Why Celtics Could Have Trouble Re-Signing Marcus Smart

by **bobheckler** Sun May 13, 2018 2:26 pm

https://nesn.com/2018/05/nba-rumors-why-celtics-could-have-trouble-re-signing-marcus-smart/

NBA Rumors: Why Celtics Could Have Trouble Re-Signing Marcus Smart

by Adam London on Sat, May 12, 2018 at 4:41PM

Why Celtics Could Have Trouble Re-Signing Marcus Smart Marcus-smart1

Photo via Greg M. Cooper/USA TODAY Sports

LeBron James likely will dominate NBA free agency talk over the summer, but The King hardly is the only noteworthy player who will be available on the open market in the offseason.

Marcus Smart, currently the longest-tenured member of the Boston Celtics, also will be a free agent once the 2017-18 season comes to a close. While Smart isn’t a max-contract type of player, his steady progression and unmatched intangibles likely will result in a large number of suitors.

While Celtics fans surely are hoping the tenacious guard would be open to a hometown discount in order to stay in Boston, don’t expect the 24-year-old to be keen on the idea. In a recent interview on ESPN’s “The Hoop Collective” podcast, Jackie MacMullan explained where she expects Smart’s head to be at once he hits free agency.

“I’ve talked to lots of people around the Celtics and around the league about Marcus Smart,” MacMullan said, as transcribed by UPROXX. “If Marcus Smart was willing to take a — let’s say Sacramento (Kings) for argument’s sake or another team that isn’t quite good and they offer him $14 million a year and the Celtics say, ‘We can’t pay you that. But we’ll pay you $12 (million).’ My question to them was will Marcus Smart take it because they’re contending, he’s a cult hero in town. Every one of them said, ‘Hell no, he’s going for the money.’ I’ve never asked him this question. But that’s the impression I get. You can’t blame young guys who want to go out to the highest bidder and thinks he should be a starter and he’s not going to be one in Boston for many years to come.”

As MacMullan noted, no one could blame Smart for going to the highest bidder, and if he continues to thrive in the postseason for the Celtics, other teams around the league likely will become more willing to offer him a generous deal. Although the C’s surely would love to keep Smart in town for years to come, it’s starting to seem like they’ll face stiff competition in order to do so.

bob

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by **cowens/oldschool** Sun May 13, 2018 2:30 pm

Don’t worry if he leaves that opens up more minutes for Morris

by **bobheckler** Sun May 13, 2018 3:21 pm

cowens/oldschool wrote:Don’t worry if he leaves that opens up more minutes for Morris

Cow,

Damn, that was cold...

bob

.

by **kdp59** Sun May 13, 2018 3:35 pm

I read this earlier... nothing new. Celtics control his rights as a RFA. we can match ANY offer anyone gives him.

Owners time to pay up starts this off-season.

I will add:
there is simply NOT a lot of teams with money to offer much more than the $8M mid level exception this coming year.

Philly
Laker
Chicago
Atlanta

maybe one or two others.

Lots or UFA's will taking one and one deals for that MLE this year, with the second year a player option.

much less RFA's like Smart.

by **bobheckler** Sun May 13, 2018 6:31 pm

kdp59 wrote:I read this earlier... nothing new. Celtics control his rights as a RFA. we can match ANY offer anyone gives him.

Owners time to pay up starts this off-season.

I will add:
there is simply NOT a lot of teams with money to offer much more than the $8M mid level exception this coming year.

Philly
Laker
Chicago
Atlanta

maybe one or two others.

Lots or UFA's will taking one and one deals for that MLE this year, with the second year a player option.

much less RFA's like Smart.

Another crazy possibility is a sign-and-trade with San Antonio for Smart, another player (Rozier?), and Sacto's pick for Kawhi. This is just my crazy idea, not one I've read.

Rozier = $2M
Smart = $14M (sign-and-trade, not current)
Sacto pick = $3.8M (assuming #5. More if higher)

Kawhi = $18.9M

Would we have overkill on wings? Yep. Brown, Tatum, Hayward, Kawhi. A good problem to have and would free up someone for Danny to trade for a needle-moving big. No matter which one is gone we'd still have one of the most dominating wing corp in a league that has definitely gravitated towards wings.

bob

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by **cowens/oldschool** Sun May 13, 2018 7:09 pm

Our wings sure dominated today!!

by **Ktronic1** Sun May 13, 2018 7:40 pm

cowens/oldschool wrote:Don’t worry if he leaves that opens up more minutes for Morris

Ewwwwww boy! No worries Mad

by **dboss** Sun May 13, 2018 8:25 pm

This is a real uninformed thread.

