The first games of the NBA’s regular season are only two weeks away. That means it’s nearly that time of the year when all the casual basketball fans who tune out during the summer play their annual game of ‘Wait, he’s on WHAT team?!’ Player movement in the NBA is a common thing, and sometimes that leads to some strange bedfellows.
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One of the new pairings that folks will need time to get used to will undoubtedly be former Celtic Marcus Smart wearing the purple and gold of the Lakers. Smart, who was drafted by the Celtics in 2014, spent nine years in Boston before being dealt to the Grizzlies (2023) in a three-way trade that landed Kristaps Porzingis in Beantown. Then, after the trade deadline last season, he spent 15 games with the Wizards.
However, the 2022 Defensive Player of the Year will always be remembered as a Celtic, even if he is on the other side of the NBA’s greatest rivalry now. His former teammate Jaylen Brown isn’t upset with him, though.
On his latest livestream, Brown explained why. “You can’t really be mad at him,” he said, adding, “He got traded!”
Brown is right, but there’s a catch. Yes, the Celtics traded him away, so it’s not his fault that he isn’t still with the team. After he was bought out by the Wizards, though, he was free to sign with any team.
Who even knows if the Celtics or Smart were interested in a reunion? But that’s not what this is about. Of all the teams he could have joined, did he have to go to the Lakers?
Smart and Brown spent seven years together in Boston. And though they’ve admitted they got off on the wrong foot initially, the relationship grew to the point that Smart said, “I love Jaylen like a brother. I really, truly do.”
So, it’s no surprise then that Brown isn’t throwing Smart under the bus for switching sides, especially when it wasn’t his call to leave Boston in the first place.
One can speculate on whether Smart went to the Lakers as an act of revenge because the Celtics traded him. But he makes sense on this Lakers roster. L.A. was short on defensive stoppers last year, and that proved to be their undoing.
With Luka Doncic, LeBron James, and Austin Reaves, the Lakers won’t need Smart to put up shots. They just need him to lock down the perimeter, something even at this stage of his career he’s still capable of doing. That’s especially imperative now that Dorian Finney-Smith, one of the few plus defenders JJ Redick could throw out there, has gone to the Rockets.
The Celtics will host the Lakers once in the regular season, on Friday, December 5. Smart’s return has already caused ticket prices to blow up, with the cheapest get-in price for a single ticket on StubHub already at a ridiculous $613 after fees. Will Celtics fans be as forgiving as Brown? We’ll find out in about two months.
