Boston Celtics: Is this season Marcus Smart’s Cs swan song?

This season has been an eye-opener for the Boston Celtics. With pupils preoccupied with the C’s title hopes crashing and burning against every Eastern Conference contender, this team showed its true colors in 2020-21.

With two All-Stars on the roster, Boston proved incapable of even avoiding the postseason play-in tournament and will now have to win a one-game playoff just to qualify for the Eastern Conference quarterfinals.

It shouldn’t have been this way. Clearly, something isn’t going right behind the scenes, because a team with this much talent should have achieved more.

If you ask former Boston Celtics center and 2007-08 NBA Champion Kendrick Perkins, the issue is Marcus Smart:

"“I think something drastic needs to happen and it’s not firing Brad Stevens,” Perkins said Tuesday on Celtics Pregame Live. “I think that Marcus Smart has ran his course. I think guys are tired of hearing his voice in the locker room. I think guys are tired of his ill-advised shot taking at times, some of his turnovers that he has.“If Marcus Smart could be just a star in his role, and that means bringing that defensive intensity, diving on the floor for loose balls, those hustle plays on the other end, not trying to do so much. You can see it in people’s body language, when he tries to do too much it deflates the team. So I do think the Celtics need to look into moving Marcus Smart this summer, to be honest with you. I think it’s ran its course.”"

The mere mention of dealing Smart has gotten strongly-worded messages sent my way in the past, but at this point, it seems pretty clear that he may not be long for the Boston Celtics.

Next summer, Smart is due for an extension. Having turned blue in the face several times over pointing this out over the past year after Boston proved incapable of containing a top-tier big man like Bam Adebayo, Smart could prove to be too costly of an asset to keep considering the roster imbalance of the Celtics core.

The five best players (possibly even seven best if you’re convinced by the rookie class of 2020’s sample size) on the roster are all perimeter players. Danny Ainge has repeatedly tried to fill the pivot position with low-cost options–whether it be international free agent signings like Daniel Theis and Vincent Poirier, late-round selections like Robert Williams and even Grant Williams, or MLE free agent signings like Enes Kanter and Tristan Thompson–to no avail the past several season.

Simply put, he needs to invest in the frontcourt. Perhaps he feels burned by signing Al Horford sign to such a lucrative deal and then opt-out and leave early for even more money. Maybe he has simply tried to recreate the Golden State Warriors model of finding premiere players on the wing and simply out-shooting opponents. Either way, his plans have been foiled every single season. Something needs to change. And if you agree with Perkins, Smart’s $13 million salary will be a part of it.

There’s been a weird air surrounding Smart this season after he went down with a calf strain in January and the C’s season fell off a cliff. When asked about the possibility of being traded at the March trade deadline, Smart seemed at peace with whatever happens:

"“I think anytime you hear your name in trade talks you prepare for the worst…You pray for the best, but prepare for the worst. This is seven years in for me, my name has been in trade talks every year. So it’s nothing new.”“It’s a business,” Smart said. “Sometimes you get so attached to guys, to players, to teammates, to organizations that we forget that. But we’re human. Especially when you’ve been in one place for a very long time and your name comes up in trade rumors, you definitely, like I said, just preparing for anything to happen. So, I wasn’t really concerned, but I was prepared.”"

Now, after earning the inaugural ‘Tommy Award’ in honor of recently deceased long-time Boston Celtics announcer Tommy Heinsohn, Smart has finally been honored for all of the undocumented “Tommy Points” he has accumulated through years of floor-burn from diving for loose balls and taking charges.

Marcus Smart has inarguably done just about everything he can in green and white as a former Defensive Player of the Year. Even still, he has yet to be honored on a personal level as an NBA All-Star (likely because of the surplus of wing talent in Beantown) and has yet to be a part of an Eastern Conference champion.

Dealing Smart away could potentially land a big fish in Boston. Perhaps the Golden State Warriors would consider dealing last year’s #2 pick, James Wiseman, for Smart after there were rumors last November that the two teams were considering a swap. Throwing some draft capital into a Smart-for-Christian Wood swap could give the Cs a potential third star in 2021-22. Atlanta has eyed Smart in the past, and they have young cost-controlled talent with more offensive upside to offer in a potential package.

While this has been his best season from a statistical standpoint, the team as a whole has regressed. With Murphy’s Law seemingly being in effect this season for the Cs, it just wouldn’t be a shock to see the slate wiped clean next season.

As the unofficial heart and soul of the Boston Celtics, Smart’s departure would allow the team to establish a new identity and move onto the next era of the franchise.

Given the way this season has gone, it wouldn’t be shocking to see the 2020-21 season serve as the swan song of Smart’s Celtics legacy.