In my lifetime as a Celtics fan, I cannot remember a more maddening player than Marcus Smart. The erratic guard can make some of the best defensive plays that you've ever seen and then later on that same possession, he chucks up one of the worst 3-pointers in NBA history. From the start, we have accepted the good with the bad from Marcus in hopes that eventually he would learn from all of the childish crap. Nope, instead he seems to have gotten more delusional over the years and who could blame him as the C's continue to prop him up for some reason and constantly stroke his fragile ego. Despite being the best (and only legitimate) trade asset that the team possessed, they made the strange decision to reportedly sign him this evening to a four-year contract extension (beginning in 2022-23) worth $77 million.
For weeks, if not months, we've been fed countless lies about how much the Celtics wanted to trade Smart and with Brad Stevens in charge now (and not Marcus' biggest fan Danny Ainge), we were led to believe that perhaps the needed change (moving Smart elsewhere) was finally about to materialize. The timing of this makes you wonder though since almost all of the best free agents have been signed weeks ago and many big names have likewise been traded to other teams. You have to think that Stevens & Co. tried to pull the trigger on such a move but after many tries, they were forced to go back to Smart with their hats in their hands and say sorry, here's an absurd amount of money to make you feel better.
The main problem with Marcus is that he fancies himself as a superstar while the truth remains that he at best is a role player on a championship contender. He was the sixth overall pick out of Oklahoma State in the 2014 NBA Draft for the Celtics, meaning that he's played his entire professional career here. Due to Kemba Walker's gimpy knee, Smart was the starting point guard for much of last season (45 of 48 regular season games) and as a result, he averaged a career-high in 13.1 points per game and 5.7 assists per game. Those are both pretty middle of the road numbers in the league and keep in mind, his individual highlights have been back-to-back NBA All-Defensive first team spots in 2018-19 and 2019-20. Those are nice honors but nothing to grossly overpay a guy like him for. The constant hype from the franchise, the team broadcasters, some media members and many fans doesn't help in this case leaving Smart to become a very polarizing figure: if you like the Celtics, you either love him or he drives you absolutely crazy and you totally hate almost everything about his game.
Smart must truly think that he is either Ray Allen or Stephen Curry with the amount of 3-pointers that he takes (5.9 per game last season and a career-high 6.6 the year before that) given that his 3-point percentage is terrible: 33% last season and 32% for his career. He has a very fiery personality which is quite unlike Jayson Tatum-the quiet superstar-or Jaylen Brown-the thoughtful All-Star. For these reasons, Smart has had infamous run-ins with many teammates, coaches and even himself (memorably punching a mirror a few years back on a road trip in LA). At this point in his career (7 seasons in) and age (27), he is not a kid anymore and while I wish he would just grow up, I doubt it'll occur when the Celts are still rewarding him with laughable money like this. I shudder to think how he'll function with his new teammate Dennis Schroder who is similarly nuts. Yikes, you want to hope that things will improve for Boston next season and beyond but a move like this makes you question everything about their plans for the near future.
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