Tramel's ScissorTales: Why Celtics' Marcus Smart should be a model for Thunder's Luguentz Dort
Berry TramelMarcus Smart is the longest-standing current Boston Celtic. This is Smart’s eighth season in Celtic green.
Maybe Luguentz Dort can become the Thunder’s Marcus Smart.
Smart is what the Thunder hopes Dort can become. Not just a defensive savant, not just a productive scorer, but a winning ballplayer.
Dort is on his way. But Smart is there.
The former OSU Cowboy on Monday was named the NBA Defensive Player of the Year, the first guard to be so honored since Gary Payton way back in 1996.
The award was aptly-timed, coming less than 24 hours after Smart was front and center in one of the NBA’s best first-round playoff games in years, the Celtics’ 115-114 squeaker over Brooklyn, won on Jayson Tatum’s spinning layup at the buzzer, off a Smart pass.
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Smart and Dort are similarly built. Smart is 6-foot-3, 220 pounds and looks like a linebacker. Dort is 6-3, 215 and looks like a fullback.
Smart and Dort are similarly productive. Believe it or not, Dort through three seasons is a higher scorer than is Smart through eight years – 13.3 to 10.5 (points per game) -- and outshoots Smart in both 3-point percentage (.333-.321) and 2-point percentage (.463-449).
Smart and Dort are similarly indelicate players. They attack the basket and any defensive assignment with ferocity.
But there are differences. Smart is the smarter and savvier defender, due in part to experience. Dort is getting there quick, though. And Smart is the more complete offensive player. He’s the Celtic point guard, a status bestowed last off-season, after years as the Boston sixth man. Smart, a point guard at OSU, is a playmaker, this season averaging 5.9 assists per game, to Dort’s 1.7.
Smart’s court awareness was on display in the final seconds Sunday, in Game 1 of the Boston-Brooklyn playoff series. With the Netropolitans leading by one, Boston’s vaunted defense presented a formidable wall on Brooklyn’s final possession, with Smart sticking with Net magician Kyrie Irving. Irving eventually had to give up the ball to fellow superstar Kevin Durant, who missed a contested 25-footer with about 10 seconds left.
Boston hurried the ball upcourt, Jaylen Brown drove the lane, converged the defense and passed to Smart on the wing. With the clock ticking down, Smart pump-faked, Nets Durant and Bruce Brown came flying past him with three seconds left and everyone on the Eastern Seaboard thought Smart would shoot.
Instead, Smart sensed the Celtics suddenly were playing 5-on-3. He took a dribble, saw Tatum cutting and hit him with a pass that led to the buzzer-beating layup.
Typical Smart play. Winning basketball. His final line in Game 1: 20 points, seven rebounds, six assists and clutch shooting, including four of nine on 3-pointers.
And oh yeah, playing the league’s best defense.
The NBA voters certainly thought so, picking Smart over Phoenix’s Mikal Bridges and Utah’s Rudy Gobert. Full disclosure – the 7-foot-3 Gobert is the league’s best defender. He changes games well before they start. Gobert’s incredibly long arms protect the rim and cut off passing lanes. He’s a one-man Jazz defense. However, when teams go small, they can negate Gobert’s impact, as the Mavericks did Monday night in a sizzling shooting display.
There is no negating Smart’s defensive impact.
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“It’s understandable why it was such a big man award,” Smart said, according to celtics.com. “They do so much in helping their team on that end. We give so much credit to the big men. But those guards, they’ve been working, we’re the front line; you have to get past us first, and that’s how us guards feel.
"To be able to be named the Defensive Player of the Year and be the first guard since Gary Payton in 1996 to win this, it just shows that it can be done. The way the game is changing, the guards have been more recognized for their ability to do certain things we shouldn’t be able to do at our size, and this award and me winning it opens the path for guards in the future.”
The Celtics surprised Smart by having Payton on hand to deliver the news of the award. Then Smart’s teammates sprayed him with water in celebration.
“First off, I definitely want to thank you guys: my coaching staff, teammates,” Smart said. “It’s not easy playing in this league full of guys like Jayson and Jaylen who score the … ball the way they do and getting the recognition on that defensive end, trying to guard those guys every night. This is eight years, man, just trying to do what I do. You guys allowed me to do that.”
Smart played at OSU in 2012-13 and 2013-14. He was a tremendous defensive player in the Big 12 and was the conference’s 2013 player of the year. The Celtics drafted Smart sixth overall in 2014, and he’s become a Boston institution.
Rob Williams, the Celtics’ injured center, finished seventh in defensive player of the year voting and lauded Smart.
“A lot of my defensive grit and my will to fight out there I get from just watching him,” said Williams. “Even in practice, him being vocal. On the court, he’s a great defensive anchor for us, but he’s a better leader. And he doesn’t even know it. He’s always talking, putting guys where they need to be.”
