ESPN Insider David Thorpe has ranked this year’s crop of rookies. Marcus Smart is ranked 12th behind the likes of Joe Ingles, Langston Galloway, Jordan Clarkson and Tarik Black and is classified as “Struggling:”
As a catch-and-shoot guy, Smart continues to play well. He has to be accounted for off the ball because he can make perimeter shots, including 3s, off the catch.
As a pick-and-roll player, however, Smart is still mostly clueless, constantly settling for long and/or bad jumpers with five or more seconds left on the shot clock. The good news is he’s getting a lot of minutes and opportunities in the ball-screen game, giving him many reference points to study come summer.
<cough>Bull-sh@t<cough>
While Thorpe references the defensive prowess of other rookies on this list (Wiggins, Noel, Exum), he inexplicably omits Smart’s strongest skill. Yup, a guy almost universally renown as an elite defender gets ZERO credit in this analysis.
Thorpe does praise Smart’s shooting but considering this was Marcus’ biggest weakness coming out of college, you’d think it would get more than a ho-hum reference.
The criticism of Smart’s PNR game is accurate. No way to argue that. But Smart could have my PNR skills and he’d still deserve to be ranked higher on this list.
Add The Sports Daily to your Google News Feed!
