Where would Marcus Smart go in this draft?

[rollie mass]

smarts developement was hindered dramatically his first season-the celtics were very unstable,a merry go round of players and with rondo and green gone and just turner and avery-then smart goes down with a serious high ankle sprain
the kids a rookie and for the balance of seasonplays without lift ,first step and pain-no wonder he didn't go to the hoop and look  how it effected crowder and his was much less severe
back to rookie smart and 2nd year kelly
 there goes rondo, in comes crowder, by by green and thorton, in comes isaiah, in comes prince, by by prince and in comes jerebko and gigi-the defence starts to solidfy and isaiah starts his offensive game-smart shoots okay for the year 34% from three and the teams defensive identity on the perimeter is born
smart came into summer league with a new stature but again suffers horrific injury, ripping his fingers out of joint ,now that will effect one shooting and developement
 the celts have added lee and amir
enough said about lee
then marcus dislocates his knee-when this guy gets hurt -its severe
misses up till january -then has to get in shape and deal with his erratic shooting -
he then has the extra burden when crowder goes down-please remember that stretch of quarding -harden,george,derozan ,westbrook and durant,liiliard,lowry,porzingis-
smart is going to the hoop and learning and his 3 point shooting was horrific but i think injuries and pressure of guarding and playing defence less crowder ,with that intensity it would have an effect on his 3 point shooting-(marcus crowder avery}without a rim protector and having a little guy and we made the playoffs
remember everybody saying he couldn't get to hoop, this years playoffs showed he could
the devasting injuries with down times ,coming back time,lingering pain  had to effect his developement-his lift,his first step,his confidence in penetrating  last season
Time lost,unstable conditions,new players but mostly injuries and the knock on effect rookie season
there were no rookies that played with his impact defensively and that turned defence to offence,that won games with defence
smart was only in second season and only 22 yet a force rarely seen ask horford and millsap
in all my years, i have never witnessed a player with such elite defence and to have survived  the collection of debilitating and lingering injuries-
Massimino used to say there was allways a place on his team for a guy who played defence
i would start with smart
his stats are skewed by comeback time and without crowder and kelly and finally he often gets stuck putting up last second shots that jerebko and kelly don't take-
next season his 3 point shooting ,shot selection and getting to hoop should all come together

[loco_91]

1-10 on this years draft board I'd pick every single player over Marcus Smart. I'd take Buddy, Murray, Dunn, Even Bender over Smart. I'd take Skal Labisierre over him. I'd take Marquess Kriss over him. I'm sorry but Danny goofed that pick up but in his defense, that year was a terrible year for talent so I give Danny the pass on that but only that. Smart is more valuable to us in a trade then he is on the court.

Luckily, there are many GM's like you for Danny to take advantage of.

What he's saying is actually no that unreasonable.

People don't seem to realise that the 2014/15 draft was horrendous once you got past the top 3.  That draft was all about Wiggins/Parker/Embiid - once you got beyond that, it was pretty much "choose your role player".

I think Danny picked pretty well, because if Smart did develop his shot and surprise some people then he could have surprised and been better then expected - outside of Exum he was probably one of the higher upside picks outside of the top 3.  But in all honesty there just really was not a lot to choose from, and out of a basket full of short straws, Danny picked one of the longer ones.

Realistically Embiid and Smart were probably the closest things there were to 'versatile' players in the top 6. 

- Wiggins' only talent relying on his athleticism to score buckets
- Parker could score and rebound decent, but couldn't defend and lacked athleticism
- Gordon looked like a defensive role player from day one
- Randle clearly could not defend to save his life
- Exum had potential but was a huge gamble (kinda that year's Bender)
- Embiid looked like a two-way star potentially, but had major health concerns

Smart was really the only guy in that top 7 who actually looked like he had the potential to be a positive impact guy on both ends of the court.

Fast forward to this year and you have Simmons, Ingram, Bender, Dunn, Hield, Brown, Poeltl, Chriss, Labissiere, Davis, Baldwin - all of those guys have the potential to become two-way players at the NBA level, and all of them have the ability to contribute in more then just one way if they happen to reach their potential. 

In fact the only high ranked prospect in this year's draft that looks like a one-way man is Murray - who has about zero defensive potential and who I kinda see as this year's Jabari Parker (albiet a pocket sized version).

Looking at all those guys who could become two-way stars one day,it's actually really hard for me to envision Smart going any higher then  top 7 or 8.  He could well fall back outside of the top 10 (where Baldwin, Luwawu and Valentine are are currently projected to go).  I struggle to see Smart as a major leap above those guys.

I think there's some 20/20 hindsight here. That draft class was highly rated. People thought that 1-3 were surefire allstars with superstar potential except for Embiid's injuries (I never bought into the Wiggins/Parker hype, but that was the consensus). Then Exum was an outstanding prospect based on limited info, and Gordon was such a freakish athlete and awesome defender, it's hard to argue that he wasn't a far superior prospect to Jaylen Brown. Smart was clearly a stud on D, and in college he was drawing fouls at will. Randle I agree about, he was hopeless on D.

I think all of those top six guys, without the benefit of hindsight, would have gone #5 or higher this year.

[mkogav]

How does he compare to the prospects available like brown, hield, bender, Murray, etc.

Interesting question.

I am assuming that he stayed in school for all four years. My best guess would be top 3, probably #2 ahead of Ingram and behind Simmons. He would clearly be the best PG in the draft.


Remember, after his freshman season, Smart was the likely #1 overall pick in the 2013 draft. He pulled out of the draft late, which through the whole draft process into chaos. He was taken #6 in a super deep 2014 draft. Outside of Simmons there is no other player with the upside of Smart. You could argue that b/c of Ingram being 3 1/2 years younger and per need, a team may select him ahead of Smart.

Mk

[mkogav]

His inability to shoot would be exposed by now and he'd be in the mix with Dunn, Hield, and Murray. Anywhere from 3 to 9. There might also be issues with his injuries.  If he led Oklahoma St to a championship maybe he goes as high as 2 or 3

if Okafor was coming out right now would he go 2nd above Ingram ?

I would say no b/c Okafor would still have been the consensus #1 overall for most of the college season, which bring uber scrutiny. Simmons would have flown under the radar a little more and would have likely surpassed Okafor come draft day.

Mk

[CoachBo]

It won't be long now.

I knew we'd get to 1st eventually.

[showtime]

Two more years in college would have exposed more of his offensive weakness. He wouldn't have went in the top ten!!