Checking in on Marcus Smart's development: Boston Celtics guard showing flashes despite shooting woes

http://www.masslive.com/celtics/index.ssf/2016/01/marcus_smarts_development_bost.html



Checking in on Marcus Smart's development: Boston Celtics guard showing flashes despite shooting woes





Los Angeles Lakers' Julius Randle, right, and Boston Celtics' Marcus Smart go for a loose ball during the second quarter of an NBA basketball game in Boston Wednesday, Dec. 30, 2015. (AP Photo/Winslow Townson)


Jay King | mjking@masslive.com By Jay King | mjking@masslive.com


on January 20, 2016 at 10:00 AM, updated January 20, 2016 at 10:19 AM





The strategy was "a little crazy," Boston Celtics head coach Brad Stevens recognized, but his team trailed by 10 points at halftime and needed to try something new. He decided to bench Kelly Olynyk and call on Marcus Smart, a guard, to defend 7-foot-2 New York Knicks rookie Kristaps Porzingis.

At first glance the matchup looked wildly lopsided. Smart surrendered almost a full foot to his Latvian counterpart. But when Porzingis tried flashing to the ball, Smart kept his opponent from completing the cut. And when Porzingis attempted to post up on the low block, Smart spun to front the big man and refused to allow an entry pass.

Over a long period of time, the tactic may have proven unsustainable. Porzingis later hit a short jump shot over Smart's head. But for a few minutes, Smart bogged down the Knicks offense by annoying and outmuscling the tallest man on the floor. The stretch was another sign that the Celtics' second-year pro is far from conventional. His development, then, could be atypical to that of an average point guard. And it has been so far.

Unlike most players, Smart entered the NBA as a plus defender and emerged as a menace before he could legally buy a beer. He has disrupted a ball handler from walking the dog. He regularly collects steals where he simply takes the ball from a dribbling opponent, or snatches away an entry pass before it travels two feet. He plays so hard that one of his teammates, Avery Bradley, said he thanks Smart for his energy after every game.

Smart is the rare player who routinely turns defense into a SportsCenter invitation. Last week, he baited the Indiana Pacers into throwing the pass he wanted, then darted in at the last moment to bat the ball away and run in for a game-changing layup. During his two seasons, he has shown the ability to guard three positions; recently, he has even added "irritates stretch power forwards" to his skill set. Two days after defending Porzingis, he shifted over to Phoenix Suns stretch power forward Mirza Teletovic, who had been scoring with ease. Teletovic hit zero of his next five shots, and was blocked twice by the defender who surrendered about six inches in the matchup. Smart's incredible defensive range allows Celtics head coach Brad Stevens to experiment with funky lineups, like a four-small group that includes Isaiah Thomas, Avery Bradley and Jae Crowder.

Yet midway through Year 2 of his career, Smart has been dogged by injuries again, missing half of Boston's 42 games to date. After showing some promising flashes of improved playmaking during the preseason -- and more flashes while hurting the San Antonio Spurs and Oklahoma City Thunder in the regular season -- the 21-year-old suffered an unlucky left knee injury on Nov. 20. He missed more than a month and had a minutes restriction when he returned.

Because of all that, plus a finger injury that limited Smart's summer work, Stevens recently said, "I'm not sure from a shooting standpoint it's fair (to gauge his development yet). ... I think that we'll be able to better gauge that down the road."

Celtics fans hope the coach is right. After exceeding expectations as a 3-point shooter in his rookie season, Smart has hit just 21.3 percent of his tries from behind the arc in his follow-up campaign. Part of the problem is shot selection: he too often fires triples like an elite shooter would, early in the shot clock, with defenders running at him. He needs to cut shots like this out of his game. But the problem hasn't all been due to the type of shots. According to NBA.com, about 75 percent of his 3-pointers have been qualified as either "open" (closest defender between four and six feet away) or "wide open" (closest defender more than six feet away). In those situations he is shooting 26.8 percent and 11.1 percent, respectively. No rotation player has ever shot as many 3-pointers as Smart (3.8 per game) with as low a percentage, according to Basketball-Reference. Yikes.

Close your eyes and scroll down if you don't want to cringe at Smart's shot chart:

https://www.statmuse.com/view?qid=a630f002-f497-46bc-85ae-979944bac747


It's possible a 2-for-4 showing from downtown against the Mavericks can pull Smart out of his deep funk. Providing hope: he made a respectable 33.5 percent of 3-pointer last season, including 36.3 percent on spot-up looks, according to NBA.com.

Plus, Stevens said recently, "I think he's doing a lot of other good things."

