The Marcus Smart Question

[Roy H.]

Marcus is an expiring contract next year. What should we do with him?

The options seem to be:

1.  Keep him long-term. I assume that he will get a contract somewhere between $18 million and $25 million per year.

2.  Let him hit free agency, with the intention of letting him walk and replacing him with Fournier.

3.  Trade him in the off-season. If we’re not going to keep him, we get value and give his replacement time to work into the rotation.

4.  Trade him at next year’s deadline.  Plenty of contenders would love to have him, even if it is on a three month rental.

[droopdog7]

Will depend on how the team is doing.  Hard to spend big on a team with no chance.

[Goldstar88]

Marcus is an expiring contract next year. What should we do with him?

The options seem to be:

1.  Keep him long-term. I assume that he will get a contract somewhere between $18 million and $25 million per year.

2.  Let him hit free agency, with the intention of letting him walk and replacing him with Fournier.

3.  Trade him in the off-season. If we’re not going to keep him, we get value and give his replacement time to work into the rotation.

4.  Trade him at next year’s deadline.  Plenty of contenders would love to have him, even if it is on a three month rental.

I feel like $18m/year is his max worth considering his inability to shoot consistently. For his Career, Smart is a 32% 3pt shooter and 37% from the field.  I’d like to keep him if it is at or below the $18m/year mark. 

[Celtics2021]

Marcus is an expiring contract next year. What should we do with him?

The options seem to be:

1.  Keep him long-term. I assume that he will get a contract somewhere between $18 million and $25 million per year.

2.  Let him hit free agency, with the intention of letting him walk and replacing him with Fournier.

3.  Trade him in the off-season. If we’re not going to keep him, we get value and give his replacement time to work into the rotation.

4.  Trade him at next year’s deadline.  Plenty of contenders would love to have him, even if it is on a three month rental.

My hope is that we are able to extend him this summer.  The max extension we could give him would be 4 years, $77 million, with year one at $17.2 million.  That feels like in the right ballpark for his value, such that an extension would be possible.

[slamtheking]

He's a terrific player to bring off the bench when he plays to his strengths.  it's when he tries to do too much that he becomes ineffective and hurts us while on the court. 

I wouldn't mind keeping him on a reasonable deal but I suspect his next deal will be more than I think is reasonable.  I think it'll come down to trading him -- either after the season while he still has a year left for another good bench player that fills a gap in the front court or Danny waiting until the next trading deadline to see if health is what the team needed to improve and it wasn't so he moves Marcus to get something before losing him for nothing because he doesn't want to resign a limited player.

[ozgod]

Marcus is an expiring contract next year. What should we do with him?

The options seem to be:

1.  Keep him long-term. I assume that he will get a contract somewhere between $18 million and $25 million per year.

2.  Let him hit free agency, with the intention of letting him walk and replacing him with Fournier.

3.  Trade him in the off-season. If we’re not going to keep him, we get value and give his replacement time to work into the rotation.

4.  Trade him at next year’s deadline.  Plenty of contenders would love to have him, even if it is on a three month rental.

I'd be ok with re-signing Smartacus for the lower end of that scale, like $18-20m. If it was $25m I think it would be an overpay. I see him like a Draymond type player - he's not good enough to lift a team by himself but he has a multiplicative effect on good players he plays with. That's what I'd be working for. But if we can't work a deal out then we just let him hit free agency or trade him at the deadline, rather than trade him this summer.

On a personal note I love Smart and hope he retires a Celtic. He just needs to be realistic about a) his value and b) what he brings to the team. He needs better judgement on when we need Steady Smart (who is still a pretty good player) and Spectacular Smart (where he makes high risk plays that can be spectacularly good or spectacularly bad).

[Atzar]

The rub with Marcus Smart is that it's difficult to spend $20M per year on a guy who plays his best basketball if he's NOT one of your best players.  It's hard to make that work under the NBA salary cap. 

[Moranis]

If the team brings back Fournier, then I think they will trade Smart.  There is no reason to have 2 bench wings making pretty darn good money on the team.

[slamtheking]

If the team brings back Fournier, then I think they will trade Smart.  There is no reason to have 2 bench wings making pretty darn good money on the team.

I think the other key to trading Smart is the development of Romeo into Smart's role with hopefully better (more consistent) scoring. 

[perks-a-beast]

#3...I’d like to use him in a sign and trade for Lonzo Ball...

[Birdman]

#3...I’d like to use him in a sign and trade for Lonzo Ball...

Smart for Ball works straight up in trade machine..I do it

[Roy H.]

#3...I’d like to use him in a sign and trade for Lonzo Ball...

It’s pretty unlikely that we see any sign-and-trades, as we’d become hard-capped.

[PhoSita]

I'd love to keep him, but I fear the financials will require them to use him as a sweetener when they trade Kemba or Thompson to clear salary.

I expect that they will be forced to explore that option given the basic facts

1. They can't afford to re-sign him, even to a team friendly deal, unless they move Kemba without taking back long term salary.

2. Smart on a one year deal has a lot of value for a team looking to make a deep playoff run right now; he has much less value for a team that is in the position of having to figure out a core rotation for the near-term.  The Celts are closer to the latter than the former, in my opinion.

[Celtics2021]

#3...I’d like to use him in a sign and trade for Lonzo Ball...

It’s pretty unlikely that we see any sign-and-trades, as we’d become hard-capped.

Yeah, it would essentially be Smart and Fournier for Ball, because it would be very difficult to fit Fournier's new contract under the hard cap.

[Moranis]

#3...I’d like to use him in a sign and trade for Lonzo Ball...

It’s pretty unlikely that we see any sign-and-trades, as we’d become hard-capped.

we can't sign and trade without eliminating significant salary.