[Shams] Marcus Smart to the L.A. Lakers 2 years/$11 million, after Wizards buyout

[MrGoat]

It will be interesting to see if the old Marcus Smart suddenly shows back up again or if he's just washed. I don't think after all those years on the Celtics that he was particularly motivated or even trying that hard to return from injury while playing for Memphis or Washington. Now's he's back on a team with some aspirations

[levon]

This dude is younger than Caruso. Some of you are talking about him like he's on the verge of retirement.

[ryan in Maine]

Old Game Changer

[HMFFL]

This dude is younger than Caruso. Some of you are talking about him like he's on the verge of retirement.

Marcus Smart has shot 38% from the field for his career.

Once he went to Memphis the Celtics chances at winning the title increased. He was part of the problem.

He will provide toughness for the Lakers but doesn't need to more than 5 shot attempts per game.

[levon]

This dude is younger than Caruso. Some of you are talking about him like he's on the verge of retirement.

One of them has shot 38% from the field for their career.

Not material to my post to the point where I question why you even quoted me.

[gottamakeit]

This dude is younger than Caruso. Some of you are talking about him like he's on the verge of retirement.

Age & Miles are always a concern. In this case, it's his miles & prior injury history.

[gottamakeit]

This dude is younger than Caruso. Some of you are talking about him like he's on the verge of retirement.

Marcus Smart has shot 38% from the field for his career.

Once he went to Memphis the Celtics chances at winning the title increased. He was part of the problem.

He will provide toughness for the Lakers but doesn't need to more than 5 shot attempts per game.

The primary variable of his success will be his corner 3's percentage. He'll get open looks. How much will he make opposing defenses pay for leaving him to pack the paint

[levon]

This dude is younger than Caruso. Some of you are talking about him like he's on the verge of retirement.

Age & Miles are always a concern. In this case, it's his miles & prior injury history.

It's a totally fair concern but that's why one guy is available at 5m and the other is getting extended and frankly the 4th most important player on a title team. Like that's already priced in to me. Where I think people are overcorrecting is burying a guy like Smart while expecting guys like Caruso to age like Iggy.

He played 61 games in Boston just 2 seasons ago, where he averaged 65 games a season. I'm sort of skeptical the tanking Grizz and his last year being discarded to another tanking is more representative of his career than those prior 9. He's not at that age yet where I'm ready to say he's gone off the cliff.

[levon]

Also the Boston folks complaining about shot selection need to acknowledge that was a different era of his career where he was still trying to make a name for himself. One can acknowledge that Dwight was offensively overzealous and inefficient after his back injury and also acknowledge he was essential to a 2020 title team.

[tsherkin]

Couple of years since he was any kind of healthy. Useless as a scorer.

Also the Boston folks complaining about shot selection need to acknowledge that was a different era of his career where he was still trying to make a name for himself. One can acknowledge that Dwight was offensively overzealous and inefficient after his back injury and also acknowledge he was essential to a 2020 title team.

Rushed back too quickly, for sure. "Offensively overzealous," perhaps? But at 4 FGA/g, hard to quantify. Solid bench minutes against Portland. Played 16 minutes and missed his only shot against Houston. Strong off the bench against Denver, though LA in general was laughing its way through that series. 6/8 from the field against Miami.

"Inefficient," though?

That's inaccurate. He shot 72.9% from the field in the regular season, and 68.4% during the playoffs. 69.6% TS in the RS, 67.7% in the PS. Not even close to "inefficient."

EDIT: He certainly struggled some in the playoffs, but 2013 forward, he was a 60.4% TS guy, 110 TS+. He was no where near inefficiency.

[Doug_12]

Rob Pelinka was getting desperate in finally acquiring a true 3&D player before the trade deadline that he gave away his precious 3 2nd rounders just to get DFS and then simply let him walk away for NOTHING, not even a sign and trade.
You know who else would not hesitate chuck so many open 3's when gets dared? The freaking Russell Westbrook, you know what team is interested in signing him?

Yeah, that pretty much sums up my view as well, but Smart was actually not looking that bad according to advanced metrics as some posts here suggest. Despite the injuries, being fat and all, he was still in the 97th percentile in DEPM (among the very good defenders) and was only below average (not terrible) on OEPM. Impactwise he seems to be better than Vando and better than an inverse D'Angelo Russell - which surprised me a bit. (Sadly DFS was not that far away on D and was way better offensively.)

Ayton is more concerning to me. He is not good at either end of the floor and I always hated the dumb+no-effort combination in a player. Impactwise he was in the same ballpark as Bol Bol, Trayce Jackson-Davis and Mark Williams. Ok, at least we haven't given up anything for him, but still.

Anyways: even after Smart looking a bit better impactwise than what I anticipated originally, I would have probably not done an Ayton+Smart for DFS trade - which we did practically.

I wouldn't go that far in terms of your view about Ayton esp on offense. There's no way IMO that he would have averaged 16 and 10.5 career if he is in the class of Bol Bol, Trayce etc. Not even high picks like Olowokandi, Kwame etc. Yes, he benefitted greatly from CP3 esp in the playoffs but even when Paul left, the guy STILL was relatively productive. Most guys without enough talent can not put up these numbers even with bad teams, unable to even to put up "empty calorie stats".
The hope is that he can somewhat just be the guy who could give that extra push like when the Bulls had Bison Dele or when Detoit acquired Wallace.
Now, I don't expect him to consistently put a great effort particularly on defense every game and yes I truly hope Pelinka would trade for a more reliable back up instead of Hayes and Kaloko.

