It was a hard enough pill to swallow that the Boston Celtics traded Marcus Smart just before they won Banner 18. It was an even harder pill to swallow that he became a low-risk, high-reward addition for the Los Angeles Lakers. Luckily, there's not really much of a metaphorical pill to swallow now that he's on the Houston Rockets.
However, here's a fun fact about Smart starting his next chapter in Houston: not only does he get to play for Ime Udoka again, but now he gets the chance to do something he never did in Boston: play with Kevin Durant.
Okay, why specifically reference him? First off, because Smart himself did at Rockets' media day.
"I get to be on the other side of him taking the shots and not taking the shots over me...his ability to make shots it doesn't matter who's there. And it also doesn't help that he's close to seven foot, and I'm close to six foot.
And he just shoots right on top of me, so to be able to pass him the ball and go, okay now I get to actually watch the shot and not have to worry about trying to make a miss...I think that's gonna be the fascinating part to be able to watch him do what he does best"
Second, Boston tried multiple times to pair Smart and Durant in Boston. First, it was 2016 when they tried like crazy to pry him away in free agency and nearly succeeded. Then they tried again when they tried to get him from Brooklyn.
Of course, Boston wanted him because, well, he was Kevin Durant, but pairing him with Smart could actually be a basketball symphony if all goes right for the Rockets. Smart and Durant aren't what they were, but they're still good enough to leave an impact on the game.
If Houston succeeds, that becomes painful to think about
The Rockets have fallen under the radar because they didn't exactly do much damage after Durant. However, there was a reason for this: losing Fred VanVleet just before the season started, then losing Steven Adams mid-season, more or less killed them.
But now that the team has a clean bill of injuries and has just added Smart. If they rebound quite well (and it's not getting talked about enough that they definitely could), and the combo of Durant and Smart has a lot to do with it, oh boy, that's going to make many wonder what could have been with those two in Boston.
Especially since they would have been in their primes if they had teamed up when the Celtics tried to. Now the Rockets get to see it full-time, even if it's the somewhat watered-down version of what Boston had in mind.
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