Marcus Smart sounds like a guy who expects to return to Boston next season and that's good news, because it's the right move for the Celtics.
We're all guilty, at times, of letting the last game influence our opinions emotionally. And Smart's last game was a bomb -- 1-for-10 from the floor, a series of hero-ball clangs, and not a single 3-pointer when the Celtics desperately needed one to fall.
That game marked the Bad Smart that can overwhelm us if it isn't offset by enough Good Smart. Good Smart makes big shots, finds teammates in the lane, and rag dolls himself all over the floor like Ed Norton in Fight Club. He made some of those plays in Sunday's Game 7 loss -- his only basket came after he missed a layup and then simply ripped the rebound from the trees for the putback -- but not nearly enough to avoid elimination.
But just as we overreacted to a couple of solid games from Terry Rozier ("Trade Kyrie!"), we shouldn't let Smart's most recent effort cloud our perception of his value.
He told ESPN's Jackie MacMullan after Game 7 that he believes he's worth more than the $12 million to $14 million many experts have pegged for him. A restricted free agent, he'll certainly receive a $6 million qualifying offer from the Celtics, which will in turn allow them to match any offer he receives on the open market.
It remains to be seen what kind of market materializes. Smart has the misfortune of being available in a summer without money. Most of the teams with projected cap space stink: the Lakers, Hawks, Kings, Nets, Bulls. The Pacers and 76ers are also on that list, and they're more intriguing, since Smart's primary worth is as a jackknife on a contender. While he could be useful in building a culture on a young team, he better fits a club with title aspirations. Were Houston to clear some space, for instance, he'd make sense for a roster desperate to slow the Warriors, who just finished raining fury on them in Games 6 and 7 en route to the Finals. (How Smart's long-range struggles fit Houston's 3-heavy offense is another story…)
But Smart himself thinks he's coming back. That's the message he relayed to reporters on Monday during season-ending interviews in Waltham.
"I'm here. They're already planning for me to be here," Smart told reporters, including ESPN's Chris Forsberg. "Those guys, I tip my hat to those guys. You don't see a lot of organizations that's as clear about their players as the way this organization does it."
Smart fits here long-term in ways that perhaps Rozier does not because he's clearly comfortable playing off the bench and earning major minutes in crunch time. Teammates routinely describe him as their heart and soul, and there's real value in knowing and accepting your role, especially when it requires thankless tasks like being run over by LeBron James.
On the flip side, it is fair to ask about his crunch-time viability on a roster that should include a healthy Kyrie Irving and Gordon Hayward. There are only five spots to go around, and it's easy to see the Celtics leaning on a late-game five of Irving, Hayward, Al Horford, Jayson Tatum, and Jaylen Brown, thereby decreasing Smart's value.
In any event, what's a fair deal in this market? Ryan Bernardoni at Celtics Hub has written an exhaustive offseason primer (read the whole thing!), and wonders if a three-year deal above the $8.6 million mid-level exception that Smart is likely to earn on the open market would convince him to stay. The fact that Clippers sixth man extraordinaire Lou Williams just signed for three years and $24 million doesn't help Smart's market, though Williams is 31 and Smart 24.
"I've got a lot to think about," Smart told reporters. "There's a lot of factors that go into it. But that being said, I want to be in Boston. I want to be here. I love this city, I love this team, I love the atmosphere it gives off. I've been here for four years. My heart's here. But there's definitely going to be some factors going into it."
This should be a relatively easy call for C's boss Danny Ainge. In a depressed market, Smart is unlikely to break the bank, so do right by him and pay the man. He's worth it.