Smart is going to have a huge year

[Fred Roberts]

James Young is going to make a mark as well. Our entire roster (sans Wallace) is on the rise. We have a coach on the rise.

The ceiling is high for this roster, and for making potential tweaks to upgrade talent.

[kraidstar]

smart reminds me of a smaller, but smarter ron artest.

he has a more natural stroke than ron, and if he can work on his driving his offense should improve immeasurably.

to be an impact player in this league he won't have to carry his team offensively - put some natural scorers around him and let him use his strength and athleticism to wreak havoc all over the court.

[tarheelsxxiii]

Smart didn't get the ball at PG because he wasn't ready to run an offense. You don't teach a young kid to swim by throwing him in the ocean.

I hope his Shaun Livingston-esque injury was real. But observations from summer league and pre-ACL/MCL/PCL tears suggest otherwise. Best case scenario is that he just hadn't figured how to use his size to get to the rack. If he really doesn't have the quicks, he needs to back guys down. I guess we will find out this year if he does.

[Evantime34]

Last year the team performed significantly better with him on the court than when he wasn't on the court, and that was with him never creating for himself and only jacking up 3's.

If he can drive to the hoop and get to the line like he did in college I think his traditional stats will start to match his advanced stats.

[droopdog7]

People just banking on the high pick status for marcus.  Looking at the #6 pick since 1980, this is far from guaranteed.  I am wishing but frankly, I am just hoping that he becomes a starter quality player on a good team.  I see that as a 50-50 proposition for the moment. 

Nerlens Noel   
Damian Lillard   
Jan Vesely   
Ekpe Udoh   
Jonny Flynn   
Danilo Gallinari   
Yi Jianlian   
Brandon Roy   
Martell Webster   
Josh Childress      
Chris Kaman   
Dajuan Wagner   
Shane Battier   
DerMarr Johnson   
Wally Szczerbiak   
Robert Traylor      
Ron Mercer   
Antoine Walker   
Bryant Reeves   
Sharone Wright   
Calbert Cheaney   
Tom Gugliotta   
Doug Smith   
Felton Spencer   
Stacey King   
Hersey Hawkins   
Kenny Smith   
William Bedford   
Joe Kleine   
Mel Turpin   
Russell Cross   
Trent Tucker   
OrlandoWoolridge   
Mike O'Koren   

[tarheelsxxiii]

Last year the team performed significantly better with him on the court than when he wasn't on the court, and that was with him never creating for himself and only jacking up 3's.

If he can drive to the hoop and get to the line like he did in college I think his traditional stats will start to match his advanced stats.

Definitely seems possible and I hope you're right, given the uptempo style we're going for. He also has some pretty monstrous dunks (I recall one in the playoffs, in particular) that reminded us of his athleticism. If he can get to the basket, he's also going to need to develop a floater.

Also don't think it'd be a bad thing if he adopted Gary Payton's style, though... he could do serious damage on the block with his size and has shown the ability to pass from the post.

[Future Celtics Owner]

Marcus need to do a few things in order to have a breakout year:
1. Ball Handling: Smart needs to get much much better at his ball handling in order to create space, penetrate, blow by his defender, and take it to the rim. Ball handling will allow him to become a real triple threat.

2. Become more Explosive(first step and taking it to the rim): He has the highest body fat % of any point guard, and he had a very hard time getting by his defender and penetrating. In college he could dip his shoulder and get by most everyone, and he thought he could do that in the NBA right before he was drafted. Anyway, if Smart works on his explosiveness and gains in agility and speed; think about how much more explosive he would be if he lost enough bf% to be around 5-6%.

IMO Smart is the strongest point guard in the NBA. The draft express databank shows his measurements and times; I have not found a pg that comes close(please tell me if you think there is a stronger pg). Losing weight will not make him weak or hurt his hame negatively, IMO. The easiest and best way for Smart to get that explosiveness is a 1-2 punch of agility and speed gains, and trimming out and losing his bf%.

3. Thats it. The two pillars of Smarts breakout year are BALL HANDLING AND EXPLOSIVENESS. I think the other stuff, like improving his shot, will come naturally if he makes gains in the 2 areas.

