Zach Lowe on the BS Podcast yesterday and they touched on Smart's contract situation. Simmons thinks 4 years, $40-44 mil is fair for Smart (I agree), Lowe thinks that Smart will reject that offer and take his qualifying offer to become an unrestricted free agent next year in a potentially more open free agent market.
Lowe also tries to come up with a number the Celtics won't pay for Smart and says, "14, 15, 16, I don't know..." So he's not quite sure what is too high for the Celtics but he starts thinking about the $14-16 mil a year range.
Also, fwiw, Simmons asks Lowe a couple of yes or no questions and when he asks "Is Kyrie Irving on the Celtics next year?" he says, "Yes," with complete confidence, no hesitation and there's no discussion about it at all.