Eight Year Later, The Question Has Not Changed For Boston Celtics’ Marcus Smart

Back in May 2014, at the NBA Draft Combine in Chicago, a sophomore guard from Oklahoma State—Marcus Smart—was facing a small parcel of gathered media. There was some question as to why Smart had gone back to OSU after his freshman year when it was clear even then that he would have been a lottery pick had he entered the draft.

Smart averaged 18.0 points as a sophomore, up from 15.4 as a freshman, and he took a slight leap from 4.2 assists to 4.8 assists. He also had a confrontation with a fan that cost him a three-game suspension and raised questions about his hotheadedness. But at the Combine, Smart was asked what he’d been trying to show as the league prepared for the draft.

“I’m sure that a lot of GMs and coaches are just like a lot of fans, (thinking) he’s not a true point guard, this and that,” Smart said. “I am trying to show them that I have embraced that role and just because I haven’t played it, I am more of a true point guard than I ever have been in my lifetime.”

Yes, that was Marcus Smart. Eight years ago.

Now here we are, three presidential administrations later, and Smart is still getting the same question, still giving the same answer. In a recent interview with Jay King of the Athletic, Smart said, “First coming out of college, I was a point guard. It’s what I played. So it’s kind of funny to hear people say I’m not a point guard. In high school, point guard, led my team to two state championships. It’s funny hearing people say I’m not a point guard.”

It is not, actually, all that funny and for Smart, it obviously is not new, either. Smart has never been a traditional point guard, not in high school, not in college and not in the NBA. He is an exceptional defensive guard but does not have the penetration skill and court vision that a playmaking guard should have. True, there are not many old-fashioned playmakers at the position anymore, but Smart is not new-school, either—he is neither a slashing scorer who gets to the rim nor a 3-point marksman.

He can be an effective player. But a starting point guard?

‘Point Guard Is Just Not An Instinct With Him’

It was never the intention of the Celtics to make Marcus Smart their starting point guard, no matter how much former team president Danny Ainge adored his intensity (Ainge saw a bit of himself in Smart’s ability to annoy opponents to distraction). Ainge brought in Kyrie Irving, after all, and when that experiment flamed out, he went after Kemba Walker. For all those heart-and-hustle plays Smart would make that endeared him to coaches and the front office, he never had the skillset to start at the position. Complementary combo guard next to Irving/Walker? Sure. Starter in place of them? Nope.

The problem the Celtics have now is that Smart’s main asset—his defense—does little to bolster the play of the team’s two stars, Jaylen Brown and Jayson Tatum.

“They want a guy like Lonzo Ball back there,” one Eastern Conference scout told me. “A good enough 3-point shooter who has good floor vision, who can be clever with the ball, who can set up teammates and just has an instinct for passing. Marcus, he has done what he can to make himself as good a point guard as he can be. But point guard is just not an instinct with him. You can see him, he has to think things through and it is just not quick and natural like it is for the really good point guards. Give him credit for making the most of his tools, really.”

Smart is averaging 5.3 assists this season, coming off the career-high 5.7 he averaged last year. Those are not bad numbers on a team that features Tatum and Brown so heavily. But he shoots within three feet of the rim just 13.9% of his possessions this year, and 17.9% for his career, according to Basketball-Reference.com. That is well below the career numbers of Irving (24.2%) and Walker (24.3%). And at 31.9%, Smart is an awful 3-point shooter for his career.

Coming into his draft year, Smart was trying to get folks in the NBA to see past his limited floor vision and perimeter shooting to view him as a point guard. Here we are, eight years later, and he’s still fighting that fight.