2:36pm: Smart has officially signed his new contract with the Celtics, according to agent Happy Walters, who tweeted a photo of the signing. The team has also issued a press release confirming the deal.
9:25am: Marcus Smart has agreed to a four-year, $52MM deal to remain with the Celtics, according to Shams Charania of Yahoo Sports. Jordan Schultz of Yahoo Sports first reported that the Celtics and Smart were finalizing a deal in that neighborhood after ESPN’s Adrian Wojnarowski said the two sides were engaged in serious discussions.
The final terms are a little higher than the $46-$50MM range that was reported yesterday, and the deal takes one of the last high-profile free agents off the market. Smart has been with the Celtics since being selected with the sixth pick in the 2014 draft and has developed into one of the league’s top perimeter defenders.
Smart’s contract will push the Celtics into luxury tax territory, at least for now, notes ESPN’s Zach Lowe (Twitter link). It will also become Boston’s only contract between $7-20MM, which could make it a valuable trade chip down the line, adds Kevin O’Connor of the Ringer (Twitter link).
A restricted free agent, Smart had expressed frustrations with the slowness of the process while waiting for an offer. He met with several teams, including the Nets and Grizzlies, last week during the Las Vegas Summer League, according to Charania, but also had a private meeting with Celtics president of basketball operations Danny Ainge. Significant progress was made in the past few days, allowing the team to quickly finalize a deal in a meeting this morning with Smart and his agent, Happy Walters.
The Celtics were happy to get a long-term deal done with Smart a year before backcourt mates Kyrie Irving and Terry Rozier both become free agents, Charania adds. The team will now have at least one of its point guards locked up before entering into negotiations with Irving and/or Rozier.
Smart appeared in 54 games last season, with his playing time limited by a right hand injury caused by punching a glass frame and a torn UCL he suffered in his right thumb while diving for a loose ball in March that caused him to miss the start of the playoffs. He posted 10.2 PPG, 4.8 APG, and 3.5 RPG during the regular season, along with 1.3 steals per night.
“It’s been a tough summer with free agency and his mom’s (cancer),” Smart’s high school coach, Kenny Boren, tells Mark Murphy of The Boston Herald. “It’s been tough emotionally for him.” (Twitter link).
Smart ranked 14th on our list of the Top 50 Free Agents of 2018. His signing leaves Clint Capela of the Rockets and Rodney Hood of the Cavaliers as the best unsigned players left on the market.
Photo courtesy of USA Today Sports Images.
Love it
Smart move ;)
So I assume Kyrie is gone after next year. Unless Horford somehow opts out his deal.
The Kyrie situation is independent from Smart. He would never take over as starting PG.
Wow that’s a lot of money for a guy like him! That will make it harder for Boston to keep the good players that are about to get expensive… Good news for Philly though. All in all Smart has just taken Ainge to the cleaners, good on ya mate!
We’ll watch the stat that matters. The final standings next year. Ainge will figure out the financial stuff. Boston isn’t any where near going broke. They’ve been one of the most financially sound franchises for years. Boston has more championships than any NBA franchise. How many does Philly and Cleveland have?
Funnily enough they have 4/1 which is more than Indiana… Sorry they haven’t gotten any SMH
Colts have championships. How about Browns? Brad Stevens and Gordon Hayward are from Indianapolis, born, raised, went to college, took Butler to championship 2 years in a row. I’m as much a Celtics fan as a Pacers fan. I’m a Warriors fan too. I’m going to root for the Suns too. Boston is better than Philly. Get over it. When the final standings come out next year, a lot of people will be laughing at you. They are now. Philly has won a championship since 1983. Lmao.
Pacers have 3 championships in the ABA. They count those as NBA stats.
Boston only 3, the same than Detroit, Miami & Golden State, San Antonio 5, Chicago 6 & Lakers 8… So Boston hasn’t been relevant for a long time only 1 in the last 32 BTW Lakers will win another 1 way before Boston, even Philly. Maybe you should listen to the guys who know like Dr J, then we will see who laughs… Also I don’t care if people laughs at me, good to bring joy to people.
No offense. The guys question where you get your information from. The Celtics won 11 championships with Bill Russell alone. That doesn’t include the championships with Bird or with Kevin Garnett. Dr. J came from the ABA. I’m guessing you weren’t even born yet. The Lakers have LeBron for 4 years. Steph, KD, and Klay will stay together that long, so don’t get excited about LA. Kawhi has said he wants his own team, so he sounds like the Clippers. For my teams. SMH for your teams. Think before you speak. I do listen to the guys who would know. That’s why they don’t pay attention to you.