Boston will not have Any problem signing Marcus.

5 teams with cap space. Please tell me who signs him????

The Celtics..that's who

by **gyso** Sun May 13, 2018 9:10 pm

Jackie Mac is starting to make me wonder about her. Quibbling about 12M or 14M, Sacramento losers or potential Boston annual playoff runs?

First of all, Boston matches the 2M difference. That isn't all that high a salary anymore. Even if Smart takes Boston's lower offer, he may make up the difference in shoe contracts and playoff pay. She is talking less than Evan Turner money.

The only way Boston doesn't match is if another team makes a max or close to max offer. Poison pill offer. Unlikely.

by **cowens/oldschool** Sun May 13, 2018 9:54 pm

gyso wrote:Jackie Mac is starting to make me wonder about her. Quibbling about 12M or 14M, Sacramento losers or potential Boston annual playoff runs?

First of all, Boston matches the 2M difference. That isn't all that high a salary anymore. Even if Smart takes Boston's lower offer, he may make up the difference in shoe contracts and playoff pay. She is talking less than Evan Turner money.

The only way Boston doesn't match is if another team makes a max or close to max offer. Poison pill offer. Unlikely.

+1

the VOR voice of reason

by **swish** Sun May 13, 2018 11:39 pm

How about this potential problem - six players battling over three positions - that's the two guard and small forward
positions with Hayward, Brown, Tatum, Irving, Smart and Rozier in the mix. Six players that will probably be expecting starter type minutes - that's 144 minutes divided by 6 = 24 minutes each. It's possible that playing time could, from a players viewpoint, become a major issue. You know how egos are when it comes to playing time. The big bucks go to the prime time players.

swish

by **fierce** Mon May 14, 2018 1:35 am

We can look at it like this.

If Kyrie and Hayward come back, who will be the odd man out?

Clearly it's Rozier.

Smart gives you extra possessions.
He's a special player.
And he can play PG very well.

Rozier on the other hand will become a very expensive backup PG once Kyrie returns.
Kyrie is a legit tier 1 NBA superstar.
So there's no chance of Rozier getting major minutes if Kyrie and Smart are healthy.

It's a good thing Rozier will still be a Celtic next season.

Worst case scenario is the Celts lose Smart in FA.
If that happens then the Celts will be able to keep Rozier in 2019.

Best case scenario is the Celts keep Smart on a reasonable deal this summer.
That will not be so good for Rozier as there's just not enough minutes for the 3 of them at PG.

Celts can afford to lose either Smart or Rozier, but not both.

by **kdp59** Mon May 14, 2018 7:55 am

add the old PF minutes that list and you have 7 guys (with Morris) playing 192 minutes

27 minutes each.

I don't see any problems myself for next year.

by **wideclyde** Mon May 14, 2018 12:46 pm

Hey, we are in the conference finals!!! Enjoy where the Cs are and what they are doing!!

No time to think about "losing"/trading/signing any one right now.

Ainge will take care of it all in the summer., and if we don't like what he does we can help him right from our own forum.

by **bobheckler** Mon May 14, 2018 5:30 pm

Jared Weiss @JaredWeissNBA
now
The debates over trading Rozier because the Celtics can’t afford him are going to look hilarious in retrospect when the cap spikes by a trillion dollars from gambling revenue and he gets the max after they re-sign Smart and they still are under the tax and then he wins MVP.

bob

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by **swish** Mon May 14, 2018 5:51 pm

But what if they were to decide to go elsewhere because of a playing time issue ?

swish

by **fierce** Mon May 14, 2018 10:25 pm

swish wrote:But what if they were to decide to go elsewhere because of a playing time issue ?

swish

If it comes to that then Danny Ainge will get a significant haul for Rozier.

by **swish** Tue May 15, 2018 12:22 am

fierce wrote:
swish wrote:But what if they were to decide to go elsewhere because of a playing time issue ?

swish

If it comes to that then Danny Ainge will get a significant haul for Rozier.

fierce

Between now and free agency he only has about a 4 million trade value. Who knows the cost if he elects to go the free agent route in 2019.

