One of the biggest bright spots for the Los Angeles Lakers’ offseason was the addition of Marcus Smart. They would’ve been in deep trouble without Smart since they failed to retain Dorian Finney-Smith. Last season, Finney-Smith was the Lakers’ go-to perimeter defender. Those responsibilities will now become Smart’s to carry. Lakers insider Anthony Irwin isn’t the most optimistic of that eventuality.
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It’ll be impossible for Smart to replicate the exact impact Finney-Smith had on the Lakers. The main difference is between him and Smith is that Smart isn’t 6-foot-7. He stands at a reasonable 6-foot-3, but when healthy, is one of the best defenders in the NBA. It wasn’t by chance that he became the first guard since Gary Payton to win the Defensive Player of the Year award in 2022.
The only problem is that depending on Smart’s health is a big risk. His ability to stay on the court for the last two seasons has been horrible. In the past two seasons combined, Smart has played in just 54 games. It’s not an ideal position for the Lakers’ success to depend so greatly on Smart, but they have no choice.
“It makes me nervous how many minutes we’re all (myself included) setting aside for Smart, given his recent injury history. If he gets hurt, things get tricky quickly,” Irwin said in a post on X.
Lakers reporter Jovan Buha devised an expected rotation projection for the current team’s roster. He expects Smart to not just be an integral part of the team, but even a member of the starting five.
Here was the Lakers’ aggregate minutes breakdown when combining my and Tim’s projections: https://t.co/so0DhkiF4z pic.twitter.com/rr3xU8tOXP
— Jovan Buha (@jovanbuha) August 8, 2025
Ideally, Smart would be perfect coming off the bench. Unfortunately, the Lakers are extremely thin defensively, especially when it comes to their backcourt. Smart could pick up the slack for Luka Doncic and Austin Reaves. That is part of the reason Doncic was so eager to have Smart on the team.
Nobody wants to wish injury on a player, but due to Smart’s recent past, it would be negligent for the Lakers to assume he wouldn’t miss a few games. Their guard depth falls off a cliff without him in the lineup. Head coach JJ Redick will have his hands full in efforts to make this team work.
On a brighter note for the Lakers faithful, Smart’s motivation hasn’t been this high since he was with the Boston Celtics. Irwin revealed that Smart has followed in Doncic’s footsteps to be in the best shape possible this season.
“There’s also word he’s been shedding some weight too this summer, and that’d help. I guess I’d like to see it in practice first. The last few years have been super weird with him,” Irwin said.
The Lakers are far from a championship contender, but anything is possible with Luka Doncic and LeBron James at the helm. Smart will be important to their hopes to contend in the West, but only time will tell how he shapes up with the team.
