Boston Celtics: why Marcus Smart at center isn’t as crazy as it seems

The Boston Celtics have a lack of established depth in their front-court. Marcus Smart may not be speaking out of line when he said he can play center for stretches next season.

The 2019 off-season has fundamentally changed the way the Boston Celtics will be functioning on both ends of the court from here on out. Brad Stevens’ offensive play-calling and defensive schemes will be severely impacted by the change in personnel.

Kyrie Irving’s majestic ball-handling and not-so-majestic ball-stopping will no longer be spearheading the offense. While the Celtics may no longer have a singular talent capable of getting an easy bucket as easily as Irving got them, they figure to have more cohesion with the touches being spread out more.

Al Horford’s departure also changes the way the Boston Celtics’ offense runs. While Horford thrived in high pick-and-roll and dribble hand-offs, his replacement Enes Kanter is a back-to-the-basket isolation specialist. Kanter’s ability to score on just about any big man will be counted on, particularly during the playoffs, to bail Boston out of offensive draughts.

Kanter gives up a lot defensively. In fact, for his career, he has been such a negative defensively that it has sometimes negated his offensive contributions. His career box plus/minus (BPM) is a -1.3 while his defensive BPM is a -1.6.

Needless to say, Boston is going to have problems defensively with Kanter in. The best years he has enjoyed have been with teams that were able to cover up his defensive shortcomings. Are the Boston Celtics capable of doing that?

Marcus Smart seems to think so. In fact, his solution involves some out-of-the-box thinking. Mainly, Smart wants to get minutes at the center position. You read that right. The six-foot-four Smart wants to be the team’s starting center.

And it may not be that crazy.

If the Boston Celtics want to put their five most talented players at both ends of the floor on the court, Kanter isn’t in that lineup. While Robert Williams, Vincent Poirier and (the Houdini is going there) Tacko Fall would all be more suitable options, none are accomplished at the NBA level yet. There is no guarantee any of them can handle a starter’s workload. Hell, there’s no guarantee they can even handle a reserve’s bench role.

Smart is a proven commodity, and one that will be representing his country for Team USA during the FIBA world cup this season. Coming off of a likely gold medal, Smart and the rest of the Boston Celtics representing the United States will be teeming with confidence.

That confidence combined with Smart’s sturdy build and ability (and willingness) to mix it up with anyone in the NBA makes him a good candidate to be productive in the center spot. If you were to name the Celtics’ five best players, it would include the four members of Team USA (Kemba Walker, Jayson Tatum, Jaylen Brown and Smart) and Gordon Hayward.

If you want your best lineup on the floor, it will take sacrificing size and replacing Kanter with a pit-bull in Smart. That isn’t the lineup that should be opening games, but a Hamptons Five-esque small-ball lineup could do serious damage next season.

We will see if Stevens is amenable to the idea. Being that he did insert Smart into the starting lineup last season, the odds of him getting the most out of his defensive swiss-army-knife in this capacity doesn’t seem like just a fantasy.