Celtics Sign Marcus Smart

JULY 10TH: The Celtics have made the signing of Smart official in a team release. Whether he received the full 120% rookie scale salary has yet to be revealed, but presumably that’s the case.

JULY 8TH: The signing took place three days ago, according to Deeks, who adds that an official announcement might not ever take place. The Bulls made no announcement when they signed Derrick Rose to his rookie deal, as Deeks points out (Twitter links).

7:49am: The Celtics have signed Marcus Smart, tweets Mark Deeks of ShamSports. There’s been no public announcement from the team, but Smart has been playing in summer league for the club. As the No. 6 pick from this year’s draft, he’ll likely receive a salary worth slightly more than $3.283MM this year, as our chart of salaries for first-round picks shows.

The 6’3″ Smart finally joins the NBA after a surprising decision to sit out the 2013 draft and return for his sophomore season at Oklahoma State. An incident in which he shoved a fan during a game caused a stir, but it didn’t seem to have much of an effect on his draft stock, as he was only the second point guard to come off the board. The Celtics already have Rajon Rondo and Avery Bradley in the backcourt, but president of basketball operations Danny Ainge has expressed confidence that Smart can co-exist on the floor with both of them.

Smart, 20, averaged 18.0 points, 5.9 rebounds and 4.8 assists in 32.7 minutes per game this past season. He drained just 29.9% of his three-point attempts, prompting Eddie Scarito of Hoops Rumors, who examined Smart’s Prospect Profile, to point to the improvement of his outside shooting as a key bellwether for his career.

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