Yeah, maybe he will be better, but he was really in the same ballpark as these guys last year. Not offensively, but in terms of overall impact.

If we look at impact comparisons w/ bigs playing around (or more than) 25 mins, then his closest peers were Kel'el Ware and Mark Williams. A bit higher there were the likes of Capela and Yabusele and a bit lower there were very few (Claxton is one of the surprises there, being much lower than Ayton). Generally those players that were less impactful haven't really played this much. They were more spot starters or regular bench players like Nurkic or Isaiah Stewart. (As a direct comparison: Hayes being almost neutral was higher than Ayton)

Not saying that Ayton's impact is not going to change (because both his motivation and his role will be different), but this at least is concerning. I'm definitely in the group who thinks that the 2 year/16 million offer was an overpay.

[HMFFL]

This dude is younger than Caruso. Some of you are talking about him like he's on the verge of retirement.

Marcus Smart has shot 38% from the field for his career.

Once he went to Memphis the Celtics chances at winning the title increased. He was part of the problem.

He will provide toughness for the Lakers but doesn't need to more than 5 shot attempts per game.

The primary variable of his success will be his corner 3's percentage. He'll get open looks. How much will he make opposing defenses pay for leaving him to pack the paint

His defense should be the primary variable. The Lakers don't need a career 38% shooter from the field being a primary option on offense.

[ShootersShoot]

Low risk signing to try and fill an area of need. Even if it doesnt work out its still not a bad pickup.

[gottamakeit]

Marcus Smart has shot 38% from the field for his career.

Once he went to Memphis the Celtics chances at winning the title increased. He was part of the problem.

He will provide toughness for the Lakers but doesn't need to more than 5 shot attempts per game.

The primary variable of his success will be his corner 3's percentage. He'll get open looks. How much will he make opposing defenses pay for leaving him to pack the paint

His defense should be the primary variable. The Lakers don't need a career 38% shooter from the field being a primary option on offense.

You misunderstood my post. It's safe to count on his defense and his tenacity.
On offense he'll be asked to stand in the corner and shoot at a high clip.
His shooting %s have VARIED wildly throughout his career; which is why it is the primary VARIABLE for his success.
If he doesn't shoot at a high enough clip, he's not going to be in the rotation.

[Bad-Thoma]

Marcus Smart has shot 38% from the field for his career.

Once he went to Memphis the Celtics chances at winning the title increased. He was part of the problem.

He will provide toughness for the Lakers but doesn't need to more than 5 shot attempts per game.

The primary variable of his success will be his corner 3's percentage. He'll get open looks. How much will he make opposing defenses pay for leaving him to pack the paint

His defense should be the primary variable. The Lakers don't need a career 38% shooter from the field being a primary option on offense.

He'll be a solid pick up if he can stay healthy but he's always been a pedal to the metal kind of player and his body has payed for it. He'll be a sub par shooter but contrary to reputation he's never been a high usage guy (career usage is 17.9, NBA average is 20% and he's a pg). He's fearless though, if he gets the ball and he's open he's never been afraid to shoot. He somehow had a reputation as a chucker among some Boston fans but the stats disagree, he has the exact same career fga/36 as Ben Simmons who is notorious for NOT shooting. Narratives I guess.

He's one of my favorite Celtics of all time just for the sheer heart he played with and I'm past the point in my fan days where him joining the Lakers somehow changes that.

[HMFFL]

The primary variable of his success will be his corner 3's percentage. He'll get open looks. How much will he make opposing defenses pay for leaving him to pack the paint

His defense should be the primary variable. The Lakers don't need a career 38% shooter from the field being a primary option on offense.

You misunderstood my post. It's safe to count on his defense and his tenacity.
On offense he'll be asked to stand in the corner and shoot at a high clip.
His shooting %s have VARIED wildly throughout his career; which is why it is the primary VARIABLE for his success.
If he doesn't shoot at a high enough clip, he's not going to be in the rotation.

Gotcha.
I hope Luka can count on him to hit the 3 at a high % like he did for the Wizard.

[Edrees]

This dude is younger than Caruso. Some of you are talking about him like he's on the verge of retirement.

Marcus Smart has shot 38% from the field for his career.

Once he went to Memphis the Celtics chances at winning the title increased. He was part of the problem.

He will provide toughness for the Lakers but doesn't need to more than 5 shot attempts per game.

more like once Celtics replaced him with Jrue Holiday their chances increased

I mean he's not jrue holiday, nobody will contest that

If celtics lost him and never signed jrue holiday there's no way they have a title

[Dacost]

Like I said before once he arrive in Memphis he was fat and unathletic.

His weight issues got so bad that we ended up giving the Wizards a 1st to get rid of him.

Now you could say he just didn't like Memphis so he was unmotivated.But unless he drops 20 lbs this off season the Lakers are in for a rude awaking especially the people who thing his defense is still good after gaining atleast 20+ pounds.

[tsherkin]

Low risk signing to try and fill an area of need. Even if it doesnt work out its still not a bad pickup.

It's true, it's a cheap deal.