Jackie Mac on Marcus Smart's RFA--"He's going for the money"

[The_Ghost_of_JB]

We are all assuming a team will actually even offer Smart that much money.

Oh some team will. Smarts contract has disaster written all over it for any non contending team that overpays for him. He fits here most of the time but imagine having him on your team where he is playing 35+ minutes a game where he is jacking up 20 shots night and maybe hitting around 4 or 5 of them.

Smart as a rookie was on a mediocre below league average team offense team. He played 27 MPG and only took a little over 7 shots per game. Even when the Celtics didn't have that much offense, Smart has never really tried to be Ricky Davis or Antoine Walker. He really has mostly just shot enough to try to keep the defense honest.

If a rebuilding team can sign Smart to a contract that gets smaller each year signing him makes sense... Have him try to work on his deficiencies. Smart will probably never be a very good offensive player but he still has the potential to be a good one.

Since then he has turned into an irrational confidence guy and thinks he is better than he actually is. He makes "winning" plays but what people seem to forget is that every time he takes a three there is a 70% chance it will miss which is pretty much a turnover.

Smart has no chance to ever be a good offensive player. He is showing no signs of getting better; he is a complete and utter disaster shooting this series. 28% shooting and 17% for three pointers. He is 24 and at that age either you can shoot or you can't.

[Celts17Pride]

I personally think with the rise in Rozier's play this season and Irving and Hayward back next season that the Celtics have very little interest in giving Marcus Smart $10-15 million per year. Especially when you take into account the salary cap.

Excellent chance Smart is playing his last games as a Celtic.

[Scoonie]

Those teams with cap space have bigger fish to fry than Marcus Smart. He is going to be their Plan C or D, not A or B.

[Edug27]

Oh some team will. Smarts contract has disaster written all over it for any non contending team that overpays for him. He fits here most of the time but imagine having him on your team where he is playing 35+ minutes a game where he is jacking up 20 shots night and maybe hitting around 4 or 5 of them.

Smart as a rookie was on a mediocre below league average team offense team. He played 27 MPG and only took a little over 7 shots per game. Even when the Celtics didn't have that much offense, Smart has never really tried to be Ricky Davis or Antoine Walker. He really has mostly just shot enough to try to keep the defense honest.

If a rebuilding team can sign Smart to a contract that gets smaller each year signing him makes sense... Have him try to work on his deficiencies. Smart will probably never be a very good offensive player but he still has the potential to be a good one.

Since then he has turned into an irrational confidence guy and thinks he is better than he actually is. He makes "winning" plays but what people seem to forget is that every time he takes a three there is a 70% chance it will miss which is pretty much a turnover.

Smart has no chance to ever be a good offensive player. He is showing no signs of getting better; he is a complete and utter disaster shooting this series. 28% shooting and 17% for three pointers. He is 24 and either and you can either shoot or you cannot at that age.

Finally someone who speaks my language.

[Edug27]

Excellent chance Smart is playing his last games as a Celtic.

Stop teasing me.

[The_Ghost_of_JB]

Those teams with cap space have bigger fish to fry than Marcus Smart. He is going to be their Plan C or D, not A or B.

Maybe but this year there isn't some onslaught of great FA. Yeah you have Durant (who won't leave the warriors)James,(Lakers or Sixers) George (Lakers) and Chris Paul(Stays with Rockets) but there are only 1 or 2 teams in the NBA that these guys will go to.

Then you have Cousins coming off a major injury, then you have the rest which is Capela, Jordan, Gordon, Randle and Parker.

I can easily see some team that strikes out on some of these guys in the second tier that ends up offering Smart a 4/60-65m deal.

[Fencer reregistered]

Why would Smart sign the QO? What's the upside for him? If it's to prove himself, wouldn't he be better off taking the best 3-4 year contract he can get and hoping for his value to increase after that?

Also, I agree that Smart's playoff shooting with a bandaged hand makes him the true scary Celtics PG.

[Duke4life831]

Several teams could definitely give him the $$:

Indiana
Atlanta
Sac
Dallas
Philly
LAL

It would suck if he went to Philly or Indi. The other teams would not really hurt the Cs.

I think you can knock Philly and LA off, he doesnt fit what Philly is doing (no perimeter shot), LA is saving all their cap space for big stars, if they cant get them this year theyre going to keep themselves flexible for next summer, plus they would probably crank out money for Randle before they do it for Smart. Plus they would probably rather just do another one year deal with KCP over Smart.

