smart's right on in the first part. i was a pretty good defender at guard, and one of the things i always tried to do was dictate action (get them on their heels). just force them to react instead of act. when you face that as an offensive player, you have to be decisive and resourceful. some simple things like not making a catch at a dead stop if you're the ballhandler can make a world of difference. when they overplay in the backcourt, blow by but don't commit yourself to the break (they're trying to speed you up). instead, pull some john stockton stuff and step around and hit the brakes for a beat, etc.
THIS. Might look like a blow by at times, but force them to the help and then you can help the helper.
Couldn't get the shot to fall but 15/8 with the playmaking, defense and leadership... he was good (despite what the +/- says) Hoping he can get the shot to fall in game 2. More like this
couple tough makes in the paint when we needed something and a couple very nice passes to get guys easy shots. he just does everything...but shoot, lol.
it's a tradition at that point. any good PG on C Bags should know there is a home and fans adoration for him here. EDIT: LOL @Juronimo
Smart is such a big time player, man. He's not a good shooter by any means but he came through tonight knocking down big 3's. He's age 32 and clearly downhill in his career but played 35 hard minutes and showed he's still a DPOY type player when it matters. I want to see him end up winning a title. He changes everything for the Lakers. Communicates and motivates teammates, gets the crowd going, and just a fan favorite out there. 100% need to re-sign him.
Absolutely love players like Marcus, so much heart, playing out of his mind on defense. That first quarter was wild, just bombing threes helping us keep pace with Durant’s early scoring. Downside is he will almost certainly cost more next season, can’t see him picking up that option, same with Kennard.
I was thinking during last game that we probably will need to pay around big MLE money. He will have teams after him for sure that pay him the MLE. And he was bought out last year and kinda disappear from the league for a bit, so I imagine money is important at this stage, even more with his age and health He's such a winning player. What an insane game on both ends. Just love this guy
yeah, don't want to harsh the buzz right now, but team-building options where you keep both smart and kennard are dwindling. hard to see how we'd pull it off unless we just wanted to bring the exact same team back--and even then, it's trickier than it seems due to smart's contract situation.
Out of everyone on our team, I feel like Smart cares the most about winning. If we’ve got a team that can compete and we had they cruelly taken away via injury, it might be enough for him to opt back in. Although I think the chance of that happening is low. I do expect him to opt out and maybe do a 3year/30-40 million dollar contract. Which is probably around 12m per.
