Does Marcus Smart really want to re-sign with the Celtics?
Marcus Smart says he wants to stay with the Celtics, but his contract demands sound like a player who wants to find a new team.
When you listen to Marcus Smart talk he sounds like a player who is determined to continue his carer with the Boston Celtics. That is, right up until he starts talking about the money he wants in his next contract. His desire to really get paid this summer makes it seem like his future lies away from Boston.
Smart makes no secret that his “heart” is in Boston, according to ESPN. He’s clearly formed a special bond with his Celtics teammates. They’re happy to have him on the floor alongside them even when he isn’t shooting the ball well. Unfortunately for Smart and the Celtics, that happens far too often.
Smart only shot a shade over 30 percent from 3 this year. That’s a serious handicap for a 6-foot-4 guard in the playoffs. Cleveland clearly based part of their defensive scheme around leaving him open for perimeter shots. That poor shooting contributed greatly to Smart posting the lowest PER of his career during the 2017-18 regular season.
Of course, evaluating Smart purely based on statistics doesn’t do his game justice. He does a lot of things on the floor that don’t show up in the box score. Smart is clearly one of the best perimeters in the league. He routinely takes his team’s most difficult perimeter matchup night after night. It’s hard to quantify just how much that helps his teammates conserve their energy for the offensive end of the floor.
That talent is particularly valuable for Boston in the playoffs. The Celtics weren’t able to overcome Cleveland in seven games, but Smart was a huge help in guarding LeBron James. He drew several key offensive fouls in the deciding game that helped keep his team in the thick of things.
Those unquantifiable qualities have given Smart a lot of confidence about his own abilities. He feels like he needs to be paid like an above average starter in the NBA. Specifically, Smart believes he’s worth more than “$12 to $14 million per season.” That figure is going to prove really difficult for Danny Ainge and the Celtics front office to accommodate.
The team already has over $107 million in salary committed for the 2018-19 season. That doesn’t take into account any money for Smart, Aron Baynes, Shane Larkin or Greg Monroe. It also doesn’t count any money for Boston’s first-round draft selection. Any massive deal for Smart is going to drastically reduce the team’s financial flexibility moving forward.
Smart has to understand that when he’s making his contract demands. He understands that Ainge and company really value flexibility. As such, paying Smart the sort of contract he wants would run contrary to the team’s operating philosophy.
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Marcus Smart either doesn’t care about staying in Boston or believes he’s a player that can force the team to give up on all of their financial flexibility moving forward. That means he either has an irrational confidence in his basketball abilities or he doesn’t really care about staying in Bean town. Time will tell which theory proves true.