Indy I doubt it because Collison fits much better with Victor and with Turner's contract ending next summer, I think they probably would like to sign him and have some flexibility cap wise as well. I just dont see the fit with Sac, Fox and Bogdanovic fit will together, plus they already have Frank Mason and Buddy Hield backing up both and they really like both guys.

Out of those teams I think Dallas would be the biggest threat to throw a sizable contract his way. There really just isnt that much money to be spent this summer though, next year is when we will see more money available to spend in free agency. There just really arent that many teams with all that much cap space and then it will take one of the few that do, to like Smart enough to give him big money.

[jmr07019]

Why would Smart sign the QO? What's the upside for him? If it's to prove himself, wouldn't he be better off taking the best 3-4 year contract he can get and hoping for his value to increase after that?

Also, I agree that Smart's playoff shooting with a bandaged hand makes him the true scary Celtics PG.

Theoretically

- Scenario 1 ... Smart takes QO. Gets approx 8 mil next year but after that gets a 4/60 deal.
- Scenario 2 ... Smart signs for 4/44 this offseason.

He could make more in scenario 1. Regardless of which scenario he takes he can still prove himself over the next 4 to 5 years and sign a bigger contract after that.

[cloverleaf]

I'd be pretty surprised to see him leave to go to a **** team over 2m/year. If we're talking closer to 5m then it starts to makes sense. Doesn't seem like the type to me that cares about starting.

You're not accounting for the opportunity to start on another team.

[2Mas]

I'd be pretty surprised to see him leave to go to a **** team over 2m/year. If we're talking closer to 5m then it starts to makes sense. Doesn't seem like the type to me that cares about starting.

This.

Look Jackie does great reporting & has great stories. But she's washed up.

Any legit reporting I usually don't agree with. I have no facts or basis to back up me personally not believing me.

Do i think Smart goes to Sac for $2mil more a year? Hell no. FOH w/ the nonsense.

Jackie MacMullan is the opposite of washed up. She's almost always right, and the only times she's wrong are when people changed their minds after talking to her.

Stop it.

IK the Boston media is obsessed, but I really don't see it.

The only time she's wrong is when ppl change their minds after talking to her? lol That's really crazy.

[Scoonie]

Why would Smart sign the QO? What's the upside for him? If it's to prove himself, wouldn't he be better off taking the best 3-4 year contract he can get and hoping for his value to increase after that?

Because signing the QO makes him an unrestricted free agent after next season, during a year in which more teams will have cap space to spend. It also gives him another season to hopefully prove that he can stay injury-free and increase his value. These next 4-5 years should be his prime earning years, and a strong season next season followed by unrestricted free agency gives him his best chance to maximize his earnings.

Long-term, signing the qualifying offer easily has the most financial upside for him.

[Scoonie]

Theoretically

- Scenario 1 ... Smart takes QO. Gets approx 8 mil next year but after that gets a 4/60 deal.
- Scenario 2 ... Smart signs for 4/44 this offseason.

He could make more in scenario 1. Regardless of which scenario he takes he can still prove himself over the next 4 to 5 years and sign a bigger contract after that.

The qualifying offer for Smart is $6,053,718. Signing the qualifying offer means he makes less money next season, with higher upside potential in the long-run.

[Scoonie]

I can easily see some team that strikes out on some of these guys in the second tier that ends up offering Smart a 4/60-65m deal.

I think those teams are more likely to hold on to that cap space and try again next summer. I don't think any non-playoff team wants to use up most of their available cap space on a defensive specialist/niche player like Marcus Smart.

[Infinite Llamas]

Brad Stevens let Smart have so much freedom but did it really help Smart as a player? He's a terrible, terrible shooter. Never got better, arguably got worse. How is Stevens putting him in a position to succeed if he allows Smart to retain all his bad habits and make a fool of himself on the offensive end on many occasions? Tony Allen was an inefficient scorer too once upon a time, but Memphis more or less tried to have him focus on being the best defender he could be and told him to leave the scoring for others, essentially. You could argue that Smart is a much better playmaker than Allen but Smart isn't a wise passer and makes too many mistakes to ever be the starting point guard I think. I just wish that Stevens or some coach would get in his ear and tell him to be the very best defender he could ever be and stop trying to become a two-way star. It's never going to happen. Andre Roberson is a worse offensive player than Smart but he's more valuable to a team because he realizes this and stays out of the way on offense.

[Patsfan1081]

Smart as a rookie was on a mediocre below league average team offense team. He played 27 MPG and only took a little over 7 shots per game. Even when the Celtics didn't have that much offense, Smart has never really tried to be Ricky Davis or Antoine Walker. He really has mostly just shot enough to try to keep the defense honest.

