There are just under five minutes left in the first half and the Lakers are trailing the Wolves by five points. Their defense is a bit scrambled and Austin Reaves is isolated against Julius Randle above
the break, shaded towards the left side of the floor.
With just nine seconds left on the shot clock, Randle wants to drive to punish his matchup, but Marcus Smart is showing some help just off of Anthony Edwards to not only spring into action should Randle try to go middle, but to almost bait a pass to Edwards, who could then leverage that advantage into a drive of his own.
Randle sees Smart and fires a pass to Edwards who drifts some to his right to give himself the angle to drive. Smart, however, has read all of this and recovers quickly, mirroring Ant’s movements and cutting off that immediate angle.
Edwards, then, goes into the type of hypnotic dance he’s put on many an isolation defender en route to a highlight bucket. Pounding the dribble down with his left hand, crossing back to his right, and then back to his left, looking for the slightest shift in weight from his defender. And then he uncorks the move he wants, a between-the-legs crossover back to his right hand, exploding towards the basket and trying to use his unique combination of speed and strength to beat Smart to the rim.
Smart, though, isn’t fooled by any of it and instead slides with Edwards the entire way, ceding space but never advantage. Edwards, inching closer to the basket, feels a bit of help from Rui Hachimura from the corner reaching in and gathers the ball in order to rise up and attempt a shot. But it’s too soon for that and Smart, still right there, reaches in with his vice-grip hands, snatches the ball, and rips it away with enough force to spill him onto the ground with the ball still cradled in his arms like a mother clutching her baby.
As Smart hits the ground — and while still on his backside — he sees Austin Reaves streaking up the court and throws a perfect outlet pass that Austin converts into a fast break layup.
When the Lakers lost Dorian Finney-Smith to the Rockets in free agency, I was not quite sure how the team would replace him — or if they even could at all. Finney-Smith was both a defensive-minded player who could space the floor and a good locker room presence whose competitiveness and commitment to playing the right way combined with an ability to not take himself too seriously, to take a dig or to be coached hard.
In other words, he could be a key role player and a part of the leadership fabric of the team, which is the exact sort of figure contending teams lust after. Losing a player like this is both a hit to your on-court competitiveness and your culture.
When Marcus Smart was bought out — something the Lakers had almost certainly gotten wind of well before it happened — he leapt to the top of my personal wishlist for players who could not only replicate some of what DFS provided on the court as a plug-and-play defensive lynchpin, but off the court as a contributor to the culture and foundation the team would try to build as a hard-nosed outfit that would play hard (and smart) on both sides of the ball.
And through the Lakers first nine games, of which Smart has played in seven, he has been all of that and more. He’s not only serving as a quasi-replacement for Finney-Smith — while playing a totally different position — but actually providing more when accounting for his more varied skill set offensively and a more lively and active style defensively.
More to the point, what Smart is doing for the Lakers is providing a level of defensive playmaking on one end of the floor while also providing real utility as a secondary ball handler and sometimes shot creator on the other.
These two things work hand in hand, but let’s take them separately for a moment.
Defensively, the play highlighted above is one of many that Smart has already made in the early part of this season where he’s not only helped generate a stop for the team, but actually taken the ball away and not even allowed the opponent to get a shot up at the basket.
In another play against the Wolves, a scramble for a loose ball led to a possible runout by Julius Randle, who was heading up the court about to receive an outlet from Rudy Gobert. As Randle gathered the ball and turned to head up court, Smart swooped in, deflecting the pass and getting a steal. Several Lakers had not yet gotten back down court from the scramble and Smart kicked the ball ahead to Austin, who threw a lob to Rui for a highlight bucket.
A little over a week later in a game against the Heat, Smart was defending Andrew Wiggins as he came up from the corner to run a dribble handoff (DHO). Smart locked and trailed Wiggins, but reached in as the DHO was about to happen, poking the ball away. All in one motion, Smart fended off Wiggins for the ball and then spun and threw a backwards scoop pass to a streaking Rui for an easy dunk in transition.
On the other side of the ball, Smart’s history as a point guard who can credibly initiate offense has been a boon for a Lakers team that has been without LeBron for the entirety of the season while also seeing both Luka and Austin miss multiple games due to injury. On many possessions, you’ll find Smart serving as the player who brings the ball up court, getting the Lakers into their sets and helping them remain organized on that side of the ball.
