The former DPOY is now just messing around! The Lakers 5 million will be wasted again!

In the opening game of the NBA, the league is very understanding of traffic and arranged the "Lake Warriors Battle", which has always been popular. It's just that James' absence has dropped the attention of this game by a notch.

And with Lao Zhan unable to play, all offensive responsibilities fall entirely on Doncic alone. Although he was full of firepower and scored a game-high 43 points. However, they could not withstand the attack of the Warriors with both fists. In the end, the Lakers lost at home by 10 points.

Looking at the entire game, except for Doncic and Reeves, the performance of all Lakers players was eye-catching. Among players who stretch their hips, Smart, who joined this summer, attracted ridicule. The former DPOY became everyone's biggest laughing stock. It also made the Lakers' signing a complete joke.

System players are not compatible

The reason why Smart was able to reach the peak of his career in the Green Army was entirely because the team at that time arranged a very complete defensive system around him.

At that time, the team positioned him as "defensive core + spiritual leader." Horford's internal barrier, the assist defense and supplementary defense of the two wings all allowed Smart to cope with defensive tasks more freely. Coupled with the fact that he did have obvious advantages in speed and size at that time, all this made him one of the best defenders in the league, and eventually helped him win awards such as DPOY.

But after leaving the Green Army, he did not enjoy such treatment at all, whether in the Grizzlies or the Wizards. Coupled with injuries and increasing age, this has led to more and more defensive holes in Smart's defense, becoming the main point of being exploded.

So this former defensive core became a defensive colander after leaving the Green Army.

The defense declines and the offense stretches the hips

In today's small ball era, if you can perform well on the offensive end, you can still effectively make up for the deficiencies on the defensive end. Unfortunately for Smart, his offensive hip pull is more eye-catching than defensive.

So far in his career, he has not been an excellent outside shooter. His three-point shooting percentage has always hovered around 30%-33%. Many big players' three-pointers are more than one level better than his.

And he completely lacks the ability to attack independently and cannot effectively connect the team's offense. So far in his career, he has averaged only 5.9 assists per game, which is far lower than the average of core defenders. The side effects on the offensive end, coupled with the decline in the defensive end year after year, all of this has gradually made Smart an abandoned player.

Poor attitude and various misbehaviors

After experiencing various transfers and ups and downs, Smart's mentality also had big problems. The first is the attitude towards the game. In every game, his mind is not on how to help the team win. Instead, he constantly conflicts with his opponents, or tries to attract the attention of the referee through various flops and collisions.

Such behavior seriously affects the normal performance of the team. But Smart didn't care about this and still went his own way and performed various performances without any lower limit. Today's game against the Warriors is the most realistic portrayal of his career in recent years.

If you want to scratch the lottery ticket, the Lakers have to pay tuition

During this summer offseason, the Lakers chose to complete the signing with Smart. He chose to give up nearly 7 million in salary and finally got a contract with an annual salary of 5.1 million. The Lakers chose to sign him based on two considerations.

Saving money is the most important thing. For the current Lakers, they no longer have much salary space. James and Doncic occupy most of the resources, as well as players like Reeves and Hachimura. This leaves the Lakers with no more money to sign better players.

wants to scratch the lottery ticket. Although Smart has become better and better in recent years, he can't stand the fact that he once had a very high ceiling performance. Therefore, the Lakers' choice to sign him is completely a lottery ticket, betting that Smart can regain his form. Unfortunately, judging from the current situation, the Lakers' 5.1 million is completely wasted.

The Lakers don't have to expect him to get back to his form. If he can play with peace of mind and stop messing around, it will be a great success!