I don’t really understand how Marcus Smart fits in with this iteration of the Celtics, but as long as he continues to torment Celtics fans with his outsized contract and streaky play, I guess I’m fine with him remaining a Celtic. He was re-signed in the off season to be, I assume, the primary backup PG behind Kyrie (sorry Rozier, you’re booty now and the Celtics always intended to trade you even if you weren’t booty, which you are), but just because he remained in the backup PG role, that doesn’t mean his role didn’t change. Because it seems like it did.
Smart is shooting fewer shots this season and is actually averaging the fewest shots per game of his career. He’s also receiving fewer minutes than ever before. Maybe that means he focuses more on defense, which would be good because his offense has always been frustrating to say the least. Or maybe Coach Stevens finally got through to Smart that jacking up three-pointers that you can’t make is not a winning strategy.
The fact that opposing guards keep torching the Celtics should in no way be an indictment of Smart’s defensive abilities, only because I don’t care about defense and won’t pretend to have a valid opinion on the matter. Just saying. Opposing guards keep going off on them.