Ditto for Smart who is up for free agency this summer and has a trade value of about 5.0 mil.

swish

by **fierce** Tue May 15, 2018 10:21 am

swish wrote:
fierce wrote:
swish wrote:But what if they were to decide to go elsewhere because of a playing time issue ?

swish

If it comes to that then Danny Ainge will get a significant haul for Rozier.

fierce

Between now and free agency he only has about a 4 million trade value. Who knows the cost if he elects to go the free agent route in 2019.

Ditto for Smart who is up for free agency this summer and has a trade value of about 5.0 mil.

swish

Ainge will not be interested in getting players for Rozier.
It will be picks or a lottery pick for Rozier if Ainge does trade Rozier.
There's no way Ainge will let Rozier go in free agency.

Regarding Smart, I think Ainge will keep Smart because he's just too valuable.
Ainge had an opportunity to get something for Smart last February, at the trade deadline.
But since he passed on trading Smart, I think it's clear Ainge and the Celts will give Smart big money this summer.

by **swish** Tue May 15, 2018 1:08 pm

fierce wrote:
swish wrote:
fierce wrote:
swish wrote:But what if they were to decide to go elsewhere because of a playing time issue ?

swish

If it comes to that then Danny Ainge will get a significant haul for Rozier.

fierce

Between now and free agency he only has about a 4 million trade value. Who knows the cost if he elects to go the free agent route in 2019.

Ditto for Smart who is up for free agency this summer and has a trade value of about 5.0 mil.

swish
Ainge will not be interested in getting players for Rozier.
It will be picks or a lottery pick for Rozier if Ainge does trade Rozier.
There's no way Ainge will let Rozier go in free agency.

Regarding Smart, I think Ainge will keep Smart because he's just too valuable.
Ainge had an opportunity to get something for Smart last February, at the trade deadline.
But since he passed on trading Smart, I think it's clear Ainge and the Celts will give Smart big money this summer.

fierce

That significant haul that you mention might not be so easy to come by - when you consider that teams need only wait until free agency to land him for money only. In any event - - time will tell.

swish

by **mulcogiseng** Tue May 15, 2018 1:41 pm

The nice thing about UFA's is that Boston can match the offer. Danny didn't extend Smart this season because he doesn't do things like that. He almost always waits to see what is happening at the last minute. He will wait on both Smart and next year Rozier to see what happens. This puts both of them into the enviable possibility of a sign and trade which makes their value much more than the amounts that Swish was talking about based on their current contracts. Danny has positioned the Celtics to be the team to watch for the next decade. When he took over we had no flexibility whatsoever. It didn't take him long to figure it out and bring us the Rondo led Big Three. (yes, I'm ducking lol) Faced with crippling veteran contracts Danny brought the Golden Eggs to town. Now he has positioned the Celtics for the foreseeable future as the greatest never say die team in NBA history. I like it.

by **fierce** Tue May 15, 2018 2:34 pm

swish wrote:
fierce wrote:
swish wrote:
fierce wrote:
swish wrote:But what if they were to decide to go elsewhere because of a playing time issue ?

swish

If it comes to that then Danny Ainge will get a significant haul for Rozier.

fierce

Between now and free agency he only has about a 4 million trade value. Who knows the cost if he elects to go the free agent route in 2019.

Ditto for Smart who is up for free agency this summer and has a trade value of about 5.0 mil.

swish
Ainge will not be interested in getting players for Rozier.
It will be picks or a lottery pick for Rozier if Ainge does trade Rozier.
There's no way Ainge will let Rozier go in free agency.

Regarding Smart, I think Ainge will keep Smart because he's just too valuable.
Ainge had an opportunity to get something for Smart last February, at the trade deadline.
But since he passed on trading Smart, I think it's clear Ainge and the Celts will give Smart big money this summer.

fierce

That significant haul that you mention might not be so easy to come by - when you consider that teams need only wait until free agency to land him for money only. In any event - - time will tell.

swish

To some extent, that's true.
But it's no guarantee that if a particular team has the money, Rozier will automatically pick that team.
There will be multiple teams interested in Rozier.

Getting Rozier before he becomes a FA is more practical for a team in need of talent.
A team like the Suns might prefer a sure thing, like Terry Rozier, over an unproven lottery pick.

Time will tell.

But one thing's for sure, Ainge will not allow Rozier to leave via FA and the Celts get nothing in return.

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