Against Phoenix, Smart refused to stop at the first double-double of his career, grabbing a batch of late rebounds to finish with a triple-double instead. Earlier in the season, he showed off a growing post game against the Thunder and his improving playmaking ability during a preseason bout with the Knicks. It was preseason, sure, but the Celtics loved to see their budding point guard show off some advanced pick-and-roll techniques.

"I think he's improved as a ball handler," Stevens said. "I think he's improved as a point guard. He's improved off pick and rolls. And you're not seeing – you're not going to see a ton of that until he gets more extended game after game after game, we have a 20-game or 30-game sample which hopefully we can get without any issues."

The injuries have hindered Smart's production, but the growing pains still hurt. During lineups that include Smart but not Isaiah Thomas, the Celtics offense has scored at a sub-Sixers rate, according to NBA.com. Smart's usage rate has risen this season, he's attempting almost twice as many shots from the restricted area, and he's taking about one extra free throw per game -- all signs of increased aggression off the bounce. But he hasn't yet shown the craftiness guards need to finish over length at the rim. According to NBA.com, he has hit just 45.5 percent of his tries from five feet and in -- actually a few ticks below where he finished in that category last season. He is stumbling a bit while extending the boundaries of his game.

If the struggles help him figure out what works, they will all be worth it. Amid the muck, we have seen signs of Smart's development. Even while taking more shots, he has shaved a few percentage points off his already respectable turnover rate. Despite taking almost half his shots from behind the arc, he has attempted more free throws per field goal attempt than any Celtics regular except Thomas and Jae Crowder, according to Basketball-Reference.com. Though he still needs to grow as a playmaker, he already throws a few wise passes per game. And as evidenced by a 20-point outing in Dallas, Smart is starting to understand ways to use his oversized frame.

"I think this was his best game since coming back from injury," Crowder said of his teammate's 8-for-13 shooting performance. "I know we had the triple-double game, but this game we needed him to score the ball."

Against the Mavericks, the Celtics used Smart in unique ways -- almost sometimes like a power forward. Check out the following stack set, which they ran for scores on three straight first-quarter possessions:

https://fat.gfycat.com/BlueEllipticalAlaskanmalamute.webm


The Celtics have run that play before -- most famously when they toppled Brooklyn with a steady diet of it last season. It works because defenders never know what the guard and Kelly Olynyk will do. Sometimes Olynyk sets a back screen. Sometimes he pops to the arc. Depending on how opponents guard the action he has an assortment of reads that can confuse the defense, as the Nets know all too well. And if Smart can regularly punish smaller defenders, the play becomes even more potent. Raymond Felton had no chance there.

Later in the game, Smart had a few more regular post-ups. On one flex cut in another play, he made a sharp cut to right block, where he caught a pass, sized up defender Devin Harris, and took a patient turnaround jumper over his right shoulder. It did not fall, but it was the type of high-percentage look you'd want in that situation.

"I knew I had a size advantage over the guards and my teammates did a good job of giving me the ball and I just tried to make the right play with it," Smart said. But he has a size advantage almost every night. "Getting back healthy," he said, "and attacking the basket more and using my size to my advantage."

In the third of Stevens' tenure, the Celtics have already built the league's No. 2 defense, and Smart's a major part of that. He, Avery Bradley and Jae Crowder are all under contract through at least the 2017-18 season, which should allow Boston to continue its fierce, turnover-forcing ways. But the Celtics also rank No. 19 in offense -- they need at least one more dynamic playmaker, like Thomas, who can make Stevens' system hop. As much as Bradley and especially Crowder have developed, they're secondary scorers without the ball skills to become consistent sources of creation. Team president of basketball operations Danny Ainge will be looking for creators on the trade market, but those guys are tough to find. The future will look considerably brighter if Smart can start to stress out opponents at both ends of the court.

In ways both good and bad, he's not yet a regular point guard. He seeks out putback buckets consistently but can't yet zip through a defense. He needs to find his 3-point shot again but makes up for the misfires by occasionally locking down power forwards. He can bruise people in the post but hasn't yet learned the art of transition scoring. He is developing, anyone can see, but nobody will know how much for sure until he can finally settle in for an extended healthy stretch.



bob
MY NOTE:  Saying he's "showing flashes despite shooting woes" is like saying "other than that, Mrs. Lincoln, how did you like the play?".  In a league that is being increasingly defined as one where you need to shoot and shoot well and shoot well from distance, he is painful to watch.  His redeeming feature, of course, is that he is exceptional at making life miserable for other 3pt shooters on defense.  He needs to fix his shot, though.  I say it's his mechanics.  It doesn't matter if I'm right or not he needs to shoot MUCH better.  He has scored well inside the last two games, but that's just 2 games.


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