Lots of people overvaluing smart. He was a 6th man who thought he was a starting PG. He was a below average passer and a volume shooter.
Defense was his calling card and he was not nearly as good at it this past season. Will he be missed? I guess. But Brad had the balls to make a big move and got a ton for him.
Over the past four seasons Smart has had playoff averages of 15.2 points, 5.3 assists, 4.5 rebounds and he's shot a 'passable' 42% / 35% / 81% from the field.
n the playoffs this he put up numbers in line with that but actually put up some of the best shooting numbers ive seen from him at 45% FG /36% 3PT /80% FT. His turnover average during this year's playoffs was also his lowest since he's been starting (which has basically been four years now). My biggest issue with Smart was always the bad shot selection and bad turnovers - I really didn't have much to copplain about in either regard during this recent playoff run.
Frankly, he's also been probably our 3rd most reliable clutch scorer over the past couple of years after Brown and Tatum - for all his issues he does have an uncanny tendancy to make big shots in big moments.
That being said, he does have a long career history of being very inconsistent from one game to the next, and a tendency of going into hero mode at the very worst moments, so moving him on will hopefully bring a little more consistency and stability to the team.
If nothing else it kinda does send a message to the team that pretty much nobody is untouchable, so hopefully that helps to motivate players to play the right way.