Proposed Marcus Smart trade from Boston Celtics analyst worth consideration
If the Boston Celtics were actually offered the mock proposal involving Marcus Smart that Bill Simmons floated on the latest episode of “The Bill Simmons Podcast,” there’d need to be serious consideration by the front office about moving a player who is about to hit a decade of tenure should he stay in a Cs uniform for the 2023-24 season. Simmons’ scenario would see the Celtics swap out Smart for the Dallas Mavericks’ No. 10 pick in the 2023 NBA draft and Tim Hardaway Jr.
“I think this trade is really logical, I think it’s exceedingly fair and I don’t know which team would turn it down,” Simmons said.
And he may be right. As Simmons goes on to explain, the team would solve its guard problem while adding a wing who can pick up the slack if either Jaylen Brown or Jayson Tatum is having an off-game.
“It solves the guard problem for the Celtics, right?” Simmons prefaced before saying, “Because now you’re moving out one of the guards and you’re replacing him with a swing. I felt like one of the things the Celtics struggled with last year was not having that guy to put in for Jaylen Brown or (Jayson) Tatum if one of those guys got in foul trouble or wasn’t playing a game or whatever. His 3-point shooting has always been pretty good.”
For the right package, the Boston Celtics shouldn’t be afraid to part with Marcus Smart
Smart proved during the postseason that he is still at the top of his game — that of a glue-guy role player who can give the team an emotional lift on a good night –, but it’s hard not to notice the bloated payroll and the lack of progress for the roster from the 2021-22 season to last. In those scenarios, something typically has to give, and rarely do those things that give not evoke some heartache for fans.
Malcolm Brogdon is certainly preferable to trade, but if Brown is to receive a $295 million extension, perhaps it’s within reason that both guards (not to mention Payton Pritchard) could be traded for players at the same position making far less while also having other holes on the depth chart plugged.
At the end of the day, the Jays need players who maximize their potential, and that just hasn’t happened in the biggest moments during the 2023 Eastern Conference Finals (Game 7) and the 2022 Finals (Games 5 and 6). Hardaway has been a constant as a streaky volume scorer on a cheap deal in the current rising NBA salary cap climate, while the No. 10 pick could have a higher ceiling than everyone in the Boston Celtics backcourt for all we know.
Simmons’ proposed gamble is one that, at worst, gives the team a player who can be developed and reach his peak during the later years of the Brown and Tatum supermax deals that are coming over the next few offseasons.