Smart an upgrade over Bradley

[Dino Pitino]

Disagree with 1 due to Smart seemingly adding a 3 point shot to his arsenal (hey it's likelier than Ben Simmons ehem Lamar Odom without a shot adding a 3 pointer), but agree with the last bit. Smart can be our secret knockout weapon off the bench when games are tight as our 6th man

Are you even aware what he shot from three point land last year?

28%

If that is adding a weapon he needs to go back the drawing board.    That is well below the NBA average of   .358%


https://www.basketball-reference.com/players/s/smartma01.html

https://www.basketball-reference.com/leagues/NBA_stats.html

You acting like he is good at this at present is patently absurd!

Over 38% the last 24 games including the playoffs.

Who are you trying to kid on 5/23 he was 1 for 5.  5/19 he was 0-1( not to mention 0-6 from the field), 0-3 on game 1 with the CAVS on 5/17.  He did shoot 7-10 which vastly upped his stats.    But he had plenty of games where he could not make a three with e pencil....

http://www.espn.com/nba/player/gamelog/_/id/2990992/marcus-smart

You know what a team will do in off games with him.   They will double another player because he is not a credible threat and this hurts our whole offense.   His FG is another matter.   Don't get me wrong I like Smart, I am rooting for him to succeed.   I love his grit and toughness and how he wins 50/50 plays.   But shooting is an area that he needs a ton of work on.     I hope this off season he learns how to do it all the time and improves his jumper.

Dude, the last 24 games including the playoffs means 6 games in April + 18 in the playoffs. He shot over 38 percent. Who are YOU trying to kid by selecting individual games? Even without the 7-10 game, he shot over 34 percent over that stretch. But that game does actually count. You can't just remove it, it happened.

[Alleyoopster]

I wonder how the stats match up in first quarter comparisons. Always seemed AB was red hot in the first quarter. Wouldn't be surprised if he's near the top of the League in that metric.

Overall, I prefer Bradley because he's far less streaky. Hopefully, this will be a breakout year for Smart. 

[feckless]

I can't think of a single skill where Smart is an upgrade over Bradley except being bigger and slower, therefore possibly he is better at guarding bigger and slower players.

[IDreamCeltics]

People are arguing that Smart gives the team an identity, brings intangibles to the court, and needs volume to be a successful shooter?

Antoine Walker is crying tears of joy right now.

[hwangjini_1]

People are arguing that Smart gives the team an identity, brings intangibles to the court, and needs volume to be a successful shooter?

Antoine Walker is crying tears of joy right now.

it may be less volume than being put in a good location to take his 3 pointers.

from the corners he shot 42% and 44%, both pretty good and above league average. 

he was downright awful from 3 point range from straight away and the left side. from the right side he was merely poor. 

https://labs.statmuse.com/questions/28fde82f-74fd-4eb6-955b-37c992fe7ab8

[Erik]

The lineup you speak of is the lineup we went with while Bradley was injured. I tried to explain in another thread the concept of an it + Bradley/smart marriage to offset his glaring defensive liabilities but it truly upset the "brown is 2018 MVP uber homer crowd."

https://www.celticsblog.com/2017/4/11/15252938/the-read-react-defending-1-boston-celtics-brooklyn-nets-defense-wins-championships

See gif #1.these switches on posts and PnR happen all game.

Our best lineup should be IT smart Hayward crowder horford. It should be our starting lineup. I don't think we'll be seeing very much minutes where IT is on the court but smart isn't. Smart probably isn't an upgrade over Bradley but he will be essential now that Bradley is gone. I'm thinking he'll get a full extension if the Celtics are keeping IT

Rozier Morris and Brown will headline the second unit. Sorry to the "Tatum is 2019 MVP uber homer crowd," but Tatum will barely get minutes.

[Celtics4ever]

Dude, the last 24 games including the playoffs means 6 games in April + 18 in the playoffs. He shot over 38 percent. Who are YOU trying to kid by selecting individual games? Even without the 7-10 game, he shot over 34 percent over that stretch. But that game does actually count. You can't just remove it, it happened.

You said over 38% the last 24 games including the playoffs.   I was trying illustrate that he did not shoot this every game.   It still does not hide the fact that he shoot poorly for the majority of the season and you are the one who first cherry picked the last 24 games, when I challenged your assertion that he shot well last season.  You can't have it both ways, bud.     

[TheSundanceKid]

Dude, the last 24 games including the playoffs means 6 games in April + 18 in the playoffs. He shot over 38 percent. Who are YOU trying to kid by selecting individual games? Even without the 7-10 game, he shot over 34 percent over that stretch. But that game does actually count. You can't just remove it, it happened.

You said over 38% the last 24 games including the playoffs.   I was trying illustrate that he did not shoot this every game.   It still does not hide the fact that he shoot poorly for the majority of the season and you are the one who first cherry picked the last 24 games, when I challenged your assertion that he shot well last season.  You can't have it both ways, bud.   

It's an average for a reason. You can argue he is streaky but arguing against an average doesn't work. He did up his percentages when it mattered most.

However you are right that over the course of a season he was not a good 3 point shooter. He needs to pick his spots better. It starts with improving his driving game, so as much as it is nice to see summer videos of him improving his 3pt shot, I'd rather see him finishing at the rim.