The Thunder just hopes Dort can become the same thing in Oklahoma City.
Thunder report card: Darius Bazley
Darius Bazley was an intriguing Thunder rookie two seasons ago, then had a disappointing sophomore year. His third NBA season was going sideways, too, but Bazley turned it around and reinvented himself.
Our series of Thunder report cards continues with the third-year forward who is eligible for a contract extension and seems likely to get it.
Defensive versatility: A
Thunder coach Mark Daigneault made a tremendous discovery midway through the season. Bazley was capable of perimeter defense against a variety of opponents. When Luguentz Dort was sidelined with injury, Bazley occasionally (often?) drew the assignment of opponents’ best perimeter player. Even the likes of Chris Paul. Bazley’s interior defense improved, too. Bazley is 6-foot-9 and athletic, and his ability to stay in front of accomplished perimeter players is a major boost to OKC’s defense going forward.
3-point shooting: D
Bazley shot an encouraging 34.8 percent from deep as a rookie. But he fell to 29 percent last season and made just 29.7 percent this season. The percentage of his shots that were 3-pointers was the same this season as last season, 41.4 percent. That’s too high. Only a quarter of Bazley’s deep shots were from the corner, from where he made 33.3 percent this season.
Ballhandling: C
As a rookie, Bazley was billed as a potential point forward. A tall facilitator with passing and dribbling skills. That hasn’t developed into truth. A year ago, Bazley’s turnover rate of 13.7 (13.7 turnovers per 100 possessions he ended) was the same as Shai Gilgeous-Alexander, and a power forward should never be as loose with the ball as a point guard. But Bazley dropped that turnover rate to 11.1 this season (incredibly, again the same as SGA). Bazley’s assist rate fell from 8.9 to 7.7, but that’s OK. He seemed to realize he’s not the next Draymond Green; the offense will not run through Bazley.
Basket protection: A
In 2020-21, the Thunder was 23rd in blocked shots per game, 4.4. That number improved to 4.6 this season, 17th in the league, despite the loss of 7-foot-2 Moses Brown, who led OKC in total blocks a year ago. The difference? Bazley. He blocked 70 in 69 games, a 1.0 average that doubled his average from the previous season. Bazley has quick hops; he’s not Nerlens Noel, but Bazley makes opponents take stock of his whereabouts. And Bazley’s length also is a factor on 3-point shots – he blocked several from unsuspecting shooters.
Start: D
Bazley played in 69 games. The first third of those games were abysmal and made you wonder if his NBA days would be short. In those 23 games, Bazley averaged 8.4 points with horrid shooting percentages -- .354 overall, .272 from 3-point range and .619 on foul shots. And while his rim protection was evident, his defensive versatility had not blossomed. But over Bazley’s final 46 games, he averaged 12.0 points by shooting .454 overall, .309 from deep and .711 from the foul line. In a nine-day, six-game span in March, Bazley averaged 22.3 points and made 54.4 percent of his shots.
OSU once had a Varsity-Alumni Game, too
OSU doesn’t have enough healthy offensive linemen to stage a legitimate spring football game. Or, apparently, a full-scale scrimmage.
“We will have 25 offensive linemen in August, so we’ll be just fine,” Gundy said Monday. “We just don’t have them right now.”
Players returning from injury, incoming transfers and freshmen not yet on campus will bulk up those numbers. But that’s not enough to save the spring finale from being a glorified practice, which will be Saturday at Boone Pickens Stadium.
For a few years in the 1970s, OSU had a solution to such a problem. It staged a Varsity-Alumni Game.
OU’s Varsity-Alumni Game, a 34-year tradition, last was played in 1982, though there was a quasi-renewal in 1994, when country singer Toby Keith, who did not attend OU, much less play football for the Sooners, suited up for the Alumni and suffered a broken ankle. Should’ve been a Cowboy, I suppose.
But OSU got in on the Varsity-Alumni business in 1976. In 1975, the Cowboys staged an Orange-White spring game, but with this twist. One team was made up of first- and second-teamers, while the other team was made up of alumni and down-the-roster members of the varsity.
Some alumni were so excited, they petitioned for a full Varsity-Alumni game, and that’s exactly what the Cowboys produced for three straight years, 1976-78. Quarterback Brent Blackman was among the participants. So was Jon Kolb, then a starting offensive lineman for the Pittsburgh Steelers.
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But the concept was beginning to be past its prime. Today, the notion seems silly. Players a year or three or 10 out of college, some employed by National Football League teams, suiting up with minimal practice or conditioning, to play a game against a major-college varsity team.
In Jimmy Johnson’s first spring as the OSU coach, the Varsity-Alumni Game was scrapped. To ignite interest, Johnson turned the Orange-White Game over to the media. Oklahoma City-area media coached one team, Tulsa- and Stillwater-area media coached another.
Scholarship reductions began to make spring games more difficult to produce opposing rosters. Intrasquad scrimmages became more common.
