Often if two players are relatively similar in terms of defensive acclaim the tie will go to the player who scores more points and is on a better team.
You really think so? I see so many non-scorers on the All Defensive team every year, I always thought the opposite, guys that score a lot get overlooked for the award, while guys that don't score a lot get an advantage because they're automatically thought of as defensive players since they're not scoring.
Out of the 10 guys on last year's All-Defensive teams, I'd only consider 3 of them scorers, most of the other 7 barely averaged double figures.
Looking back at other years (without digging into the ppg of every player in their All-D year), it seems like there's a fair mix of scorers, average scorers, and non-scorers on the team. But I always think of the Tony Allens, Tyson Chandlers, Bruce Bowens, and Shane Battiers when I'm thinking of All-Defensive and not the Kobes and Lebrons. So I wonder if there is any bias one way or the other, but I always thought the bias was in favor of the non-scorers.
Now when it comes to Marcus Smart, Avery Bradley won All-Defensive 2nd team in 2013 after missing the first 30 games of the season and playing under 30mpg. Patrick Beverley was on 2nd team last year playing only 56 games. Andre Iguodale was 1st team playing only 63 games. If Smart has a strong 2nd half, say in the starting lineup after the trade deadline doing around 30mpg, I could see him possibly making 2nd team.