Marcus Smart Beginning to Rewrite Scouting Report on Young NBA Career

With his muscular frame and determined mindset, Marcus Smart is tearing down any rookie wall that was supposed to stand in his way. 

While so many first-year talents fail to break free from the confines of their pre-draft scouting reports during year one, Smart is rewriting his with an authoritative stroke.

As a prospect coming out of Oklahoma State, Smart was considered a wrecking ball of sorts. He could barrel into the lane and torment defenses with his stocky 6'4'', 225-pound measurements on one end and prevent ball-handlers from imposing their will on the other. However, marksmanship wasn't exactly in his wheelhouse. 

Draft Express' Mike Schmitz wrote the following before Smart was selected No. 6 overall by the Boston Celtics in the 2014 draft: 

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Smart makes a living inside the paint, as he relishes contact and gets to the free throw line nearly ten times per-40 minutes, while finishing 57% of his shots around the basket in the half-court. The role he will play in the NBA appears to be well defined, as he's very good in transition and on the pick and roll, and is more than capable of creating shots for himself and others, something he appears to have improved on in his sophomore year.

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Regarding Smart's very apparent deficiencies as a shooter, Schmitz added: 

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On the downside, Smart still sports a very inconsistent jump-shot, something that didn't really improve from his freshman to sophomore seasons. His shooting mechanics leave a lot to be desired, as he dips the ball violently, and fades forward and sometimes sideways on his release. That wouldn't be that big of an issue if Smart didn't take as many jumpers as he does—nearly half of his field goal attempts came from beyond the arc, and he hit just 30% of them, many being contested ones early in the shot clock.

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But now those contested shots are a thing of the past. And Smart will be the first to tell you so. 

"In college I took a lot of bad shots because I was on a team where I had to take a lot of bad shots," Smart said, according to NBA.com's Marc D'Amico. "Here, I just have to knock down open shots and take the good ones."

After shooting 29 percent from three as a freshman and 29.9 percent as a sophomore at Oklahoma State, Smart is proving there's much more to his game than bullying defenders in the lane. 

On the most basic level, Smart is holding his own by knocking down 36.5 percent of his shots from beyond the arc. Among floor generals, that's a more efficient mark than Jeff Teague, Kyle Lowry, Kemba Walker, Eric Bledsoe, John Wall and Derrick Rose. 

Free looks on the perimeter have not been hard for Smart to come by, either. According to NBA.com, Smart's drilling 43.7 percent of his catch-and-shoot threes, with 42.4 percent of his total triples coming when the closest defender is at least four feet away. 

Rookies—especially point guards—aren't supposed to knock down threes at rates that high. Even if they are open. 

"When he takes good shots, he makes them," Celtics head coach Brad Stevens said following Monday's 102-93 loss to the Los Angeles Clippers, per D'Amico. "I think that he was a better shooter than his percentages coming in. I think he was forced to have the ball so late in the clock. … occasionally he’ll settle for that late 3 instead of driving the ball."

Player	Season	3P%
John Wall	2010-11	29.6
Eric Bledsoe	2010-11	27.6
Kyrie Irving	2011-12	39.9
Brandon Knight	2011-12	38.0
Kemba Walker	2011-12	30.5
Damian Lillard	2012-13	36.8
Victor Oladipo	2013-14	32.7
Michael Carter-Williams	2013-14	26.4
Trey Burke	2013-14	33.0
Marcus Smart	2014-15	36.5

What's so fascinating about these developments is that Boston is actually deploying Smart as a pseudo three-point specialist. It would have been impossible to forecast given his scouting report, but Smart's average shot distance to date is 19.7 feet, according to Basketball-Reference.com. Consequently, 66.7 percent of his total field-goal attempts have come from beyond the arc. 

Here's a look at his shooting heat map, courtesy of NBASavant.com: 

Credit: NBASavant.com

Since the start of the New Year, Smart has been particularly prolific, banging home 42.9 percent of his treys over the course of his past 10 games. 

By my tally, 16 of Smart's 18 made threes in that span have come via catch-and-shoot opportunities, with the rookie favoring spot-up looks from the top of the arc and wings. That distribution has been indicative of his strategic preferences through 26 games, loading up 71 triples from straight away or just off-center and a combined 23 coming from the corners, per NBA.com.  

As a contextual note, that same data indicates Smart is attempting 74 percent of his threes from above the break, which is 40 percent greater than the league average. 

This isn't just a blip on the radar. Unlike so many ball-dominant starting point guards who enter the league dependent on high usage rates, Smart has been just the opposite. 

Funny enough, his usage rate of 13.0 in January is currently a season-low for any one month. That number corresponds with an offensive rating (126) that's suddenly 27 points higher than it was in December, per Basketball-Reference. 

Displaying a methodical commitment to progressively expanding his arsenal at a time when it would have been so much easier to be overwhelmed by a daunting acclimation to the NBA, Smart appears to be grasping subtle nuances of the pro game with surprising speed. 

Factor in Rajon Rondo's departure, and the franchise's immediate responsibility to groom Smart as the next floor general to prosper on the parquet just got a whole lot easier thanks to a surprising spike in long-range savvy. 

All statistics current as of Jan. 21 and courtesy of NBA.com and Basketball-Reference.com unless noted otherwise.