The Year of Marcus Smart
This is Marcus Smart’s year to show what he’s capable of
Evan Turner is no longer part of the Boston Celtics after agreeing to a four-year deal with the Portland Trail Blazers. More importantly, the safety net surrounding Marcus Smart is no longer there. Smart has shown glimpses of handling the reigns for the second unit, however, with Evan Turner clearly the better option for running the point, Smart has never really had the bulk of the responsibility.
Smart will need to show a huge leap into consistent, reliable offensive basketball this upcoming season to solidify secondary ball handling duties behind Isaiah Thomas. This will be the first time in Smart’s short career that he will be given more dense obligations, strictly by default. I’m excited to see how he copes with the new-found culpability.
As much as I did not want to see Turner leave, it now gives the Celtics an opportunity to see what Marcus Smart really has to offer. Smart is capable of producing relatively the same output as Turner, but that has yet to be cast in stone. The same way Turner was a legit contender for the Sixth Man of the Year, I expect Marcus Smart to end up in the top-five this upcoming season.
In addition to Smart, there will now be more chances for Terry Rozier to prove that he belongs. In fact, the loss of Turner really affects every man in that locker room. The ability to play positions one through four leaves a lot of unproven guys a moment to display each of their individual skill sets.
The loss of Turner was a necessary step in this rebuild process that allows Danny Ainge to more precisely gauge where each player is at and how much potential each really has.
Brad Stevens now finds his options at the guard and quick forward spots wide open and up for grabs, essentially out of his control. Kevin Durant would solve basically every roster problem, but I’ll figure for the sake of the piece that he does not choose Boston.
The only two guards on the team that will for sure live up to expectations or exceed them are the starters Isaiah Thomas and Avery Bradley.
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This is now the year for Marcus Smart. If he puts in a good season and shows progression in his game, then we may even see Smart leapfrog Isaiah Thomas into the starting lineup.
The Atlanta Hawks moved on from Jeff Teague, entrusting the backup Dennis Schroder with running the first unit. The Hawks made a similar decision the Celtics will soon need to make, if Marcus Smart shows out this upcoming season. I am deeming this the year of Marcus Smart, of course a couple free agent signings would make it the year of banner number eighteen.
Based on what we have seen so far from Smart one could have a hint of uncertainty. Without a jumper from anywhere on the court, how will he be able to keep defenses honest? The inability to create for himself will leave creating plays for others a substantially harder task.
This fragmentation could be growing pains. We are soon to find out if not trading Smart was the correct call. I’m confident that we will see another level to Smart’s game, which again could make things complicated but only in the best of ways.