Boston Celtics: 3 Cs who have most at stake heading into postseason

Boston Celtics player No. 2) Marcus Smart

Marcus Smart has been the heart and soul of the Boston Celtics for the past several years, earning All-Defensive accolades and serving as the team’s do-it-all talent along the way.

However, with the horrid state this team finds itself in, it would appear that roster shakeups could be right around the corner and, when looking at all the players on the Cs not named Jayson Tatum or Jaylen Brown — otherwise known as the untouchables –, it’s evident that, should Danny Ainge and co. wish to get the biggest bang for their buck in a trade, Smart would be the one to offload.

That said, a great postseason performance could thrust the Swiss Army Man closer and closer to such a status with the Jays.

Perhaps the biggest negative to Smart’s game is his inefficient shooting coupled with his constant drive to keep pulling the trigger.

Boasting an underwhelming career field goal percentage of 37.6 and an even less desirable 32 percent shooting from deep on nine attempts from the field and nearly five from beyond the arc, the 27-year-old has often found himself constantly chucking up bricks which, in turn, have severely impacted the team’s performance on the offensive side of the ball.

This season alone, when comparing his shot attempts in wins compared to losses, it’s during the latter where we find him hoisting up the most attempts per game.

During wins, we see Smart putting up just 5.4 attempts from beyond the arc and nine overall from the field. Comparatively, in losses, we see these numbers bump themselves up to eight from deep and 12.3 from the field.

Tuesday’s play-in matchup against the Wizards showed the Smart shooting effect through both halfes for, at the end of the second quarter, the combo guard finished with the third most attempts from the field along with the second most from beyond the arc, converted on 37.5 and 20 percent of them, respectively, and found themselves trailing leading into the break.

In the second half, however, we saw Smart take zero attempts from the floor, but focused his attention on distribution (dished out five assists during final two quarters) and defense and, in turn, the Celtics wound up winning the game by 18.

Now, we’re certainly not saying that we wish Marcus Smart would never shoot and only focus on the game’s intangibles, as there are times he has proven capable of getting hot for Boston.

That said, finding a compromise between chucking aimlessly and avoiding shooting altogether will be a massive key to the veteran’s overall production moving forward and, quite frankly, could wind up having an impact on his offseason status as well.