I won’t read your stuff any more. Too much fiction.
Many thanks dude!!!
Then stop replying back to me… Just try to listen to the guys who have been relevant like Dr J. If you could read I said 1 in the last 32 which anyone knows but you & your total lack of basketball knowledge, Boston haven’t been relevant since Larry was in his prime, get your facts right & leave me alone please, I have asked you like 5 times.
For the 5 times. a guy wrote this week that you don’t know what you are talking about, and I replied that I agreed. This is the first time you’d asked. You do make up a lot of stuff. When I first wrote, the first thing you said was I’m not into guys. I knew you were referring to Mio. and I replied it was the name of a cute little Yorkie. You write the Philly BS on an article about Marcus Smart. You are trying to stir things up. You get what you pay for. You are dealing with a person with a lot of knowledge. I saw Dr. J play during his career. Like I say, I’ll bet you weren’t born yet. Lighten up on the trashtalking.
It’s not really a matter of “what the franchise worth is” it’s a matter of a thing called a “salary cap”. Depending on how often and how much you go over the cap the team can face punitive penalties.
Example is when the Cavs were so over the cap that they couldn’t bring in new FAs so they brought back Korver to at least maintain what they were the year before. They signed him for a reasonable 3/$21 but because of the lux tax it was much more than that. I think it was $3.88 per $1 spent over the lux tax line. Will Ainge find it wise to do that? Probably not, especially when they might need to extend some guys in 3 years.
This is a head scratcher. Could have got him for a lot less and bought time to decide if they want him long-term. Celtics appeared to be negotiating against themselves for a guy who is one of the worst offensive players in the league.
Agreed. Stupid move. Only reason you make this move is to have a tradable salary come deadline or draft time next year with Sacramento pick in hand
I’m guessing that’s the only reason they did this.
Also because Marcus Smart is good and is an incredibly versatile defender. Not many other guards in the league who can defend bigs the way he does
The other reason is to sign Smart to a decent contract to prevent him from being a huge problem in the locker room for the upcoming season.
Has to be a precursor to a Kyrie move. they’ll have smart and Rozier now, unless they trade smart’s contract in a package for somebody else
Agree
It’s a trade able contract after resigning KI
Beautiful move. Smart is back for at least this year and if a trade needs to be made, it’s a very tradeable contract. Hopefully they don’t need to trade him because Smart is very valuable to this Celtics team.
This can work for the Celtics on a number of levels (mainly keeping a player that’s been valuable to them), as long as they stay beneath the luxury tax line. They’ll be over it soon enough and likely going to stay there for a few years once they do, so it’s best to avoid it in a year where it’s avoidable.
But contracts like this aren’t “trade chips”. They may help facilitate a trade in terms of matching salaries, but, as things stand, Smart with this contract has (best case) zero value or (more likely) negative value. If it were otherwise then he’d have had his choice of offer sheets at these numbers.
Keeping Simmons a jumpshooter.
They just needed the salary though. Everyone was making over 20 or under 7. Also smart didn’t get these offers because the things he does are only valuable on competitive playoff teams, and none of those teams have the cap space to make him that offer. I think we could see something involving Marc Gasol to Boston at the deadline. Smart fits what Memphis basketball is, and although he wouldn’t be the main piece going back, he’d help make the salaries work.
RFA market is different. But still, If he were tradable for “assets” at this price point, then why wouldn’t any team with cap space (whether or not they can use him) offer sheet him and – if the Celts pass – then flip him before the deadline?
Not worth it.
Lol same ppl said king would be dumb to sign for that much are praising the Celtics. Lol
Congrats to Marcus Smart. Despite his offensive issues, I’d pay Marcus Smart 100 times out of 100 over guys like Andrew Wiggins, from the same draft class making 3 times as much. Marcus Smart is a winner. And if they decide they want to move this contract, they theoretically should be able to as cap space opens up around the league. I still think Phoenix should have gotten involved for him, but Marcus Smart is arguably that Celtics team leader, and it will be cool to see him get to celebrate when they likely get to the finals next year
He’ll be wearing #86, I suppose??
Call me dumb but I don’t get the 86#?
I so thought he was gone but I guess other teams didn’t want him that much , I don’t care for smart but Boston team needs some court attitude so it’s good if he’s stay just this year atleast.