Even though Marcus Smart‘s contract is just a week and a half from expiring, he’s not obsessing about his market or the possibility of changing teams. Speaking to Steve Bulpett of The Boston Herald today at his Young Game Changers camp, Smart said that he expects to remain a Celtic next season, but has been preoccupied with his mother’s health issues.
“I haven’t really put too much thought into the offseason free agency thing,” Smart said. “My No. 1 focus is on my family right now. I got a lot of stuff going on with my mom. Right now she needs all the positive thinking and brain capacity that we can give her. That’s what my mental focus is right now. So I really haven’t even given a thought about free agency. It’s the last of my concerns right now. There’s more important things than basketball.”
A Tuesday report suggested that the Mavericks could be a team that makes a run at Smart, a Texas native. However, despite his mother’s situation, moving closer to home won’t necessarily be a priority for Smart this summer, as Bulpett relays.
“No, that doesn’t weigh in,” Smart said. “Wherever I go, if that’s here (Boston) or wherever that’s at, my mom’s going to be ecstatic. She’s going to support me, although being away from her is hard. But she understands.”
Here’s more on the C’s:
- Georgia Tech’s Josh Okogie worked out for the Celtics today and is generating a lot of interest from teams in the 16-28 range in tomorrow’s draft, league sources tell Adam Zagoria of ZagsBlog.com (Twitter link).
- Mark Murphy of The Boston Herald confirms (via Twitter) that Okogie will “be in serious play” at No. 27 for the Celtics, adding that Jerome Robinson (Boston College) and Grayson Allen (Duke) fit that bill too. However, Robinson isn’t expected to be available that late, and Allen is increasingly likely to be off the board by then too, Murphy notes.
- Icelandic big man Tryggvi Hlinason and Michigan’s Moritz Wagner are among the other prospects the Celtics have auditioned this week, tweets Murphy.
- Earlier today, we relayed an interesting piece from Zach Lowe of ESPN.com, who took a deep dive into a potential Celtics offer for Kawhi Leonard, the team’s championship window, Jaylen Brown‘s potential, and more.
I was very high Smart and have come to the realization his career will be a best sixth man of the year while making a few defensive teams and maybe darkhorse dpoy. Seems like a dude who wants to stay in Boston. Think Danny offers a fair contract unless someone tries to poison pill the Celts.
me too. i think he can move to get a better contract easily, but he choose to be stay.if celtic dont make a good move and let him go, ill be disapointed
TAKE MO WAGNER
Well at least he has got his priorities right, basketball is just a game, family comes first, good on you dude.