The Athletic’s Sam Amick has rated the 2019-20 performances of Boston Celtics All-Star forward Jayson Tatum and veteran guard Marcus Smart highly, both making the cut for respective end-of-season awards in the analyst’s estimation.
Tatum’s torrid post- All-Star nomination tear was good for a forward slot on Amick’s ballot for All-NBA Third Team, and Smart’s uncanny defense on players positions 1 through 5 got him a spot on the Athletic writer’s All-Defensive First Team.
The Texan defensive nightmare got his nod because he is “A ball-hawking [hound] who can slow the game’s most elite scorers every time out, while the Duke product got his given he “blossomed just like so many predicted he would once Kyrie Irving left town”.
That isn’t the assessment we recall here at the Celtics Wire among many national writers (though not as far as we can recall about Amick, to be fair), though we concur with the Athletic analyst’s view that it “didn’t make it any less impressive to watch.”
Notable potential Celtic candidacies omitted by Amick were Tatum in the Most Improved Player category, head coach Brad Stevens in the Coach of the Year Race, and — regrettably — Smart being on the ballot in the Defensive Player of the Year race, given his size and defensive flexibility.
The analyst must have dinged him a bit for Friday’s performance against the Thunder.
We kid, of course.