[loco_91]

Dude, the last 24 games including the playoffs means 6 games in April + 18 in the playoffs. He shot over 38 percent. Who are YOU trying to kid by selecting individual games? Even without the 7-10 game, he shot over 34 percent over that stretch. But that game does actually count. You can't just remove it, it happened.

You said over 38% the last 24 games including the playoffs.   I was trying illustrate that he did not shoot this every game.   It still does not hide the fact that he shoot poorly for the majority of the season and you are the one who first cherry picked the last 24 games, when I challenged your assertion that he shot well last season.  You can't have it both ways, bud.   

It's an average for a reason. You can argue he is streaky but arguing against an average doesn't work. He did up his percentages when it mattered most.

However you are right that over the course of a season he was not a good 3 point shooter. He needs to pick his spots better. It starts with improving his driving game, so as much as it is nice to see summer videos of him improving his 3pt shot, I'd rather see him finishing at the rim.

It is somewhat cherry picking to take the last 24 games - why 24, besides that's the number that makes him look the best?

Smart's career 3pt % (regular season + playoffs) is 30.0%.

He is really good, but that's despite being awful at shooting. If you don't allow that his shooting is awful then you can't really make a credible case.

[bdm860]

It is somewhat cherry picking to take the last 24 games - why 24, besides that's the number that makes him look the best?

Actually it doesn't make him look the best, the last 22 games would make him look the best.  40%!!!



Can't speak for who originally said 24, but it's an easy cutoff when looking at splits.  April + Playoffs.

[Rosco917]

I'm not gonna say Smart is an upgrade over Bradley. Both are plus defenders, Bradley is the better scorer for sure. But Marcus is a way better passer, ball handler and facilitator. Plus he gets into the paint much more than Bradley.

When paired with IT, being a solid facilitator, and having the ability into the paint is helpful. It will take pressure off of him, and allow him to get more open looks, without having to take the physical abuse of getting to the rim when all else fails. 

[Moranis]

Our second most used lineup only played 192 minutes together? Can that be right?

Think about how many 5-man combinations are used during a season and it will make sense.

Yeah, but that's just over 2 minutes per game. Obviously, it's not distributed like that, but it's still a pretty small slice of game time.

well Horford missed 14 games so those games are gone.  I'm sure the other guys missed games that Horford played as well.  Then you have Amir who only played 20.1 mpg.  I think the more shocking thing is the starters only had 433 minutes together and some other lineup didn't manage more than 192 minutes. 

[tarheelsxxiii]

Our second most used lineup only played 192 minutes together? Can that be right?

Think about how many 5-man combinations are used during a season and it will make sense.

Yeah, but that's just over 2 minutes per game. Obviously, it's not distributed like that, but it's still a pretty small slice of game time.

well Horford missed 14 games so those games are gone.  I'm sure the other guys missed games that Horford played as well.  Then you have Amir who only played 20.1 mpg.  I think the more shocking thing is the starters only had 433 minutes together and some other lineup didn't manage more than 192 minutes.

They also intentionally scattered minutes to increase the likelihood of better health for the playoffs. One or two starters needed to play with the 2nd unit in order to generate any offense too.

[Boris Badenov]

Dude, the last 24 games including the playoffs means 6 games in April + 18 in the playoffs. He shot over 38 percent. Who are YOU trying to kid by selecting individual games? Even without the 7-10 game, he shot over 34 percent over that stretch. But that game does actually count. You can't just remove it, it happened.

You said over 38% the last 24 games including the playoffs.   I was trying illustrate that he did not shoot this every game.   It still does not hide the fact that he shoot poorly for the majority of the season and you are the one who first cherry picked the last 24 games, when I challenged your assertion that he shot well last season.  You can't have it both ways, bud.   

It's an average for a reason. You can argue he is streaky but arguing against an average doesn't work. He did up his percentages when it mattered most.

However you are right that over the course of a season he was not a good 3 point shooter. He needs to pick his spots better. It starts with improving his driving game, so as much as it is nice to see summer videos of him improving his 3pt shot, I'd rather see him finishing at the rim.

It is somewhat cherry picking to take the last 24 games - why 24, besides that's the number that makes him look the best?

Smart's career 3pt % (regular season + playoffs) is 30.0%.

He is really good, but that's despite being awful at shooting. If you don't allow that his shooting is awful then you can't really make a credible case.

I think it's important to look at the whole picture. Leading up to that "hot streak" in his last 24 games, over a much larger sample his monthly percentages were:

November   29%
December   27%
January    37%
February   28%
March      19%

It's not like he was consistently in the 28% range, then "upped his game when it mattered."

To the contrary, as we got into the end of the season and we were fighting for the best record in the conference, his percentages plummeted.

He then "recovered" for the playoffs. But to my eye, these numbers paint a picture of someone who is both a bad shooter and a really inconsistent one, and I see no evidence at all of improvement over the course of the year even including playoffs.

[Dino Pitino]

It is somewhat cherry picking to take the last 24 games - why 24, besides that's the number that makes him look the best?

Actually it doesn't make him look the best, the last 22 games would make him look the best.  40%!!!



Can't speak for who originally said 24, but it's an easy cutoff when looking at splits.  April + Playoffs.

Exactly.

Just for a second, y'all, ponder the possibility that April and the playoffs already gave us a glimpse of a new Smart who will shoot somewhere over 35% overall from three. Good lord how valuable a player he'd be then, as a viable scoring option. In that event, he would be an upgrade over Bradley.