Fantasy Basketball: What To Do With Marcus Smart?

By Dave Fuqua | Jan 22, 2015

Today the Boston Celtics announced that Brad Stevens may make some lineup changes for the game against Portland.

Brad Stevens says that he may tweak the starting lineup tonight. He says he wants to find a lineup that matches up best vs. Portland.
— Boston Celtics (@celtics) January 22, 2015

I have a feeling that this could involve moving Marcus Smart into the starting lineup, which would make him even more of a must-own player across all fantasy basketball formats. According to the ownership percentages on ESPN.com, Marcus Smart is only owned at a 10.1% clip. This is something that has to change right away. He may struggle with some things as rookies often do, but I believe that come playoff time for head-to-head fantasy leagues Marcus Smart will be rolling with this job.

Over the last two weeks on only 28 minutes per game, Marcus Smart is averaging almost 9 points and 5 assists a game with 2.5 rebounds and 1.5 threes a game. As his confidence and his minutes grow that number will likely grow exponentially as he continues to master the offense and get a feel for the NBA game.

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While Danny Ainge continues to thin out the Celtics roster there will be very little left to compete with Smart for minutes and he should ascend to an easy 36 minutes per game where his stats could easily escalate to 13 and 7 or 8 assists a game. That may even be a bit conservative.

The time to buy on Smart is now, but if you are in a dynasty league, there is a good chance the buy-low window is slammed completely shut already. In a re-draft league though, you could probably still get Smart, either as a waiver wire pickup or possibly by trading a player who is playing above his head right now. But you had better move fast, because once coach Brad Stevens takes the leash off of Smart, the sky is the limit for this talented young man.

Standing at a nice 6’4 and 220 pounds, Smart is already built to handle the stress an NBA season will put on a young player, and even though his percentages are not great, they are improving. Smart was called the “ultimate intangibles” guy by a boston.com blog because of his winning attitude and the way he handles himself on and off the court.

So if you find Smart on your league’s waiver wire you need to pick him ASAP and get ready for him to pick it up and take it to the next level. If you find someone else already has him it could serve you well to try to send out a floater kind of offer. Now don’t go and send some terrible offer, but make it respectable and see what happens. Remember, if it’s an offer that would tick you off when you open it, it will likely tick your league mates off as well, so don’t do it.

Next: Should I Pick Up Aaron Gordon?

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