Brad Stevens made his first major long-term bet of his tenure as team president of basketball operations, agreeing to a four-year extension with Marcus Smart worth over $77 million as first reported by Adrian Wojnarnowski of ESPN.com.
The move rewards the longest-tenured Celtic with his second four-year contract and also includes a trade kicker to Shams Charania of the Athletic. That clause likely created some added incentive for Smart to sign now for the maximum contract Boston was able to offer before Smart hit free agency next summer.
The bigger question in the meantime though is what exactly Smart’s contract means for the Celtics free agency plans for 2022 and beyond.
No max cap room next year for Celtics without trading Smart
The Celtics had operated this offseason with the ability to open up max cap space in free agency next summer for max player with a few minor moves. Smart’s extension takes that flexibility away from Boston (barring him being traded into another team’s cap space). Smart’s extension is set to kick in during the 2022-23 season and will eat up a significant amount of cap room for the team next season.
2022-23: $17.2 million
2023-24: $18.5 million
2024-25: $20 million
2025-26: $21.3 milion
A closer look at the Celtics’ salary commitments during the 2022-23 season show they will be very far from opening up a max free cap slot now with Smart’s deal on the books.
2022-23 Celtics salaries
Jayson Tatum: $30.5 million
Jaylen Brown: $28.7 million
Al Horford: $26.5 million ($14.5 million guaranteed)
Marcus Smart: $17.2 million
Romeo Langford: $5.6 million (team option)
Grant Williams: $4.3 million (team option)
Aaron Nesmith: $3.8 million (team option)
Payton Pritchard: $2.2 million (team option)
Total guaranteed money for 2022-23 season: $106.8 million
Expected salary cap: $119 million
What does this mean for a Bradley Beal pursuit?
A trade or sign-and-trade was probably always going to be the more likely path to a player like Beal since Boston would have to give up several key supporting players (like Smart and Rob Williams) to clear the necessary cap room to sign Beal outright next summer.
Brad Stevens’ bet here is that if Beal decides he wants to come to Boston, Smart and/or the team’s other assets (draft picks and young players) will be the smarter way to acquire him rather than gutting the team around Jaylen Brown and Jayson Tatum in order to re-sign him.
The Celtics may also view Smart as a more valuable trade asset signed to a long-term deal rather than being on an expiring contract this season. It’s also highly possible the team just likes him as a supporting piece long-term.
Either way, this is a bit of a gamble for Brad Stevens, sacrificing some flexibility and betting on Smart having a big bounce-back year after a disappointing 2020-21 season. He is sure to be a far happier player in 2021 with this kind of job security but the Celtics’ options for next summer and beyond just got more limited if Smart’s deal doesn’t age into a good value. Stevens and Boston’s front office are betting that won’t be the case. However, the pressure on the team’s own internal development just grew since their most realistic path to acquiring a star now comes via a trade.
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August 17, 2021 at 07:46AM
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How Marcus Smart extension impacts Celtics 2022 free agency options - MassLive.com
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