Marcus Smart says the Lakers’ free-agent offer left a bad taste in his mouth, and he made it clear why he chose a different path.
The Texas native wanted to be closer to home as he moves deeper into his NBA career, but the money and security weren’t there in Los Angeles. Speaking with Varun Shankar of The Houston Chronicle at Tuesday’s media day, Smart called the Lakers’ pitch “disrespectful.”
“First off, I played so well that the offer that was ultimately given didn’t match the way that I played,” Smart said, “especially when you see guys who played way worse than I did, the offers they’re getting. And then it wasn’t any security that we wanted that they were willing to do.”
Smart’s bounce-back season after two injury-plagued years put him back in the mix. He played 62 games last season, cracked the Lakers’ starting five and gave them a defensive lift plus veteran steadiness on a club that won 53 games and reached the second round.
He eventually landed with the Rockets on a two-year, $12.4MM deal, and he acknowledged that it came in below what he could have made if he had stayed put with the Lakers. Still, the contract includes a player option for year two, giving him a chance to make up some of that lost ground.
“They gave me an opportunity to be able to go out and try to get what I’ve earned,” Smart said, “and what I’ve been working my tail off to provide for my family is a decent-sized paycheck with obviously years on it, right? Or a big paycheck with less years, but to be able to have that option.”
Kevin Durant, meanwhile, wasn’t interested in looking ahead when reporters pressed him about his future at media day, according to Matt Young of The Houston Chronicle. General manager Rafael Stone said Durant is happy in Houston, but Durant wouldn’t discuss what could come next with the $46MM player option he holds for next summer.
“I’m not thinking about anything like that,” he said. “I’ve enjoyed coming into work every day.
It’s been fun going through the process with everybody. I’m taking it a day at a time and that’s the most I can do.
Who knows what will happen down the line or in the future, but right now, I enjoy showing up for work.”
Durant should have a new layer to his game this season with Fred VanVleet finally in the mix. Shankar reported that VanVleet’s return could make Durant even more dangerous offensively, especially after VanVleet missed all of last season with an ACL tear before training camp. Without him, Durant was forced into more of the primary ball-handling load, and that pushed his turnover rate up.
Another media day storyline centered on Alperen Sengun, who said he wants more after being named an All-Star twice already. Entering his sixth NBA season, Sengun said the bar needs to keep rising.
“I was an All-Star two times, but that’s not enough,” he said. “I want to be there every year.
I don’t even want to think about, ‘Am I going to make it or not?’ I just need to play like I’m ready for this, like I know I’m going to go there and that should be everyone’s goal.”
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Fred VanVleets Return Could Change Everything For Houstons Offense
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His return matters because Houston has missed the kind of steady hand VanVleet provides in pressure moments, from ball handling to late-game execution. He is also expected to be part of the preseason opener, a useful first checkpoint for a team that wants more structure and leadership around its young core after last years long wait. [Read more 🡒]
Rockets Rookie Already Sees What Makes Kevin Durant So Different
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Thornton, taken 31st overall in 2026, put together a strong Summer League and should be in the mix for backcourt minutes, even if the path to playing time is crowded. For the Rockets, the larger takeaway is simple: a young player still fighting for a role is already taking cues from one of the leagues most proven scorers, which is exactly the sort of backdrop Houston wanted as it heads into the 2026-27 season. [Read more 🡒]
Kevin Durants Rockets Absence Still Looms Over That Lakers Series
The Rockets got to the postseason with a 52-30 record and enough momentum to believe they could make noise, but the first-round meeting with the Lakers quickly became more about survival than seizing the moment. Kevin Durant never got the chance to steer the series the way Houston had hoped, first sitting out Game 1 because of a knee injury and then aggravating matters with an ankle issue in Game 2, leaving the Rockets to lean even harder on a group that had spent the regular season earning bigger roles.
Durant said he was not close to returning during the series, and the way the matchup unfolded only sharpened the sense that Houstons young core needed every bit of that pressure. Alperen Sengun and Amen Thompson both handled major responsibilities and continued building cases as cornerstones, with the kind of playoff exposure that can speed up a teams growth even in defeat. For a Rockets group still defining itself, the Lakers series may end up being remembered less for the result than for what it forced the next wave of Houston talent to confront. [Read more 🡒]