[knuckleballer]

Marcus need to do a few things in order to have a breakout year:
1. Ball Handling: Smart needs to get much much better at his ball handling in order to create space, penetrate, blow by his defender, and take it to the rim. Ball handling will allow him to become a real triple threat.

2. Become more Explosive(first step and taking it to the rim): He has the highest body fat % of any point guard, and he had a very hard time getting by his defender and penetrating. In college he could dip his shoulder and get by most everyone, and he thought he could do that in the NBA right before he was drafted. Anyway, if Smart works on his explosiveness and gains in agility and speed; think about how much more explosive he would be if he lost enough bf% to be around 5-6%.

IMO Smart is the strongest point guard in the NBA. The draft express databank shows his measurements and times; I have not found a pg that comes close(please tell me if you think there is a stronger pg). Losing weight will not make him weak or hurt his hame negatively, IMO. The easiest and best way for Smart to get that explosiveness is a 1-2 punch of agility and speed gains, and trimming out and losing his bf%.

3. Thats it. The two pillars of Smarts breakout year are BALL HANDLING AND EXPLOSIVENESS. I think the other stuff, like improving his shot, will come naturally if he makes gains in the 2 areas.

If he gets down to 220, he will still be a beast.  I think he chubbed up a bit last year, probably because of his ankle. 

[dreamgreen]

HUGE?

Hope so, I'll predict a good second year.

C's are trying to win the division. Reason I predict this is they stole Amir away from Toronto who was a big  helper for a guy like lowry.  Plus we drafted Rozier to kick him in the butt.  Smart is an ego guy.

Slow down there buckeroo!

No way in hell we are better than Toronto right now and by "stole" Amir from them you mean drastically over payed a bench player right?

37 wins 10-12 pick in the draft and Danny will look like a deer in the head lights!

[byennie]

HUGE?

Hope so, I'll predict a good second year.

C's are trying to win the division. Reason I predict this is they stole Amir away from Toronto who was a big  helper for a guy like lowry.  Plus we drafted Rozier to kick him in the butt.  Smart is an ego guy.

Slow down there buckeroo!

No way in hell we are better than Toronto right now and by "stole" Amir from them you mean drastically over payed a bench player right?

37 wins 10-12 pick in the draft and Danny will look like a deer in the head lights!

Johnson was a full-time starter in Toronto the last two years and one of their most valuable players en route to #3 and #4 seeds. So he goes to Boston, which is still the worse team according to you, and now he's an overpaid bench player?

It's worth noting that Toronto was a full +7.7 (per 100 poss) with Johnson at center. They moved him to PF to develop Jonas V.

[dmopower]

Marcus need to do a few things in order to have a breakout year:
1. Ball Handling: Smart needs to get much much better at his ball handling in order to create space, penetrate, blow by his defender, and take it to the rim. Ball handling will allow him to become a real triple threat.

2. Become more Explosive(first step and taking it to the rim): He has the highest body fat % of any point guard, and he had a very hard time getting by his defender and penetrating. In college he could dip his shoulder and get by most everyone, and he thought he could do that in the NBA right before he was drafted. Anyway, if Smart works on his explosiveness and gains in agility and speed; think about how much more explosive he would be if he lost enough bf% to be around 5-6%.

IMO Smart is the strongest point guard in the NBA. The draft express databank shows his measurements and times; I have not found a pg that comes close(please tell me if you think there is a stronger pg). Losing weight will not make him weak or hurt his hame negatively, IMO. The easiest and best way for Smart to get that explosiveness is a 1-2 punch of agility and speed gains, and trimming out and losing his bf%.

3. Thats it. The two pillars of Smarts breakout year are BALL HANDLING AND EXPLOSIVENESS. I think the other stuff, like improving his shot, will come naturally if he makes gains in the 2 areas.

 I agree 100%. The kid is strong, not just for a PG. He had the 3rd highest bench (20 reps) in his entire draft. He is a bull and yes 10.7% BF i think it was.  Get that down to 5 or 6% which should put him around 212 to 215 and his 3.26 3/4 court speed will likely improve and his sick 33 inch standing verticle and even more so his max verticle of 36 inch will likely improve considerably.  This improved body will help with his handles, explosiveness, shot and he will still be stronger than 80 of the entire league not just the guards!