The Boston Celtics have reportedly extended veteran guard Marcus Smart on a four-year, $77.1 million contract extension per The Athletic’s Shams Charania, the most the Celtics could have offered the Flower Mound native. This lines up with earlier reporting regarding Smart being tendered just such an extension offer earlier in Boston’s 2021 offseason.
Smart logged career highs in 2021-22 in points (13.1) and assists (5.7) per game despite missing making an NBA All-Defensive team for the first time in three seasons. With the team valuing the cap flexibility required to add a third star in the future, Smart’s extension would be a moveable contract at the reported rate, and a team-friendly deal should they elect to keep the Texan around long-term.
The deal is fully guaranteed and contains a 15% trade kicker, per Charania.
Boston Celtics guard Marcus Smart has agreed to a four-year, $77.1 million max contract extension with the franchise, sources tell @TheAthletic @Stadium. The fully guaranteed deal through 2025-26 includes a trade kicker.
— Shams Charania (@ShamsCharania) August 16, 2021
The extension makes getting enough cap space to sign a max contract player outright next summer complicated, however — Boston would likely have to burn assets to move the contracts of players dear to the fanbase for any such hypothetical free agent.
And with a fairly thin 2022 free agency class after popular Celtics target Bradley Beal, it seems the team is much less likely to sign a star outright next summer than they were previously.
This post originally appeared on Celtics Wire. Follow us on Facebook!
