Marcus Smart free agency Take 2. "He works hard for the money" Agrees to 4 year 52$ million deal page 32

[tombattor]

Interested in the details...does this include unlikely incentives? Fair deal but a little bit too much IMO. I love Smart and glad he is back though. #18

What incentives? Come on now. You're being poisoned by all the geniuses who think shooting is the end all be all in the NBA. This is a good move for us. He contributes to winning.

I don’t disagree with you at all. Just curious if it’s a straight 4/52 or not. Incentives have become fairly common

It is, but this is a good fair deal for a key part of the Celtics. Don't let people who can't see past shooting percentage here convince you otherwise. $13M in the NBA really isn't what people think it is. I mean, MLE is like $9M+/yr. Guys like John Wall and Harden are making $40M.

[celticfan42487]

I'm good with wasting any more pixels in this thread. If you think you're a better evaluator of NBA talent than Danny Ainge I don't know what to tell you.

Also if you get upset by people on a site called Real GM having an opinion on GM moves you shouldn't really waste pixels on any thread haha.

[Scoonie]

I really don't see any way in hell that he would've gotten $13 million a year on the open market. Remember, only teams under the cap can offer him anywhere near that much and none of those teams are contenders. He is much more valuable to a contender than to a lottery team.

[CelticFaninLBC]

I think we were going to trade Morris before the season started regardless of the Smart deal— the dude just doesnt stand to get the minutes hes going to demand next season and I dont see him being a happy camper about it with his upcoming FA next season. Plus, Semi needs to get additional minutes as well to see if he can keep developing.

I see the declining deal as a way to take advantage of the situation with Morris while also increasing the future expected value of Smart as an asset. A 4/46 deal would start around 13M, leaving us ~4.5 north of the tax. Trading Morris leaves us under by less than a mil or so.

Yeah I like the idea. Which teams remain that can absorb Morris 5.3 million with out sending anything back...and of those teams which ones would / could utilize Morris’s skills for a playoff run or whatnot. Are there trade exceptions out there big enough as well?

Chicago, Detroit and Portland have TPE's over 7 million.

[ConstableGeneva]

Read on Twitter

[bucknersrevenge]

Confused how people think this contract is tradable. If no one was willing to offer this kind of money to get him FOR FREE, why would they give up assets to take him at this salary?

Learn what RFA is.

Don't be a prick, I know what RFA is. He didn't get interest FROM ANYONE.

Right. Because he's a Restricted Free Agent. We've chopped this angle up in here before.

[darrendaye]

If this is a full 4 year deal and does not contain a player option, it's ok.

[FlatearthZorro]

Happy to see it come to a close.

I always rated Smart less than others as I think his on court impact is about a wash and therefore should get about the MLE deal. But my only concerns were losing other players at the cost of Smart.

This. I've always thought the same thing. The guy is a great defender and a horrible player on offense, who has some kind of a weird confidence, which leads to many bad plays. Anyhow, hope he proves me wrong.

I know this is going to sound obvious, but I think the more good offensive players we have on the floor (and we *will* have more this year, barring random injuries) will reduce the number of those bad plays and accentuate what he does well offensively.

A lot of times last season, we'd throw him out there with 2 or 3 non-shooters and he and/or Rozier and/or Morris would be trigger-happy. There were definitely times when he and Rozier were both struggling from the field and they would jack up shot after shot and give away the lead.

With Hayward and Kyrie back, I really don't think we're going to see much of that hero-ball from Smart. He can concentrate on making things happen for everyone else. He's a gifted and willing passer. And he obviously will screen and cut and do whatever else Brad wants him to do.

I think we're the only team that would pay him $13M because we're the only team who can get $13M's worth from him.

I doubt it, I think him and his twin(the other Marcus) are weird this way.

I guess the logical move now is to dump M. Morris and sign Bird. Dumping Morris will save 5 mils while you can sign Jabari for around a mil.

[The_Ghost_of_JB]

13m a year for a bench player is insane but here we are.

That's the market in the NBA.

Also, Smart played 30.4 MPG in the 2016 season, and 29.9 MPG in the 2017 season.

We're going to have starting caliber players on the bench, since we're good. But calling him a bench player when he's proven he can be a top 5 cog in a top 2 team in a conference is pretty disingenuous.

But he is a bench player and with Hayward hopefully coming back that changes the minutes the rotation. Seeing how well Rozier has improved he should easily be getting minutes in the rotation as well.

[smith2373]

That's the market in the NBA.

