For most of his career, fans have taken the good with the bad with Marcus Smart. Good Marcus meant hard-nosed defense and reckless abandon on hustle plays. Bad Marcus would turn from stuntman to dramatic actor as he tried to sell bad calls and take ill-advised shots. For better or for worse, both Marcuses were born out of a selfless need to impact the game.
The irony is unavoidable. On more talent-laden teams, there were times when Smart would try and do too much. Sometimes, that was necessary; reminisce over his barrage of threes in Game 2 against the Toronto Raptors.