Celtics: Examining the Up and Down Offense of Marcus Smart
By Andrew Fine
The Boston Celtics are sputtering in the Eastern Conference standings. The Celtics have lost four out of their last five games and during this span put up an underwhelming 96.2 points per game. The inconsistent play of Marcus Smart is not helping.
The Celtics are currently on the outside of the playoff picture in an Eastern Conference, whose standings change by the day. Boston’s putrid stretch has spoiled the return of Marcus Smart, who many believed would be the team’s saving grace and an impact player (to some extent these folks are not wrong).
Smart appeared on the court on Sunday, December 27th against the New York Knicks after an 18-game absence. Smart suffered a subluxation of the proximal tibiofibular joint in his left knee on 11/20 against the Brooklyn Nets.
The Celtics organization vouched to do nothing but ease Smart back into basketball activities. Smart’s numbers since he came back are nothing earth shattering (actually they are far from it). He’s shot 29.8% from the field and 16.7% from deep, while averaging 6.7 points, 3 rebounds, and 1.2 steals. However, as we’ve come to learn with Smart, most of his value comes in ways not easily measurable in the stats sheet.
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Make no mistake, Smart has been far from perfect since he’s come back from his injury, but let’s not be too hard on someone who went a month-plus without any basketball.
While there are not many surprising developments in his defensive game, his offense has yielded some surprises—both good and bad.
As we’ve come to expect with Marcus, he’s going to be aggressive and fearless.
In his first shot attempt against the Knicks, Smart uses a screen set by
and puts up (and makes) a floater, while being fouled in the process. Smart would go on to make the free throw and complete the three-point play.
Aggressiveness has always become a prominent part of Smart’s defensive makeup, but in his return he’s brought an intensity unmatched by very few.
For instance in the Lakers game with time winding down in the third quarter Evan Turner misses his signature baseline jumper, but Smart, completely unguarded, runs in and delivers an emphatic one-handed put-back dunk.
While you might be cringing after his brutal landing, give Smart credit. From the moment Turner hoisted the ball up, his mind was made up: he was getting that rebound. However, four Lakers ball-watching and refusing to box out made it that much easier. Still, great work by Smart.
That is just the beginning of the Marcus Smart’s offensive rebounding saga. In Thursday night’s game against the Bulls, Smart made another heroic leap to collect an offensive board after a Kelly Olynyk miss from deep.
Smart’s offensive rebound led to second chance points after Turner 15-foot jumper. Keeping offensive possessions alive is critical, especially for a team like the Celtics who struggle to score. Perhaps Jared Sullinger’s work ethic on the boards are rubbing off on Smart.
Smart’s 20 offensive rebounds ranks second amongst Boston’s guards, trailing only Evan Turner by three offensive boards despite having played 21 fewer games.
Despite his aggressiveness and hustle to find offensive rebounds, Smart has been an inefficient shooter and an awful 3-point shooter. Smart went four games in a row without a 3-pointer and went 0/10 from deep during that span.
Every single 3-pointer Smart has made since he’s come back from injury has been a catch-n-shoot three that comes from great ball movement create enough separation.
Smart 3-Point Make
In this possession, the Celtics patiently swing the ball and utilize great screens to find a wide-open Smart at the top of the 3-point line. The not only C’s fake a pick-n-roll between Turner and Olynyk, but also feature some weak side motion by Jerebko and Sullinger to confuse Chicago’s defenders. The result: a clean look for Smart who connects with the three.
However, more apparent is the ugly side of Smart’s 3-point shooting. In the two weeks has been back with the team, he’s taken too many ill-advised 3-pointers.
For instance in this play Smart receives the ball with the shot clock nearly expiring and decides to hoist up a shot that’s contested by Brandon Jennings. At this point there is six seconds left on the shot clock and certainly enough time to try to drive to the rim and get fouled (or just pretty much anything other than taking that contested shot).
Smart Contested Shot
Smart has been trigger-happiness from 3-point range has forced him into rushing into shots like he did in the Detroit game.
Here, Smart receives the ball from Turner and makes the poor decision to shoot a three with the 6’11” Bobby Portis closing out on him and also 22 seconds left on the shot clock. Again, this was not Smart’s best decision. This play especially hurt the Celtics after Doug McDermott hit a corner three in transition.
Smart Rushed Shot
Once more, Smart gets the ball in transition as the trailer and decides to shoot a 3-pointer while Donald Sloan is putting a hand in his face. Just like before there’s plenty of time on the shot clock, so it’s not necessary for him to rush his shot.
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Smart Rushed Shot 2
Before we too annoyed with Marcus Smart let’s remember he’s never been a legitimate 3-point shooter. In college he never shot above 30% from three and last year shot 33.5%. Still, we hold Smart to an incredibly high standard because we (think we) know what player he’ll become—regardless of what he is now. Oh and perhaps his 42% 3-point shooting from last January is still fresh in our minds.