Also, Smart played 30.4 MPG in the 2016 season, and 29.9 MPG in the 2017 season.

We're going to have starting caliber players on the bench, since we're good. But calling him a bench player when he's proven he can be a top 5 cog in a top 2 team in a conference is pretty disingenuous.

But he is a bench player and with Hayward hopefully coming back that changes the minutes the rotation. Seeing how well Rozier has improved he should easily be getting minutes in the rotation as well.

Guy wouldn’t start for the majority of teams in the league, won’t start for this team unless multiple players get injured, but we can’t call him a bench player

[fallguy]

Happy for Marcus. That's good money in this market.

Excellent contract to include in larger deals, especially if it's structured the way I hope it is.

And in the meantime it keeps the soul and grit of the team intact for next year's run at the title.

[ddb]

deal is finally done! Celtics roster is looking good! Also, that's a very tradeable contract in a year or two that would be needed to complete any future blockbuster.

[24istheLAW]

Also, Smart played 30.4 MPG in the 2016 season, and 29.9 MPG in the 2017 season.

We're going to have starting caliber players on the bench, since we're good. But calling him a bench player when he's proven he can be a top 5 cog in a top 2 team in a conference is pretty disingenuous.

But he is a bench player and with Hayward hopefully coming back that changes the minutes the rotation. Seeing how well Rozier has improved he should easily be getting minutes in the rotation as well.

Guy wouldn’t start for the majority of teams in the league, won’t start for this team unless multiple players get injured, but we can’t call him a bench player

Half the teams in the league are trying to be bad. He'd start for OKC, New Orleans, Minnesota, Memphis, and Dallas. Teams that have money are usually the ones trying to lose.

[Edug27]

Also, that's a very tradeable contract in a year or two that would be needed to complete any future blockbuster.

Hope so.

[smith2373]

But he is a bench player and with Hayward hopefully coming back that changes the minutes the rotation. Seeing how well Rozier has improved he should easily be getting minutes in the rotation as well.

Guy wouldn’t start for the majority of teams in the league, won’t start for this team unless multiple players get injured, but we can’t call him a bench player

Half the teams in the league are trying to be bad. He'd start for OKC, New Orleans, Minnesota, Memphis, and Dallas. Teams that have money are usually the ones trying to lose.

He wouldn’t start for OKC. Roberson’s defense is arguably just as good, he has the size to be even more versatile, and though he is an offensive liability, the Thunder already have Westbrook chucking long jumpers, I don’t think they want a 2nd.

He wouldn’t start for Minnesota or Dallas either

[celticfan42487]

I know there's no way to know. But James Stewart is saying Ainge has been given enough rumblings from Irving that he is a legit flight risk and he's trying to trade him asap.

In that world, it makes sense for Ainge to overpay Smart by 4 million a year on average because he desperately wants to keep him at the guard spot for the next 4 years.

It does line up with this contract.

Otherwise, Ainge would at least attempt to see what he'd get for ring chasers in free agency before paying Smart way more than he'd get in the open market.

[The_Ghost_of_JB]

I know there's no way to know. But James Stewart is saying Ainge has been given enough rumblings from Irving that he is a legit flight risk and he's trying to trade him asap.

In that world, it makes sense for Ainge to overpay Smart by 4 million a year on average because he desperately wants to keep him at the guard spot for the next 4 years.

It does line up with this contract.

Otherwise, Ainge would at least attempt to see what he'd get for ring chasers in free agency before paying Smart way more than he'd get in the open market.

Heard that as well yesterday. I personally think Irving is going to NY (Along with Butler) next year and Ainge will be looking to move him before he leaves.

That is a different topic though.

[rickrolled]

PaperbagFireAinge.gif

[Tyakack]

Good deal for both sides. Celtics get the heart of the team back and a very tradeable contract for the next big trade. Smart gets his money. Everyone is happy. Not all overpays are bad. Especially if its only a slight overpay. It would have been far worse for us if smart signed the qualifying offer.

[SMTBSI]

Slightly more than I wanted, but Im okay with it. Hes a winning player and great for the locker room. Shot selection may improve now that he isnt pressing as hard for his next contract.

A little more than I wanted too, but only because I didn't want to have to dump Morris. Have no particular angst about paying Smart this much.

The bold is my hope as well. We will have no shortage of primary scorers this year. Hopefully Smart's mindset shifts a bit and he settles into a game manager role, and continues to do all the things he does well, while shaving off a few FGA. His shot selection has been the only thing preventing him from being the perfect sixth man, in my mind.