Smart isn't always the best player on OSU.
http://bleacherreport.com/articles/1...oma-state-back

NBA prospect doesn't enter into the equation, as I said before. We are talking about NCAA.

Smart is obviously very good, but he does a lot of really stupid shit, too.

I've noticed that in the past couple of seasons with Smart and the rest of the team... they take more than their share of really stupid shots.

No, regardless of a few ill-advised shots, he almost always is. Contributes in a variety of ways (scoring, facilitating, rebounding, defense) in a way and to an extent that nobody else on OSU does. Even when he shoots poorly, he has a huge impact on games.

I'm aware. Smart's the better NCAA player of the two at this point in their careers. He takes on a major responsibility for OSU and handles it very well.

Who doesn't at the college level? The point is that the positives far outweigh the negatives for him.

They've gotten much better in this regard than last year. Better offensive efficiency from the team as a whole (which speaks to Smart's distribution skills and Forte's ridiculous sharp shooting).

Well, he certainly impacted it last night. He was busy bricking shots while ignoring the guy who was 6-6 on his attempts from 3. Markel Brown has been a better player for his team than Smart lately.

Disagreed.

As good a shooter as he is, Forte relies on others to create shots for him (Smart being the key distributor this season in that regard). I'm assuming Smart's creation ability had a hand in a few of those shots yesterday.

And please, Markel Brown doesn't do half the things for OSU that Smart does.

Noted, but objectively he is. His antics really seem to have irked you.

Not really.

He shoots better from all over the court and turns it over less.

Antics aside, Smart isn't a particularly good ball handler, can't really shoot and tries to play the hero far too often. All he really does on offense is bully into the lane and try to draw a foul, but he's not a particularly good FT shooter, either. Last night, he was 3-11 from 3. He has to know that he's not a good shooter and pull back from that. That's what a good PG does. It's the reason people lambaste Tharpe for taking shots he shouldn't be taking when he shouldn't be the one shooting them (although that has cooled a bit since he started hitting them).

He's very, very good on defense, though. I can't really criticize anything about his game there.

Yes, Forte's shots come from the creation abilities of others (which, on that team, is mainly Smart).


And contributes less in every single area of basketball beyond the ability to hit open perimeter shots at a greater efficiency (that he generally doesn't create for himself). There is no comparison.



Among players from major basketball conferences (B10, B12, BE, AAC, ACC, P12, SEC) that take on as significant an offensive role for their teams as Smart (30% Poss), only Doug McDermott, Russ Smith, Jabari Parker, and Roberto Nelson have been more offensively efficient than Marcus Smart this season (by ORtg). For a guy who supposedly can't shoot or handle the ball (which isn't exactly true), he seems to find a way to contribute quite a lot offensively for his team. That speaks to his elite creation abilities (and yes, his ability to get to the line is a major part of that).

As for Tharpe, he's suddenly turned into one of the most efficient shooting guards in the country this season after being one of the worst last season (which Smart has clearly never been). If anything, Tharpe should be shooting more (although that might get him back into his old patterns).

An alumni who is on national TV often, and just a random fan. He's more under a scope than you are. Quite different.

Interestingly, Marcus Smart's closest statistical college comparison in both his freshman and sophomore seasons is '08 and '09 James Harden at ASU.

If Smart's ceiling as a NBA player is something like James Harden with great defense, perhaps he should be considered higher in the draft than he currently is.

That part is correct; I was talking about last night.

He still just isn't a great shooter. His handles are average. I'm not sure how heavily ORtg factors in getting fouled, but that's gotta be a big part of it.

I don't think anything he tweeted crossed the line. IIRC, he might have been engaging in trolling KU fans for a while after that game, but that's nothing unusual in the sports media game.

Didn't have a good game last night, but he still played a role in creating shots out there.

Not a great perimeter shooter right now, but his 2PT FG% has gone up a ton this year. And yes, FTs are part of it.

Depends on your interpretation. Neither of us know DG on a personal level, so we don't know if he was trolling or not.

I thought it was a little excessive for an alumni of his caliber. I would be embarrassed if I was an OSU fan.

But, to be fair -- I haven't seen him do it in re: any other B12 game. So, he must be jealous of KU's success.

https://twitter.com/GottliebShow

I'm just not seeing anything particularly bad on that feed. During the OSU game and after it, he questions a joke technical on Traylor, calls Embiid an NBA all-star, questions a few more calls both ways, jokes about Wiggins being missing, and then pokes fun at the fact that KU fans are so offended by Smart's flopping by posting that Paul Pierce Celtics fake injury image (which is probably where my trolling memory came from). I don't know what, if anything, he said on the broadcast, but based on that, you sure you're not being overly sensitive with this?