But with the transfer portal making rosters more in flux, even scrimmages aren’t assured.
“Just practice,” Gundy said. “We don’t have enough big guys up front to split up and have a game. We’ll have a full practice. We’ll have individual drills. We’ll have some 7-on-7. We’ll have some inside drill. We’ll have a team thud period, which will be just like a spring game with the exception that it’ll be just offense vs. defense.
“That way, if we have to rotate linemen in, we have them on that particular sideline.”
Not quite as romantic as the old Alumni games. But much more practical.
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The List: Baker Mayfield odds
The NFL Draft is next week, which could bring some clarity to Baker Mayfield’s future. The embattled Cleveland Browns quarterback is expected to be cut or traded before the 2022 season.
Sportsbetting.ag has set the following odds for Mayfield’s eventual landing spot:
1. Carolina Panthers 2/3: Will the Panthers take a quarterback at No. 6 in the draft?
2. Houston Texas 5/2: Still the most reasonable landing spot. Do the Texans really want to go with Davis Mills?
3. Detroit Lions 6/1: The Lions can’t be high on Jared Goff, right?
4. Philadelphia Eagles 15/2: Whoa. Would Philly really stage a Mayfield vs. Jalen Hurts derby?
5. Seattle Seahawks 9/1: Mayfield himself said Seattle seemed to be the most likely suitor.
6. Pittsburgh Steelers 12/1: I don’t see the Steelers being interested, after obtaining Mitch Trubisky.
7. Atlanta Falcons 14/1: Atlanta made its choice – Marcus Mariota.
7. New Orleans Saints 14/1: An underrated possibility. I can’t see the Saints being thrilled over Jameis Winston.
9. Chicago Bears 18/1: Justin Fields, anyone?
10. New York Jetropolitans 20/1: Zach Wilson, anyone?
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Mailbag: Don’t forget Kareem Abdul-Jabbar
The debate never ends over the NBA’s greatest player of all time. Fans never get enough.
Bryan: “I’m a professor of behavioral studies … so I’m a fairly accomplished professional, having published articles, given many TV and radio interviews on pseudoscience, etc. I’m making these observations more as a critical thinking expert than a fan. I wonder why most/all sports TV and radio hosts/analysts harp on the fact that LeBron is better in his 19th season than Kareem was in his year 19. This punishes Kareem for going to college, which LeBron did not attend. So the correct way to compare them is to remove data the last four years of Kareem’s career, and estimate his productivity by adding four years to the start of his career, where he was the most devastating and productive. If Kareem had not gone to college, I doubt LeBron would be close to breaking his scoring record. I understand biases, and there are so many the public has, unconsciously, about Kareem, it wrongly practically eliminates him from a GOAT discussion. I'm just stunned that I don't hear this from experts. Further, Kareem made the NBA All-Defense team 11 times (to LeBron's 6). Does defense matter anymore? If the biases didn't exist, I think the GOAT discussion would be about Kareem, MJ and LeBron.”
Tramel: I’m in general agreement that Jabbar is overlooked. I think it’s quite simple. The Jordan PR machine took over 30 years ago, much of it through Nike marketing, and wiped out any real discussion of previous NBA history. Thus, any debates (Kobe, LeBron) came over players who followed Jordan, not preceded him.
“There are interesting debates to be made about Russell, Wilt and Kareem. But they were pre-Nike, so they are lost in the branding era.
“As far as Jabbar in particular, though, the debate never should be about what someone could have done or would have done. It’s about what they did done.
I think it’s squishy to say Jabbar should get more credit for playing four years in college – and thus LeBron less credit for skipping college. Yes, Jabbar’s numbers and accolades would have increased had he spent those four years, 1965-69, playing in the NBA instead of at UCLA. But Jabbar DID go to college. He scored a bunch of UCLA points and won three straight NCAA championships and was widely hailed for those successes. Most knowledgeable historians say Jabbar is the greatest college player of all time; personally, I don’t think it’s even close. So there’s a tradeoff.
When these guys were 19, 20 and 21, Jabbar was playing 30 games a year and the median opponent was Washington State, while LeBron was playing 90something games a year and the median opponent was the Portland TrailBlazers.
This should never be about estimating. Jabbar did what Jabbar did, and it was glorious. LeBron has done what LeBron has done, and it’s glorious.
I tend to pick LeBron as the NBA’s greatest player ever. That’s mainly because of longevity. Still this great, after 19 years. There are reasons why other players didn’t sustain greatness for 19 years. Injury. Retire to play baseball. Go to college. Doesn’t matter.
Berry Tramel: Berry can be reached at 405-760-8080 or at btramel@oklahoman.com. He can be heard Monday through Friday from 4:40-5:20 p.m. on The Sports Animal radio network, including FM-98.1. Support his work and that of other Oklahoman journalists by purchasing a digital subscription today.