Marcus Smart has been on a tear this season defensively and he’s put the league on notice, so Jayson Tatum doubled down on Smart’s Defensive Player of the Year campaign.
Marcus Smart has done a tremendous job in recent months bolstering his case to be the Defensive Player of the Year Award winner, but the Boston Celtics point guard is in a close race against some pretty strong competition.
One of the players in the mix with Smart is Utah Jazz center Rudy Gobert.
The Frenchman is an elite defender and has won DPoY in three of the last four seasons, including last year. In fact, centers and power forwards have won this award every season since 1996 when Seattle SuperSonics point guard Gary Payton, nicknamed "The Glove", earned the honor.
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Smart is well aware of how big men have dominated this award in recent decades. He also understands why Gobert is again such a strong candidate to win it.
But the Celtics guard also believes his case for DPoY is stronger than Gobert's this season, and he explained why during an interview with ESPN's Tim Bontemps.
"Let's think about it," Smart told Bontemps. "As a guard, especially on the team that switches a lot, especially on the No. 1 defensive team, you are worried about every single player. And here's the thing: When you see Defensive Player of the Year, that means he can guard all five spots.
"Nothing against Rudy, but Rudy can't guard all five spots. I can guard all five spots and I have been doing it. I've done it very well."
It's true that Smart guards every single position. He doesn't always find himself guarding centers, but he often holds his own (or better) in those situations.
Where Smart really shines is against the league's best wing players. And when you consider most of the league's top players are guards or small forwards, that makes Smart's elite defense pretty important to Boston's overall success.
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The Celtics have the No. 1 defensive rating in the league, and it's their success on defense that's fueled the team's remarkable turnaround since New Year's Day.
Smart is no stranger to defensive recognition. He was named to the All-Defensive first team in 2018-19 and 2019-20. But Defensive Player of the Year is the big prize, and Smart might never have a better chance to win it than he does this season.
Boston's last five games of the regular season are a huge opportunity for Smart to further demonstrate his case as he battles three or four other candidates in a tight race for this award.
