Player Facts
Height: 6'3"
Weight: 220lbs.
Date of Birth: Mar. 6, 1994
College Experience: Oklahoma State (2 years)
Selections
All Star: 0
All-NBA: 0
All-Defensive: 3
Player Grades
Speed/Explosiveness: 6
Physical Strength: 8
Positional Size: 5
Positional Wingspan: 7
Paint Scoring: 5
Midrange Scoring: 4
Three-Point Scoring: 6
Dribbling: 6
Passing: 8
Perimeter Defense: 8
Interior Defense: 6
Rebounding: 5
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STRENGTHS
Intro
The 6’3” Marcus Smart is a pestering, hard-nosed defensive player. His dense 220-pound frame helps him be a true multi-positional defender. Smart offers some gap-filling value on the offensive end as well to accompany his shutdown defense.
Supporter
Smart fulfills a relatively simple role on offense. Now in LA beside superstar creators LeBron James and Luka Doncic, he can sit tidily into this ancillary niche while focusing on defensive energy expenditure. He is best suited to play next to other creators and work off their initial penetration with cuts and re-locations.
Marcus decisively speeds past overeager closeouts. He can capably score or dish in these moments. That playmaking-on-the-move ability is one that many basic perimeter players lack; therefore, Smart affords some surplus value here.
As a semi-capable shooter himself, he has made real strides since breaking into the NBA. He does a good job of getting ten toes pointing towards the basket on his threes. Smart’s concise shooting motion and follow-through help him knock down some shots for his squad.
Marcus circles the perimeter to foster a clean passing angle for his slashing teammate. His off-ball offensive values continue on with some nice short-roll playmaking as the screener. Smart’s playmaking from an advantageous standstill spot is very strong.
Solo Offensive Work
Smart also has good touch on leaners and runners towards the edge of the paint. He likes to get a running start off the dribble handoff, focused on getting a floater off. The scrappy combo guard also has the ability to penetrate without a direct ball screen and has some light post-up value.
He shot a pretty solid 41.0% on non-restricted area paint shots in his last healthy Boston season - 2022-2023. The Oklahoma State alum also finished strong at the basket that year - 66.4% on 110 attempts.
He uses his robust build to wedge himself between ball and man as he snakes pick-and-rolls. Marcus’ buckets at points here were comprised of numerous pull-up threes against sagged bigs. Second-side ball-screen or closeout-attacking offense is a good role for Marcus to provide value in.
Playmaking Inputs
Marcus is a skillful pocket passer to his diving big or back-cutter. He has good timing on these hookups, putting the optimum amount of speed on it. He managed to produce 15.7 assist points created per night in 2022-2023. This statistic just edged out point guards Dejounte Murray and Jamal Murray right behind him.
The unselfish Smart continues to create for teammates with a pass-first driving game. He's able to throw kickout darts across his body to the opposite corner shooter. Additionally, Marcus uses deception and sleight of hand to perform the odd highlight-reel pass.
His “connective tissue” type passing is also an offensive asset for the hybrid guard. Smart is capable of making rapid reads on the catch. These sorts of touch passes are often high-leverage dimes that lead to open threes or layups.
Perimeter Defense
The defensive talents of Marcus Smart are as assorted as they are valuable. When evaluating his work on this end of the hardwood, there's no one place to correctly start. He’s bothersome on the perimeter, unforgiving in the paint as a guard, a vocal defensive commander, and very much switchable.
A fine place to start in an analysis of Smart’s defense is his man defense in space. Marcus excels on the back of his physical tools in concert with his lofty IQ here. He'll gingerly mirror the movements of his counterpart as he awaits a chance to strike. These strikes come in the form of lunging strips, having nice reach with a 6’9.25” wingspan.
Swift lateral quickness and a hungry mindset ensure that Marcus has a good shot of getting back in plays. When guarding players with superior speed, Marcus almost invites them to get by so that they let their guard down slightly. From here, Smart can pickpocket them from behind or chop down on the basketball while they gather.
Forcing Turnovers
In 2024-2025, his 2.6 deflections per game bested players like Jrue Holiday, Jalen Suggs, and Matisse Thybulle. If this poke-away morphs into a 50-50 ball, Smart will be one of, if not the first guy, to hit the deck. In fact, he was tied with energy defenders like Josh Hart and Tari Eason that year with how many average defensive loose balls he recovered.
These defensive sequences often lead to runout possibilities. Marcus does well to scan the floor and process his options rapidly. An accurate outlet passer, Smart loves the one-handed rifle bounce pass to a streaking mate.
Defensive Versatility
The numbers behind of Marcus’ isolation defense firmly back him up. He conceded only 0.75 points per possession in isolation during 2018-2019, good for the 79th percentile. In his 2020-2021 DPOY season, his defensive win shares totalled an absurd 3.7, given his guard status.
A key factor in his continued success here is the fact that he can guard a myriad of player types. In his prime, there was nobody outside of bulky bigs and the LeBron James and Kevin Durant's of the world that were a disastrous matchup for Marcus. As he ages, speedier guards are not always the best matchup for him anymore.
