It’s fitting, isn’t it, that for many of us the stunning end of Marcus Smart’s tenure with the Celtics is accompanied by conflicting feelings?
In his nine lively seasons with the Celtics, Smart engendered such “love and trust” to the point that it became a slogan for his many supporters. He also was referred to as “polarizing” so often that it practically became a synonym for his name.
The love part was easy. The trust part? Let’s admit it, that could waver. His heart was in the right place, always. His head didn’t always abide. Oh yeah, “polarizing” was the exact right word.
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It was always complicated with Smart, a distinctive, caring, enigmatic player whose desperate desire to win was sometimes impeded by his exaggerated faith in his own skills. It remained complicated during the chaotic day and late night when he became an ex-Celtic.
For much of Wednesday, it seemed that Malcolm Brogdon would be the Celtics guard on the move, part of a three-team deal sending him to the Clippers and sharpshooting big man Kristaps Porzingis to Boston. But the Clippers backed off, reportedly because of injury concerns with Brogdon.
Celtics fans who went to bed at a reasonable hour Wednesday surely woke up to a cacophony of text messages with stunning news. Smart, a staple here since 2014, the bridge between the New Big 3 and the Jayson & Jaylen era, someone who cherished being a Celtic, was the guard on the move, with the Grizzlies replacing the Clippers as the third team in the deal.
And so those of us who can admire Smart’s strengths but also recognize his flaws spend the morning, as we will many mornings to come, talking through those complicated feelings.
From a completely unemotional, purely basketball perspective — the mind-set Celtics president of basketball operations Brad Stevens had to have to pull off this deal, which also netted a pair of first-round picks — it makes obvious, undeniable sense.
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Porzingis gives the Celtics a much-needed big to ease the burden on Al Horford and Robert Williams and another much-needed knock-down shooter in Joe Mazzulla’s 3-pointer-heavy offense. He’s a gifted, versatile scorer, better than you think defensively, and allows the pieces to fit on the roster just a little better. He’s still only 27, and it wasn’t that long ago that he was being referred to as a basketball unicorn. Once again, Stevens got the best player in a deal.
I believe there are two primary reasons that Stevens was willing to deal Smart now. Given the 29-year-old Smart’s fearless-to-reckless style of play, it’s logical to wonder how effective he will be in his 30s. It was alarming how his defensive metrics nosedived this season, just a year after winning Defensive Player of the Year, and the eye test wasn’t his friend, either. This might be the classic, Belichickian it’s-better-to-trade-a-player-a-year-too-early move.
The other reason: the magnitude of Smart’s personality and his ownership in how the team played affected the inexperienced Mazzulla’s willingness or ability to do what was best for the team. It was both charming and absurd that Smart — who was, what, the team’s fourth- or fifth-best player? — seemed to be coaching the team at times.
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It was probably necessary, but it also could have been perceived as an impediment to Mazzulla’s progress.
The further we get away from it, the more absurd it seems that Derrick White, the Celtics’ smartest player and a connector on offense, ever sacrificed minutes for any other guard on the roster. But Mazzulla was hesitant to sit Smart late in games, even on his erratic nights. Stevens ruthlessly eliminated the possibility of running into that issue again.
While there are further alterations to come, I like this from a basketball perspective. Trading Smart for Porzingis is probably the right thing, and I probably don’t even need that “probably.” Yet it feels terrible, and that makes sense too.
Smart, as colleague Adam Himmelsbach perfectly put it, was the connective tissue between eras. His debut, a 121-105 win over Kevin Garnett and the Nets on Oct. 29, 2014, commenced Stevens’s second season as coach. The first player off the bench that night (Rajon Rondo and Avery Bradley started at guard), Smart scored 10 points on 3-of-7 shooting (1 of 4 from three), and led all players in steals (4) and plus-minus (plus-20). The man was what he was from the beginning.
He was here and prominent for Isaiah Thomas’s fleeting, magical “king of the fourth” era, and Gordon Hayward’s seven minutes before disaster, and Kyrie Irving’s heel turn, and Horford coming and going and coming back, and Jaylen and Jayson’s arrivals and ascents, and five Eastern Conference finals and one lamentable loss to the Warriors in the Finals. This era has been both successful and unfulfilled, and Smart was a reason for both.
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When he was at his best — whether by driving James Harden mad, or cobra-striking to steal the ball from an unsuspecting dribbler, or heck, even drilling one of those no-no-yes! 3-pointers — he was a delight to watch. He was proud to be a Celtic, and you were proud that he was one.
Smart cared about being a Celtic the way you wish all Celtics cared about being a Celtic. (It does not go unnoticed that the Celtics are going to offer Jaylen Brown $290 million or so and still have no clue whether he actually likes it here.)
Time will tell whether this ends up like the Kendrick Perkins trade (the right basketball move but one that left a huge bruise on team chemistry) or Theo Epstein’s bold decision to trade Nomar Garciaparra in 2004 (the right baseball move, and one that altered history in all the right ways).
For now, we know this, another one of those fitting Marcus Smart paradoxes. He deserved to be a champion here. But for the Celtics to have a chance of it happening in their current window, this deal probably had to happen.
Flaws and all, I sure will miss him, won’t you? It’s going to be weird when he comes back with the Grizzlies, throwing lobs, shooting all-too-confident threes, hitting back-door cutters, dogging White, and yes, maybe flopping a time or two or three.
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But know this: There will be nothing polarizing about his reception that night. The cheers he will receive will remind him that he’s forever a Celtic, forever green, even if his jersey and his hair are a different color for now.
Read more about the Marcus Smart trade and the NBA Draft
- The Celtics had a midnight deadline to land Kristaps Porzingis. In a stunning shift, they dealt Marcus Smart away to make it happen.
- NBA mock draft: Who will the Celtics pick now that they’re back in the first round? Here’s our prediction.
- Brad Stevens decided running it back wasn’t the move, so the Celtics struck first and acquired Kristaps Porzingis
- Your guide to the 2023 NBA Draft: After a seismic trade, Celtics back in first round on Thursday night
- The Celtics now hold the 25th pick in tonight’s NBA Draft. What have they done in the past at that spot?
- What you need to know about Kristaps Porzingis, the newest Celtic
Chad Finn can be reached at chad.finn@globe.com. Follow him on Twitter @GlobeChadFinn.