Efficiency will be the name of the game for Marcus Smart next season

https://celticswire.usatoday.com/2019/09/10/efficiency-will-be-the-name-of-the-game-for-marcus-smart-next-season/




Efficiency will be the name of the game for Marcus Smart next season





Kyle Terada - USA TODAY Sports



By: Jesse Cinquini | September 10, 2019 6:46 am


The start of this coming season will mark the beginning of a new era for the Boston Celtics.

With arguably the team’s former two best players in Kyrie Irving and Al Horford departing in free agency this summer, multiple players across the roster will have to step up in their absence.


Potential future stars Jaylen Brown and Jayson Tatum are in position to have breakout years thanks to the fact that Boston will be relying on them more often to create for themselves and others on the offensive end.

Kemba Walker will be put in positions to score playing with the most talented supporting cast of his career thus far.

Even still — though he is certainly not the Celtics most talented player — Marcus Smart’s offensive production may be more important than anyone else’s if the group wants to exceed expectations.

He’s been criticized greatly by fans throughout his career due to his inability to be efficient at times and rightly so. Over the course of his five seasons, all spent with the Celtics, Smart has converted just 37.2 percent of his total field goal attempts while shooting 31.0 percent from beyond the arc.

These numbers are far below the league average. Nonetheless, they obviously don’t encapsulate how much of a positive impact is made by Smart’s playing style. While he’s not been much of a marksman from the floor, he has more than made up for it with uncanny effort and instinct on the defensive end.

It’s also worth noting that Smart improved significantly as a perimeter shooter last year, achieving career-high’s in field goal and three-point percentage (42.2 percent and 36.4 percent, respectively). Compared to Smart’s career efficiency, these shooting splits are a massive improvement for the former Oklahoma State star.

The Celtics coaches would likely be thrilled if Smart can keep his percentages in the same range next season.

In order to maximize his skillset, his shot profile will be key and Boston should focus on having Smart score most of his points from either beyond the arc or in the post against undersized defenders.

When it comes to scoring when backing down his man, he’s one of the league’s best for his position. Per NBA Advanced Stats, he scored 0.88 points per possession on 45.8 percent shooting on post-ups last season, numbers comparable to teammate Enes Kanter — long regarded as an adept low-post scorer.

Few men of Smart’s stature possess his bulk and toughness and this leads to him becoming a mismatch for the defense on a fair amount of occasions. Celtics head coach Brad Stevens has ran a few plays for Smart to post up inside over the years, though he may not be calling upon it enough.

Further, the team should consider running more plays through Smart down-low as he is also a solid playmaker. He has the ability to find the open man if he cannot find a clean look at the rim or is double-teamed.

Thanks to a newfound confidence in his shooting stroke, Smart is now a reliable threat from three-point range, an aspect of his game that was certainly a work in progress earlier in his career.

During the early stages of his career, he was arguably looking to shot the ball from deep too often. For example, when Smart was a second-year player in 2015-16, he attempted 4.0 triples a game and made just one of them, shooting a putrid 25.3 percent from the great beyond.

7.6 percent of his three-point attempts came against “tight” or “very tight” defense that season.

Now, he does not look to hoist up contested bombs nearly as often with just 3.5 percent of his threes coming against “tight” or “very tight” defense last season and it certainly has worked in the 25-year-old’s favor.

Boston should continue to encourage Smart to take open three-pointers in order to space the floor because he has shown to be able to knock them down consistently, converting 40.2 percent of his “open” attempts last season and 34.7 percent of his “wide open” attempts.

If Smart can be relied upon as a long-ball shot-maker and low-post threat, the Celtics will be a more complete and dangerous team. With what may be a less talented core than the one the boasted last season, the green may need the gritty guard to take his game to another level next season.



bob




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Last year was his best in terms of offensive efficiency and the league finally recognized his defensive acumen.

He only put up 7.1 FGA's per game.  As a result, the Celtics were most efficient with him in the starting lineup given the 4 other scorers.

Which brings me to my conclusion about what type of guys should be put together in our starting lineup.  The Celtics will need a low volume shooter in their lineup.  

A starting 5 of Walker, Smart, Brown, Tatum and Kanter could work.  That gives you the FIBA 4 plus Kanter.  

I am certain that Brad will have to use different starting lineups throughout the season.  For example Jason Tatum looks noticeably bigger and stronger but he is still a year or so away from being our starting PF game in and game out.  He will get minutes there as will GH but there will be games when having a wing play at the 4 will not be good.

Expect Brad to experiment during preseason just to get a feel for life without AH and MM.