This has not only allowed the Lakers the flexibility to begin possessions with Luka and/or Austin off the ball but he’s also directly served as a replacement for them in the games they’ve missed, giving the team another playmaker who can credibly run a pick and roll, penetrate the defense to create shots for himself or teammates, or simply eat up possessions where he gets the team into their sets effectively enough for a player like Ayton or Rui to be able to flow into the top option.
Beyond this sort of work as a primary ball handler, though, Smart is also serving as a wonderful connecting piece when he is flanked by both Dončić and Reaves.
Smart is a good enough shooter to knock down open threes from the corners or above the break, but he’s even more valuable as a ball mover and decision maker who can make the quick pass both from spot up positions and when on the move, either when attacking a closeout or when catching the ball on a cut and then quickly dishing the ball with touch pass to an even more open teammate.
On one such play, Smart made an entry pass to Luka on the right block against the Heat. When Miami double teamed Dončić, Smart cut to the rim hard and received a pass from Luka. Rather than go up for a short floater or press for a layup, Smart instantly recognized the help was coming and threw a touch pass lob to Jaxson Hayes. It was a bang-bang play and one that only a player with good enough feel could actually execute.
Smart’s made several plays like this, not necessarily for dunks, but hitting open teammates around the perimeter or on cuts to set them up for makable looks. It goes without saying, but there is immense value in having this sort of connective passing on your team as it’s able to extend and capitalize on the advantage players like Luka and Austin have been so good at creating this season.
And all of this bears out in the numbers. In the 206 minutes Smart has played this season, the Lakers are better on both sides of the ball with him on the court than off. The team’s defensive rating is a tremendous 104.4 when he’s in the game, a whopping 17.3 points per 100 possessions better than when he sits. Offensively, the gap is not as big, but the team is still 5.2 points per 100 possessions better when he plays vs. when he sits, indicative of all the ways he’s contributing to the team’s success on that end of the floor.
In what is no coincidence, this all translates to Smart leading the team in raw plus-minus at +69, 23 points better than the second-best Laker (Austin) and 43 points better than Luka and Jaxson Hayes, who are tied for third. This sort of thing simply does not happen without him bringing a certain amount of production, but also in all the ways he helps connect the team with his skill set on both sides of the floor.
Beyond the actual basketball execution and stats that translate to raw production, though, there is simply the edge Smart brings to the game every time he steps on the court.
When the Lakers headed to Portland on the second night of a back-to-back without any of LeBron, Luka, or Austin available, Smart stepped in as the primary offensive initiator and simply played hard and aggressive on both sides of the ball, signaling to the Blazers that this was not going to be a walkover game for them. The Lakers won that game on the strength of huge performances from Nick Smith Jr., Ayton, and Hachimura, but Smart’s general toughness and tenacity to compete helped set the terms of engagement.
In the team’s most recent game against the Spurs, Smart was instrumental in the team’s defensive gameplan on Victor Wembanyama, playing physical and making sure that wherever the third-year superstar went on the court, he’d play in a crowd. Smart ended up drawing two offensive fouls against Wemby, one stepping in on a charge when Wemby was attacking the rim and another in isolation against a post-up after getting switched onto him and then battling him for every inch.
Smart also drew a defensive foul against Wemby, attacking him hard in the paint on a night where too many Lakers turned down chances to be aggressive because he can be such a deterrent at the rim. After beating ball pressure at the top of the floor, Smart saw Wemby hanging near the restricted area and just jumped right into him, forcing him to foul. Considering Wemby ended up fouling out on the night, it goes without saying that Smart earning three of those fouls himself was important!
Of course, Smart is not a perfect player and the Lakers have seen how his aggressiveness can cut both ways. Late against the Spurs, his too-quick inbounds attempt to try to seal the game led to a turnover for not being all the way out of bounds, giving San Antonio multiple unexpected opportunities to tie the game. In other games, he’s taken some quick pull-up threes that aren’t necessarily the best looks, but were there to be taken because the defense wants him firing away in those moments.
This is also part of the Marcus Smart experience and something fans of every team he’s been on can speak to in one form or another.
That said, I’ll happily take some of these plays in exchange for all the other ones he’s making. Because on this team, those are the ones directly impacting winning while also helping establish the identity and attitude of playing physical and consistently hard in every moment of every game.
You can follow Darius on BlueSky at @forumbluegold and find more of his Lakers coverage on the Laker Film Room Podcast.
