming a better 3-point and FT shooter, or changing his footwork near the rim to protect his feet and knees).
It's also why, despite my general love for Smart, I find myself just enjoying Time Lord more and having him grow into my favorite player. There is an entirely different type of magic about players who just have a completely unfair advantage in the sporting world. I think it's what made Pedro's game so aesthetically captivating to me, that he could just unload a barrel of deception, power and precision that would make world-class hitters despair. Every time I see Time Lord square up on a smaller shooter who then is terrified into passing the ball away or not even trying a shot that's likely to get blocked, I laugh. NBA players are afraid of him! Who or what the hell else have you ever seen an NBA player afraid of? Bird, maybe. Jordan, maybe. Shaq, Giannis, sure. But Robert Williams?
But even if that's my preference, I can't help but recognize why Smart is the favorite of so many other fans. There is something so distinctly human and everyman about his game. He is big by normal standards (6'3"), but achieveably so, he's not a physical freak of nature. What he does seems like most of us could do it, if we could muster inside ourselves the will to always give 100% focus and effort, if we were so committed we would sacrifice ourselves readily and often. Maybe there's some magic to his quick hands for steals, or to his passing eye, but not a remarkable amount. He is the sum of maximizing gifts that aren't all that unusual or remarkable by basketball standards. Robert Williams' talents are god-given, but Smart's seem like the result of hard work and sacrifice, of out-preparing his opponents. Smart is more like Tom Brady than he is like Randy Moss, at least directionally. None of us can imagine being Time Lord, but we could sometimes allow ourselves to be inspired by a Smart, to think that we could be a bit more like him, in a sporting context or otherwise. To be that committed to a team, or to our work, to wringing every last drop of potential out of what we're given.
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