Boston Celtics: Five Most Important Players This Season

Mar 4, 2015; Boston, MA, USA; Boston Celtics guard Marcus Smart (36) and guard Avery Bradley (0) celebrate against the Utah Jazz during the second half at TD Garden. Mandatory Credit: Mark L. Baer-USA TODAY Sports

The Boston Celtics have a revamped 2015-2016 roster. With a draft class that has much potential to go along with some intriguing off season acquisitions, expectations are higher than they have been in recent seasons. This team has playoff depth and Brad Stevens has his best roster yet in his tenure as Celtics coach.

While there are a lot of positives with this team, one negative is keeping Marcus Smart around. The Celtics should have traded him away this off season while his value was at a peak. While he has a very competitive edge to him, he is expendable with Terry Rozier, James Young, R.J. Hunter and the other young guards on the Celtics’ roster.

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Smart has yet to find himself a true position in the NBA. Some nights he looks like a point guard and other nights a shooting guard. This year, I will be watching Smart closely and monitoring his game in his second NBA season. Smart is a guy everybody should monitor night in and night out.

This league is becoming a league where having a scoring point guard is essential. For example, Stephen Curry is the best pure scorer in basketball and he just led his Golden State Warriors team to an NBA championship as their star point guard.

Here are some players on this year’s Celtics team that many should keep an eye on during the preseason and beyond.

Next: A Rookie Star in the Making