Marcus Smart is headed to Houston, and that means Celtics fans can exhale a little when it comes to seeing one of their old favorites in enemy colors.
ESPN’s Shams Charania reported that the former Defensive Player of the Year agreed to a two-year, $13 million contract with the Rockets. For Boston fans, that ends a stretch of adjustment that included Smart wearing the uniforms of the Memphis Grizzlies, Washington Wizards and, most painfully, the Los Angeles Lakers last season.
The new landing spot also puts Smart back with Ime Udoka, who coached Boston during the 2021-22 season. That year may have been the best individual season of Smart’s career, and now the two are reunited in Houston.
Smart is not the same player he was during his Celtics peak, especially in that DPOY year, but he still brings real value. The Texas native still plays with the kind of edge, hustle and defensive bite that made him such a popular figure in Boston, and that showed up again with the Lakers last season. His defense helped fuel Los Angeles’ late-season surge, as the team went 11-1 from Feb. 28 through Mar. 21 before Smart missed the next nine games with an ankle injury.
That matters in Houston because defense is baked into the Rockets’ identity, especially under Udoka. Adding a guard like Smart gives them another weapon on that end and raises the ceiling of what they can do as a unit.
It also fills a clear need. With Fred VanVleet out all last season after tearing his ACL, Houston had to lean on Amen Thompson as its full-time point guard.
That wasn’t ideal for spacing or creation. The Rockets ranked 28th in the regular season with 31.5 3-point attempts per game, and Thompson is not a natural point guard.
There’s also the intriguing possibility of Smart and Thompson sharing the floor. That pairing could be a headache for opposing backcourts on defense, even if it comes with its own offensive questions.
VanVleet will be back next season after opting into his $25 million player option, but Houston still needed more depth in the backcourt. With Smart in the mix, the Rockets addressed that need.
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The noise has followed Brown into an offseason already thick with questions about his place in Boston, even after a career-best year that only sharpened the gap between his production and the scrutiny around him. His father said the attacks have gone beyond the game itself, which is where the tension now sits for the Celtics: a star wing who keeps delivering on the floor, and a discourse around him that keeps getting louder for reasons the team would rather leave alone. [Read more 🡒]