Why Marcus Smart is an untouchable asset for the Boston Celtics

It’s rare that you find an athlete like Marcus Smart who can leave Boston Celtics fans with such vastly different opinions on his contributions as a player.

For years, a decently large percentage of the franchise’s faithful followers have been pleading for the front office to ship him out of Boston. They cite reasons such as Smart’s shooting inconsistencies and strong-headed mentality as just cause for running him out of town.

And for years, I have strongly disagreed.

His new role as the starting point guard for the Boston Celtics, to me, makes him one of their most irreplaceable players. Smart has undoubtedly been the team’s best and most consistent playmaker over the last few years, and his vision as well as his uncanny knack for making cross-court passes directly to a cutting teammate’s hands make him the perfect distributor in head coach Ime Udoka’s offensive scheme.

The C’s don’t necessarily need a lead guard who can consistently get you 20 points per game.

With Jaylen Brown and Jayson Tatum in the lineup, the primary focus for the offense should be getting them the ball and creating open looks for the two of them. Sure, the two star wings can create their own shot, but Boston’s offensive woes have always lied in their lack of secondary scoring, not in the starting lineup.

The Boston Celtics tried out Kemba Walker, they tried Kyrie Irving, and they tried Isaiah Thomas, all of whom are point guards whose primary focus is to score.

Though certainly offensive machines in their own right, that’s never been the type of player that the C’s have needed at the point guard position, and this especially is true now.

Among players with at least 400 assists last season, Marcus Smart ranked second in the NBA in turnover to assist ratio, trailing only the immortal Chris Paul. For a team that was dogged by their turnover troubles throughout the playoffs, Smart was one of the best in the league at finding open teammates while not coughing the ball up.

Sometimes, I like to think back to the Big 3 years. Was Rajon Rondo a scorer? Absolutely not!

His job was to get the ball in the scorers’ hands, to open up passing lanes, and to take the pressure off the C’s star players.

That’s what Smart does so well in this current scheme.

Now I’m not saying that Marcus Smart is Rondo, not by any means. I’m saying that Rondo was the prototype guard for an offense that features elite scorers. All the Boston Celtics need is for Smart to be their playmaker, and he’s done an excellent job doing that.

If their suffocating defense was Cerberus, then Smart was holding the leash.

His perimeter defense is undoubtedly among the best in the league and was one of the reasons why he won Defensive Player of the Year this season, becoming only the second point guard in NBA history to win the illustrious award.

The primary reason for why Boston’s defense was so suffocating was because of their ability to constantly switch, and Smart’s frame as well as his defensive ability led him to be able to effectively guard the opposing team’s big men.

No other point guard in the NBA can do that.

In the past we’ve seen the Boston Celtics hide Irving, Walker, and Thomas on defense. Last year’s team saw their defense spearheaded by a player at the one spot, and with the emergence of Robert Williams as one of the premier defenders in the league, there is truly no player that opposing offenses can attack.

While looking at what he brings physically to the table, people are always quick to overlook the Swiss Army man’s intangibles. His tenacity and desire to lay it all out on the line are truly infectious. His mentality pours the gasoline in the team’s fuel tank of intensity.

There’s a noticeable difference between when Smart is in the locker room and when he’s not.

His ability to be a leader can’t be overlooked.

Multiple times throughout the C’s recent playoff run we saw the guard on the sidelines leading huddles. Ime Udoka is considered a premier defensive coach, and Smart’s ability to lead and execute defensive strategies is a key reason why the Celtics were able to turn their season around after they finally bought into Udoka’s vision.

While the Boston Celtics will only go as far as Jayson Tatum and Jaylen Brown can take them, none of it works without Marcus Smart. His offensive role on the Celtics is exactly what they need out of their point guard spot, and his defensive capabilities are what allowed them to emerge last year as one of the greatest defenses the NBA has ever seen.

A few years ago, I tweeted that Marcus Smart is on the short list of untouchable players for the Boston Celtics, and this past year should be a prime indicator as to why that should be.

I believe Smart summed it up best himself when he said:

"“I hear the talks about ‘He’s not a true point guard’ and this and that. ‘They need a star point guard.’ We’ve had star point guards, and yet this so-called non-point guard is the only one that’s led them to the Finals.”"

All things considered, moving forward, Marcus Smart should be viewed as nothing less than untouchable for the franchise.

Agree? Disagree? Whatever your thoughts may be, feel free to leave them in the comment section below!