If a rebuilding team can sign Smart to a contract that gets smaller each year signing him makes sense... Have him try to work on his deficiencies. Smart will probably never be a very good offensive player but he still has the potential to be a good one.

Since then he has turned into an irrational confidence guy and thinks he is better than he actually is. He makes "winning" plays but what people seem to forget is that every time he takes a three there is a 70% chance it will miss which is pretty much a turnover.

I understand Brad doesn't like to limit any of his players but this is where he should gets some criticism, it's automatic at this point that he's not making more than one out of every four threes, and that's being generous as he's at 20% for the playoffs. When you shoot five a game that's damaging, especially like last night when you close the gap to nine points then the next two times down the court he's chucking threes. Suddenly you kill your momentum and that nine is a sixteen point deficit. It's beyond frusterating to watch. What's even more frusterating is he can actually post up people and is good in the pick n roll yet they don't do it near enough.

Smart has no chance to ever be a good offensive player. He is showing no signs of getting better; he is a complete and utter disaster shooting this series. 28% shooting and 17% for three pointers. He is 24 and either and you can either shoot or you cannot at that age.

Finally someone who speaks my language.

[celticfan42487]

Why would Smart sign the QO? What's the upside for him? If it's to prove himself, wouldn't he be better off taking the best 3-4 year contract he can get and hoping for his value to increase after that?

Because signing the QO makes him an unrestricted free agent after next season, during a year in which more teams will have cap space to spend. It also gives him another season to hopefully prove that he can stay injury-free and increase his value. These next 4-5 years should be his prime earning years, and a strong season next season followed by unrestricted free agency gives him his best chance to maximize his earnings.

Long-term, signing the qualifying offer easily has the most financial upside for him.

Yup. 100% agreed.

Especially with that list of teams available with cap space. There should be more the season after next and he losses the restricted tag.

I also put it for that reason him taking the QO for one season being the odds on favorite for what Smart will do this summer.

But I also don't see any team throwing much more than the QO level of money at him.

His value is to a contending team that you can bring off the bench as a defensive stopper, but he's the dumbest **** possible version of one who doesn't know his limitations as a player. If he did he'd be endlessly valuable for any playoff team.

Might as well resign with the Celtics and make the finals for a year, or if Philly gets one of the big fish (LeBron, PG13, Kawhi) he could sign with them for one year to play the defensive stopper role off the bench as that also guarantees at least an ECF run and try again in a kinder market next off season.

[sam_I_am]

I've been on the fence with Smart. Yes he makes winning plays but you look at last night and his miss threes hurt the momentum. Honestly he's a guaranteed 2-8 every night it seems and when this team needs a big basket to get back into the game or their taking the last shot at the end of the quater it seems too many times it's Smart taking it. I say let him walk and draft a good defender like Melton, Frazier, or somone in the draft.

I like Marcus and I hope he stays. I’m a big fan. But when he had his big game in game 2 of this series, the question I had is can he be consistent? The last 2 games he was awful. Yes, he makes winning plays but he also turned the ball over 5 times and they were mostly sloppy and unforced. Role players are guys who every 5-6 games do something special but can’t be counted on to carry a team. No way I pay a role player 14 million a year when I have Horford, Hayward, Irving, Brown, Tatum and maybe Rozier to pay and they bring it every night.

[SmartWentCrazy]

I could see Dallas offering a fat contract to Smart to play next to DSJ

[Fencer reregistered]

Why would Smart sign the QO? What's the upside for him? If it's to prove himself, wouldn't he be better off taking the best 3-4 year contract he can get and hoping for his value to increase after that?

Because signing the QO makes him an unrestricted free agent after next season, during a year in which more teams will have cap space to spend. It also gives him another season to hopefully prove that he can stay injury-free and increase his value. These next 4-5 years should be his prime earning years, and a strong season next season followed by unrestricted free agency gives him his best chance to maximize his earnings.

Long-term, signing the qualifying offer easily has the most financial upside for him.

He doesn't have a rap as "injury-prone", I think, so there's nothing to prove there.

I'm sure he'd like to prove he can shoot, but that hasn't worked out well for him yet.

The narrative that he's essential to the team can only be weakened by staying another season. It's far from certain, for example, that he will be a crunch-time regular again.

Smart is a backup PG on a team with an elite PG and another good backup. The "bet on yourself to increase your value by showing something new next season" choice doesn't seem like a good gamble in his particular situation.