One indicator of Smart’s flexibility is how well he defends the post. He commences by jockeying for positioning with his man. He’ll then get physical and use as many disruptive tactics as he can muster.
Marcus is by no means a bona fide stopper in the post on the whole. However, if you measure him fairly against his positional peers, it becomes apparent that he's special for his size. Leaguewide, he ended up in the 77th and 74th percentiles of post defense for 2018-2019 and then 2019-2020.
Point of Attack Defense
His screen navigation is typically textbook, a necessity to have in your defensive resume at guard. Smart starts by getting his hip into the thigh of the screen-setter. This acts as a pivot point where he can then continue to rotate his body towards his defensive assignment.
Marcus uses his quickness to chase pick-and-roll initiators who choose to drive. Oppositely, he applies the effective rearview contest against pull-up artists.
Smart implements these same techniques and clever physical maneuvers to blow up dribble handoffs. The Oklahoma State product allowed fewer points per possession on handoffs than dynamos like Jrue Holiday and Jimmy Butler back in 2018-2019.
Off-Ball Defensive Profile
Thanks to an uncanny ability to read and react on defense, Smart negates otherwise fruitful actions while off-ball. The highly attentive Marcus sticks with cutters and closes out to shooters in accordance with their hot zones. He chops his feet on the closeout to limit the chance of a blow-by.
Smart racked up 330 three-point contests in 2018-2019, fourth in the Association. The makeup here was littered with both pull-up and spot-up threes where Marcus made a concerted contest effort. All in all, shooters dropped 1.7% from deep compared to their normal clip with Marcus there that year.
Marcus rounds out his off-ball defense with incredible feats of rim protection. He couples a crisp rotation with a spring out of the charge circle to block significantly taller players. Between this and his fearless charge drawing, Smart provides some meaningful rim protection at 6’3”.
In 2019-2020, opponents shot only 1.5% better than they usually would within six feet with Marcus paint-bound. To compare, taller defense-first guys like Robert Covington and Royce O'Neale allowed higher clips here.
Remaining Strengths
Some final miscellaneous positive points on Smart’s game are his rebounding help and stellar transition defense. Regarding the boards, he had 4.2 per 36 minutes in 2019-2020 with 47.1% coming off three-point misses. This shines a light on how the gritty Smart determinedly tracks down out-of-area caroms. In transition, he chugs to get back and allow nothing easy at the tin.
WEAKNESSES
Offensive Decision Making
Marcus’ soft spots lie primarily on offense. He could stand to improve his shot creation ability in a league brimming with masterful offensive guards. The pestering Rubio is annually among league-leaders in deflections and steals. In 2019-2020, he recorded 2.7 deflections per game. On the steal side, he plucked 1.4 per contest that year.
Marcus’ soft spots lie primarily on offense. He could stand to improve his shot creation ability in a league brimming with masterful offensive guards. The pestering Rubio is annually among league-leaders in deflections and steals. In 2019-2020, he recorded 2.7 deflections per game. On the steal side, he plucked 1.4 per contest that year.
In particular, Smart’s shot selection is subpar. He chucks up plenty of bad shots from downtown. His decision-making with the ball in his hands is a bit wonky, attempting feats either beyond his skill level or downright foolish.
In 2019-2020, he shot 33.3% on corner triples and 35.4% on above-the-break ones, putting up an abundance of the latter.
Furthermore, he is particularly streaky from long range on both a season-to-season and game-to-game level. For example, his catch-and-shoot triple clips were 31.3%, 38.7%, and 31.4% in the three seasons from 2017-2018 to 2019-2020. 2022 to 2025 saw him never surpass 35% on overall three-point accuracy.
It would also serve Marcus and his team better for him to be more potent as a driver. He can be a bit out of control on these takes to the cup. In 2018-2019, he averaged a modest 3.5 drives per game, which produced only 1.4 points.
To compound his suboptimal slashing, his rim finishing is not great by any stretch. Marcus has the strength to barrel inside and properly shield the ball. Still, a lack of touch around the iron zaps any hopes of being an elite finisher. He put up only 1.6 restricted area shots per contest in 2019-2020 on a terrible 47.4% mark.
Stuck at the Two/Injuries
Finally, Marcus is not a good enough playmaker to log big point guard minutes. Despite being the traditional size of a lead guard, Smart’s non-elite passing repertoire shoehorns him into playing the two on offense. One or two superior playmakers next to him are required to deliver a high-functioning offense.
Availability has also been a huge mid-career issue for Marcus. He suited up in just a combined 54 games between 2023-2024 and 2024-2025. These maladies have also zapped him of some of his footspeed and agility; never necessarily strengths for him to begin with.
Players Appearing Here – Check Out Their Profiles
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- Jalen Suggs [Coming Soon]Opens in a new tab
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- Kevin Durant [PATREON]Opens in a new tab
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