Guard Marcus Smart seriously considered signing his $6.1MM qualifying offer from the Celtics and becoming an unrestricted free agent next summer, Mark Murphy of the Boston Herald tweets. “I went back and forth internally, but it’s a problem a lot of people would like to have.” Smart said. “I definitely thought about taking the qualifying offer, but all my options were open.”
Smart wound up staying in Boston on a four-year, $52MM deal. “To be honest, I didn’t know where I was gonna end up. I was just enjoying this whole process,” he told The Associated Press. “It is a business, so things aren’t perfect. That’s why it’s called negotiations. You guys come together and you finally agree on something. We both agreed. Boston loves me and I love Boston.”
We have more from the Atlantic Division:
- The Raptors continue to explore moves to shed salary and get under the luxury-tax line, Ian Begley of ESPN tweets. The Raptors still have over $137MM in salary commitments following the Kawhi Leonard deal and are nearly $14MM over the tax threshold.
- Allonzo Trier has an outside chance to gain a spot on the 15-man Knicks roster after a solid showing in summer-league action, Marc Berman of the New York Post reports. Trier, an undrafted guard out of Arizona, has a two-way contract but if he makes a strong impression in training camp, it could be converted to a standard contract. The Knicks waived forward Troy Williams this week, trimming their 15-man roster to the league limit, and could open up another spot if they waive Joakim Noah and utilize the stretch provision for the remaining money on his bloated deal.
- Italian head coach Sergio Scariolo is close to joining Nick Nurse‘s Raptors staff, according to a Sportando report. Scariolo, who is also the Spanish national team coach, has been offered a position but needs to work out a settlement with the Spanish federation, since he has a contract with it until 2020. The situation is expected to be resolved, Ryan Wolstat of the Toronto Sun relays. The Hornets were also interested in hiring Scariolo, Wolstat adds.
52m….smart move!
I can only compare smart to guys like turner, olynyk, Crowder… Even Thomas to an extent. Brad Stevens knows how to get the best out of every player on his roster.
What’s the point of waiving Noah this year? They have no need for cap space right now. In a year it will be so much easier to move him, or they can just stretch him then.
For the exact reason the author mentioned: a roster spot. If the Knocks have no intention on suiting up Noah, then why let him take up a roster spot?
Just hope New York will let Noah play this year, never been a great fan of him, though I can appreciate how good he was… But what he always had & still have is a great professional attitude, he deserves to have a fighting chance to play.
Roster spots aren’t worth a thing. Knicks need Noah he is their best chance of tanking this year plus it will further annoy him that he isn’t playing time and why allow him to play for a contender make his idiotic contract waste what little time he has left rendering him completely useless. They offered a buy out he didn’t want it.
It would idiotic for the Knicks to waive Noah prior to next summer at the earliest. It’s not about punishing Noah, but about doing what’s best for the franchise and the fan base. If it ends up hurting Noah’s career (or what’s left of it) to sit out another year, that’s his problem. He can propose a buyout if he likes, it would have to make sense for the team as well as him.
Trier is under team control via the 2 way contract, and doesn’t need to be given a regular roster spot unless he’s playing more with the Knicks that the 2 way contract permits. Unlikely, but in any case it has nothing to do with the decision on Noah.