Boston Celtics: The Marcus Smart effect

Boston Celtics guard Marcus Smart is one of the NBA’s most tenacious defenders. His grit and effort on the court has become a staple of his game.

Marcus Smart has proved to be one of the most valuable and crucial long-term pieces on a Boston Celtics roster littered with talent and youth. His grit, hustle and defensive determination have been a boost for a Celtics team struggling to find consistency this season.

When Brad Stevens moved Smart to the starting unit following Jaylen Brown’s injury, he was applying Smart the same way he does in-game to a longer-term solution. Stevens used Smart to inject energy, hustle and defense into a sluggish group.

Marcus Smart is still best used off the bench, and I will defend that, though he needs starter-level minutes.

He may be the most versatile defensive guard in the league and Stevens can feel comfortable, with the help of the individual size and versatility of the other Celtics, subbing him in for anybody in game.

He guards Stephen Curry and Kristaps Porzingis alike; there is no matchup too daunting for the 6’4” bulldog.

His perchance for hustle and grit has rubbed off on other players, too. Veteran Al Horford constantly praises Smart for his on-court leadership and savvy.

Superstar Kyrie Irving has spent many a postgame interview musing about Marcus Smart, exclaiming his love for late night binges on Smart’s defensive highlights. I mean, who could blame him, though?

You can see it with the eye test, as well.

Kyrie Irving plays the game with a hustle and determination that may not have been necessarily apparent during his time in Cleveland. He dives on the floor, gets right in opposing players jerseys, and jumps passing lanes with a vigor welcomed by all fans of the game.

It’s no coincidence, either, that Kyrie Irving is tied for the team lead in charges drawn during a stretch where he has shared the court consistently with Marcus Smart.

Marcus Smart has proven himself a key cog in the machine the Celtics hope will rule over the Eastern Conference someday soon.

On a team so filled with talent and lucky placement on the right coast, the playoffs are essentially a sure thing even for a Boston team still struggling to find that consistent winning rhythm.

Here is where Marcus Smart thrives; here is where Smart, and his talents for creating on court chaos, lift the Celtics.

Make no mistake about it, playoff basketball requires talent, which the Celtics have by the boat load. Kyrie Irving, Jayson Tatum, Gordon Hayward, Jaylen Brown – take your pick.

Each can kill an opposing team any given night and each has already proven to show up in the playoffs. But plenty of teams have talent, especially the deeper you dive into the playoffs.

Where teams separate themselves is quality of the role player. Everybody desperately wants to win, diving on the floor for loose balls, fighting like hell through screens, and guarding each possession like it could be there last.

Remember that scene in Dark Knight Rises during Bane and Batman’s first fight, and Bane taunts Batman by saying the darkness does not help him, he was born into it, molded by it? That is like Smart in the playoffs.

I do not care who is diving, if there is a group of the most talented players in the world with Smart in the middle all going for a loose ball, I will put any money I have on Smart getting possession of that ball.

The vast majority of players cannot match Marcus Smart’s tenacity, even in a playoff environment, and all the chaos on the court in the postseason plays directly to Smart’s greatest strength; outworking everyone else out there.

Marcus Smart has been to two consecutive Eastern Conference Finals and has been to the playoffs every season so far. The Celtics team he was drafted to looks far, far different than the one he currently plays for.

They had to fight their way through the regular season, tooth and nail just to get a shot at the playoffs.

They snuck into the 8 seed, only to get summarily swept by LeBron James and the rest of the Cleveland Cavaliers. They built on it, improved the next season and fought to the last breath against a talented Atlanta Hawks team.

After that, they became an unlikely first seed due to their scrappy play and execution. Then, Isaiah Thomas really emerged as a star, Danny Ainge flipped him for Kyrie and the rest is history.

If not everyone on those teams fought every game, just for a shot at the playoffs, they would not have seen the postseason.

Smart is the last one standing from those Celtics teams. It has been ingrained into him that in order to succeed, yourself, and your team, has to out-work, out-hustle, and out-discipline the opponent.

Success is not a given in the NBA. It comes to those who have the talent, and work at it, consistently. The Celtics have the talent; as long as Smart serves as the team’s engine, their heartbeat, Boston will be so, so much better for it.