DPOY

Marc D'Amico

It’s awards season at Celtics.com! We’re handing out six awards throughout mid-October as we roll through this year’s Celtics.com Awards Series. We may not have trophies or acceptance speeches, but we do have some top-flight Celtics performances to outline. Here we go...

BOSTON – We’ve finally arrived at the final installment of our 2020 Awards Series, one which gives Marcus Smart his second award of the season. Smart has added Boston’s Sixth Man of the Year digital trophy to his collection that also features this year’s Defensive Player of the Year award.

The Twitter voting for the Sixth Man of the Year Award was the most convincing of any of the awards. Smart was nearly a unanimous winner, having garnered 91.9 percent of the 17,523 votes.

One might wonder why Smart was eligible to win this latest award that’s dedicated to a reserve, seeing as he started 40 of his 60 appearances during the regular season and 16 of his 17 games during the postseason. The answer to that question is simple: he started those games because he was the team’s most important and impactful reserve.

The Celtics were riddled with injuries throughout the season at multiple positions. Gordon Hayward missed 19 regular-season games plus the majority of the postseason, Kemba Walker missed 15 regular-season games, Jaylen Brown missed 13, and Jayson Tatum missed five. Smart was the reserve who was called upon to step into the starting lineup for nearly all of those absences when he was available to do so.

The sixth-year guard delivered in those spot-starts, just as he did as a reserve. His approach to the game never changed, and that’s what Brad Stevens loves about him. It’s a given that Smart will play each night with effort and energy while defending at a high level and creating offense both via the shot and the pass.

That’s a lot for a reserve to bring to the table.

Let’s start out at the defensive end of the court, where Smart earned his second consecutive All-Defensive First Team honor this past season.

Smart led the Celtics in both total steals (101) and steals per game (1.7) for the second consecutive season. He limited opponents to 42.8 percent shooting from the field, which led Boston’s top eight rotational players with regard to playing time.

The guard was also one of only six players in the NBA to average at least 1.7 steals and 0.5 blocks per game on the season.

Rightfully so, the defensive end of the court is where Smart garners most of his attention. His impact at the offensive end for Boston oftentimes flies under the radar.

Smart ranked fifth on the team in scoring with a career-high average of 12.9 points per game. He ranked third on the team in made 3-pointers with a total of 137, all while ranking eighth in the NBA (minimum 50 attempts) in 3-point percentage on pull-up 3s (40.1 percent). Smart also had Boston’s fourth-best free throw percentage among players who attempted at least 40 freebies, at 83.6 percent.

Smart’s shooting boosted the Celtics on many occasions, but his ability to make plays while protecting the ball was showcased every night. He set a new career high in assists per game with a team-leading average of 4.9, and he also led the team in total assists (291). All the while, Smart rarely turned the ball over. He compiled the fifth-best assist-to-turnover ratio in the league among guards who averaged at least 28 minutes of playing time per game.

These statistics and achievements are what one would expect from an NBA starter. Smart played great basketball for the Celtics all season long no matter what the role. He excelled as a spot-starter, and he excelled when coming off the bench.

He was Boston’s de facto sixth starter, a role commensurate with the most important and impactful reserve on the team – its Sixth Man of the Year.

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2020 Awards Series Sixth Man of the Year: Marcus Smart

There are a couple of award winners in our series that are no-brainers. Marcus Smart as the Defensive Player of the Year is one of them, as evidenced by your overwhelming voting results.

Smart’s outstanding defensive season can be recognized both from a Celtics team perspective and from an overall league perspective. We’ll examine his standing within the team first.

The sixth-year combo guard became the first Celtics player in nearly a decade to receive back-to-back All-Defensive First Team selections. The last player to do so in Boston was Rajon Rondo, in the middle of Boston’s most recent Big Three era, back in the 2009-10 and 2010-11 seasons.

The difference between Rondo back then and Smart now is that Smart serves as a Swiss Army knife for Boston’s defense. He not only defends the opposition’s top perimeter scorer nearly every night, but he also switches onto true big men and holds his own – at the very least – in the land of the trees.

You name a dominant scorer, and Smart served as a primary defender against him. From Damian Lillard to James Harden to Giannis Antetokounmpo to LeBron James to Luka Doncic, Smart answered the call with success night-in and night-out.

While defending players of superstar caliber on a nightly basis, Smart somehow still managed to lead the team in multiple defensive categories. He led Boston in both total steals (101) and steals per game (1.7), marking the second consecutive season during which he accomplished that feat. He also limited opponents to a paltry 42.8 percent shooting from the field this season, a percentage that led Boston’s top eight rotational players based on playing time.

Maybe the wildest statistic of all is that Smart did all of this while playing in only 60 of Boston’s 72 regular-season games during the 2019-20 season. That’s efficiency.

Smart racking up team-leading stats despite missing time also plays a role in the significance of the following outline of Smart’s defensive standing among the league as a whole. The defensive-minded guard still managed to rank eighth in the entire league in steals this season while missing more than 17 percent of Boston’s season and while coming off of the bench for a third of his appearances. Smart was also one of only six players in the entire league who averaged at least 1.7 steals and 0.5 blocks per game this season.

The Celtics are very well aware of how fortunate they are to have a player like Smart who brings it at the defensive end every night and impacts winning at a high level. Brad Stevens, who has coached Smart during all six of his NBA campaigns, outlined that fact the day after Smart’s selection to the All-Defensive First Team in early September.

“He’s special in his ability to guard individually and guard as a team,” said Stevens. “You could see that from the moment he got here, and he makes us all better.”

Stevens went on to explain that Smart’s presence played a critical role in Boston’s ability to surprise many and rank fourth in the league in defensive rating this season.

“Going into the year I don’t think many people thought we were going to be a very good defense,” the coach said. “But we still had a ton of versatility and a ton of guys that really knew how to play, and we had one of the best defenders in the league to lean on. I think that that is contagious.

“I think that his instincts make our whole team better. They help when we make a mistake as a team. He’s in the right place. He sees the game. He can direct people where to go. He knows how to play.”

And those traits are reasons why Smart is, yet again, the undisputed Defensive Player of the Year for Boston for the 2019-20 campaign.

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DPOY

2020 Awards Series Sixth Man of the Year: Marcus Smart

2020 Awards Series Defensive Player of the Year: Marcus Smart