Are the Celtics and Marcus Smart headed for an ugly divorce?

The Boston Celtics want to keep Marcus Smart, but he wants a massive contract. Those two goals are ultimately going to force Smart to leave Boston.

Restricted free agency can be a very lonely place in the NBA. That’s exactly where Marcus Smart finds himself at the moment. The Celtics front office wants to keep the versatile guard, but not at the salary range he believes he deserves. That means Smart’s days in Boston are numbered.

In fairness, he will likely return to the Celtics and play one more season for Brad Stevens. The lack of cap space available throughout the league in the moment makes Smart signing an multi-year offer sheet paying him the reported $15-$17 million he wants per season highly unlikely. That’s why Smart is threatening to sign his qualifying offer.

Doing so would put Smart on a one-year deal for just over $6 million next season. That’s well below what he believes he deserves to be paid, but it would allow him to hit unrestricted free agency next summer. Theoretically, he’d be in a better position to get paid then due to the projected rise of the salary cap.

If Smart does hit the unrestricted market, the chances of him returning to Boston become greatly diminished. Danny Ainge and company certainly like him as a player, but he’s never going to have a starring role with the Celtics. The team simply possesses too much high-end talent to hand that sort of responsibility to a player whose offensive skills are that limited.

Ainge would be thrilled to sign Smart to an offer somewhere around the mid level exception, but that’s not something Smart and his representatives are going to accept. They will seek a long-term deal paying him starter level money. It’s hard to imagine Ainge approving an offer in excess of $10 million for a player who would almost certainly come off the bench for his team.

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Given the lack of quality wings available in the NBA, another team will feel comfortable paying, and playing Smart as a starter next summer. Celtics fans who are attached to his high-effort game need to enjoy watching it this season. It’s highly unlikely he’ll play his basketball in Beantown after the 2018-19 campaign.