This past week we got the news all Celtics fans were waiting for, Marcus Smart re-signed! The official terms of the deal is a 4 year $52 million deal equaling a total of $13 million per year. Going into these negotiations I had a personal range of him to be $12-$14 million and the market played itself out to between $7 million-$12.5 million so he was pretty much in the range from what you would expect. I was always hoping Ainge matched anything up to $15M simply because I am of the thought that Smart was always going to be more valuable to the Celtics than anyone else. Smart's initial offer to start the year was 4 years/$50 million so Danny just gave him the original offer plus a little bonus. In that regard if you have to "overpay" you do it, I mean it's not my money why should I care. So no Danny did not get fleeced by Smart's agent, what he did was say its the original offer or the qualifying offer your choice. This won't impact their ability to keep any of their young guys because you can go over the cap to do that, and Wyc has already stated he's willing to pay whatever the tax bill is for a contender. Now you may hear people out there tell you, 'oh you're paying $13 million for a role player who's not going to start and finish games' and blah blah. Those people telling you that are solely box score watchers and do not know the impact of Smart with this team. Sure, his numbers may not be that eye-popping but the impact he makes on the floor is amazing and sets the tone for the defense. Without Smart, your defense loses its identity and people aren't afraid any more of it. Does Smart make some bonehead plays sometimes? Yes, but which star does not? The amount of bonehead plays people bring up about him, I can easily bring up ones where he changes the game.
Sure, there are going to be some of you out there that think $13M a year is way too much for Smart, especially when the Celtics didn't exactly have to do this right now. They could have forced him to play on his QO, but the problem with that is you run the risk of ruining that relationship and then Smart leaves next summer for nothing. There will also be some of you out there too saying 'but yeah, I wanted to see a Rozier vs Smart battle of who wants it more'. Well first of all that just sounds flat out stupid. Oh, you wanna see players try to one-up themselves and possibly make more stupid plays because they are playing for their jobs? Those kinds of players tend to play way too hard and exhaust themselves and make some dumb plays along the way. Rozier will be fine playing on the last year of his deal because say Kyrie doesn't come back, he is auditioning for the starting spot. For me personally, if he were to get it, he needs to become way more consistent on offense. If he can figure that out, I'd be ok handing him the keys if Kyrie were to leave. Whereas with Smart, you know what you are getting and that's high-level defense making big-time plays when needed. Back to the salary for Smart, the way his contract is you may be paying more than you have to in Year 1, but moving forward I feel like this is a good price in Years 2/3/4. Who knows what the unrestricted market would have looked like for Smart once teams have more money, so the fact that we don't have to worry about that is more than worth it to me.
Quickly coming back to the Rozier and Kyrie situation, Rozier is going to be in the same exact position Smart was this past summer, and I think whatever happens with Kyrie will pretty much tell us what Ainge is going to do. By locking Smart up, if Kyrie decides to stay that suddenly makes Rozier more available. If Kyrie leaves, you have that money to give to Terry. It also can't be ignored that this Smart contract is extremely tradeable since it's not an outrageous number, and that will be important to remember as we head into future summers. Because for example, let's say there is a star player available via trade with a salary of $20-$23 million. You can't get this guy by just trading away your young studs (Jaylen and Jayson) because the money does not match. With this Smart contract, you can trade a young stud, Smart and someone at the end of your bench who does not make a ton to make the money work. As I said before, just keep this contract in mind for future summers, it could be the missing piece to get you that star you've wanted.
This deal is perfect for all and if you think otherwise, you box score watch plain and simple. Smart is a unique player who fits this Celtics team and gives them the best chance to win. Don't believe me? Take a look and enjoy:
