Marcus Smart as sleeper for Defensive-Player-of-the-Year/2022

Bleacher Report's Dan Favale has broached the Celtics Marcus Smart as a sleeper candidate for the annual NBA Defensive-Player-of-the-Year Award.

Positionless defense is normally reserved for suffocating wings and bigs with fast-twitch feet. Marcus Smart doesn't just break the mold. He shatters it.

Standing 6'4", he can just about guard all five spots on the floor. The Boston Celtics have no qualms about lining him up opposite quasi-bigs.

The award normally goes to the defensive-minded bigs, and the last guard to take the award was Gary Payton back in 1996.

Smart marries his interior strengths with hyperactivity and a generally monstrous workload. Only seven players average more deflections per game, he competes like hell for loose balls and nearly two-thirds of his possessions are spent guarding opponents with top-three usage rates on their team, according to BBall Index.

Deflections, steals, in-your-shirt defense, taking on the bigs near the hoop - and generally "competing like hell" with a "monstrous workload". It's all there expect the size. I wrote about that "What if" scenario - with Marcus theoretically adding an additional 4-or-5 inches of height. That won't happen, but the DPOY Award is always a possibility for Boston's Wild Wolverine.

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