Marcus Smart listed as ‘best offseason trade chip’ for Boston Celtics

The Boston Celtics recently just tied up this best-of-seven Eastern Conference Finals series at two games apiece and are heading into Wednesday’s Game 5 with a realistic chance of pulling ahead 3-2, but this hasn’t stopped those in the media from discussing summer schemes that, in their eyes, could go on to make the ball club a more powerful and menacing squad in 2022-23 and beyond.

From free agency pursuits to full-on blockbusters, there have been a bevy of ideas thrown out there as of late with the ultimate goal of bolstering the C’s roster.

Now, of course, when it comes to the trade route, obviously in order to take part in such an activity, Brad Stevens and co. must be willing to give up a few of their commodities in order for them to bring aboard some fresh new ones and, according to the folks at Bleacher Report, the best offseason trade chip the Boston Celtics could possibly dangle is veteran guard, Marcus Smart.

Now, to his credit, writer Dan Favale did make it abundantly clear that his inclusion of the reigning Defensive Player of the Year was merely for “placeholder” reasons, for there is a great chance that the front office holds still this summer should they win the 2022 NBA Finals.

That said, should they fall short of this ultimate goal, Favale believes that the C’s could become buyers to better surround cornerstones Jayson Tatum and Jaylen Brown for yet another championship bid and, should this happen, he is under the impression that there’s no one who could reel in a better return package than Smart.

Coming off of arguably his best season as a pro whilst finally manning full-time point guard duties, the 28-year-old saw himself posting impressive averages of 12.1 points, 5.9 assists, 3.8 rebounds, and 1.7 steals per game and has gone on to up his play during this year’s playoff run, posting 15.8 points, 6.8 assists, 4.2 rebounds, and 1.2 steals on 36 percent shooting from deep.

Nabbing his third All-Defensive selection in the process, Marcus Smart has once again shown off his specific skill set that makes him one of the most effective and lethal two-way players in the game today and, with this, B/R believes that, if Boston becomes buyers this summer, they should strongly consider using him as trade bait to shake things up.

Frankly, we’d hate to see this happen, but what say you Celtics fans?

Go ahead and leave your thoughts in the comment section below!