Marcus Smart‘s disappointing year-and-a-half with the Grizzlies ended with a trade to Washington in February, and he’s not surprised by the chaos the franchise has undergone since he left. In an interview with Josue Pavon of ClutchPoints, Smart said there were clear indications that a breakdown was coming.
“Way better. You see what’s going on now,” Smart said. “That started with me. I came back from injury, and I got traded because they said I didn’t want to be there. I’m injured. What do you mean, I don’t want to be here? I’m here every day working my ass off, cheering. I’m the only one on the bench coaching, but you know how it is. Control what you can control.”
Smart only appeared in 19 games with the Grizzlies last year — and 39 total during his time with the franchise — before being shipped to the Wizards. A few weeks after he left, the team fired head coach Taylor Jenkins with nine games left in the regular season, replacing him with assistant Tuomas Iisalo, and was swept out of the playoffs in the first round.
This season is off to a disastrous start as Memphis fell to 4-10 after losing Saturday in Cleveland. Iisalo’s unorthodox substitution patterns haven’t been popular with players, and they led to a rift with star guard Ja Morant that resulted in a one-game suspension.
Although his time in Memphis didn’t work out well, Smart stated that he doesn’t harbor any animosity toward the organization.
“I wish nothing but the best for them. Those guys — they work their ass off,” he added. “But you could definitely see this coming, and now, this is what you get.”
The Grizzlies were among the top teams in the West for most of last season and were still in the race to host a playoff series when Jenkins was dismissed. However, they stumbled down the stretch and finished as the No. 8 seed, which required them to go through the play-in tournament. They lost to Golden State before beating Dallas to claim the West’s final playoff spot.
Smart said there were plenty of warning signs before he was traded that things were about to go badly.
“You could see it. Even when I was there, me and (current Lakers teammate) Jake (LaRavia),” he said. “You could see just how they were handling things, going about things. And it’s unfortunate — you’ve got some good talent over there. It’s unfortunate. Hopefully, they can get it together.”
But the Grizzlies have been decimated by injuries so far this year. Super unfair thing to say. Smart…isn’t. Talk about most overrated player ever. Did not come close to deserving that DPOY, he’s a PG ffs…
True, the Grizzlies have had the worst luck with injuries of any team in the NBA, but have somehow managed to remain playoff contenders through strong drafting and player development.
Cheap shot from Smart.
Overrated? Crazy to have an opinion about something you clearly don’t watch.
His getting voted DPOY is the very definition of overrated.
I definitely did watch Marcus Smart in his DPOY year and in no way, shape or form has Marcus Smart ever cleared Draymond Green defensively. Period. He beat out Rudy in his prime too that year. One of the worst awards ever. NBA awards voters have long been corrupt as sin, this is another example. Smart probably paid them off. Like I said, he is a point guard. He didn’t even lead the league in steals that year. Like, not even a crumb of evidence to prove he was better defensively than any big who actually has to go bodies with giants on every play.
You and the 9 upvotes from my haters who just side with anyone arguing with me all don’t know ball as well as I do and that’s why you are coping and seething here. Go outside: everyone will agree with me.
Smart led the league in absolutely nothing and his 1.7 DBPM was the same as 14-15 Curry “who stinks at D”. Interesting how the goalposts move when it comes to Steph.
no bias there at all.
I mean I am arguing maybe one of the 5+ guys with a higher DBPM should have won that award. Statistically, it was a poor choice, and remains so to this day.
The bias is from Lakers fanboys defending their guy. Yawn.
You’re trashing a tremendous poa defender as if he had no business being in the discussion at all. And you think others are biased.
“a tremendous poa defender” when was this ever true? He was very good, not elite. Never elite. Never deserving of this award.
Here, even out of the guys who got votes he got cooked on every metric, these numbers don’t lie:
link to basketball-reference.com
He was a tremendous flopper, true enough
He was actually IN IT, so he has a little more insight that the smartest of all Hoops Rumors commenters.
No way none of us can say he’s wrong… we’re literally guessing. He was actually in the huddle, in the lockerroom, on the bench, on the team plane…
He has a better pulse on the situation than any of us.
To not understand that would be… entitled?
And they would have had Dal lottery numbers lols…
Marcus Smart isn’t wrong but this is not an original or unique perspective. I think everyone thought the way last season ended was troubling.
Idk I’d argue that explaining your side of the story and it being a story from inside the organization for multiple seasons that is hyper specific to you and that story is pretty original….
And acting like a large group of people weren’t high on this Memphis roster just to make a snarky jab about how the team has performed seems even more unoriginal.
Memphis has been hurting themselves since they move to Memphis
Yeah man, those Vancouver Grizzlies were so good!
They should’ve at least changed the name because the Grizzlies name makes zero sense for Memphis. Just like how Utah kept the Jazz and now New Orleans has to be the Pelicans.
Didn’t really get why you fire the coach so close to playoffs. I guess something was going on there. They were in thick of top 4 at time. Their biggest issue was Morant immaturity. And it still is.
Let’s see how he feels when Lakers come back to earth.
They were not in the thick of top 4. They were CRATERING after the break.
You’re talking about the Lakers “coming back to earth” when LeBron ****ing James hasn’t even played yet. Love or hate the Lakers they are competently run and nowhere close to Memphis’ level of dysfunction.
Stick to your garbage Knick takes, at least I can believe that you watch them every now and then.
Really what NBA do you watch ????
No Bright Analysis ……
The Memphis Grizzlies fired head coach Taylor Jenkins on March 28, 2025. At the time of his dismissal, with only nine games remaining in the 2024-25 NBA regular season, the Grizzlies’ record was 44-29.
Considering the fourth seed last year were the Clippers at 50-32. So Fake 2K keep trying. One day you might actually use real facts.
And what does the Lakers have to do with the Grizzlies. Your infatuation is now stalking lmao.
Thank you tor sharing your incompetence.
I could see the Bulls and Grizzlies hooking up on a deal for Ja.
The Bulls have something good happening there. The last thing they need is head case Ja to mess it up.
The Bulls have lost 4 in a row and are 6-5 after starting off 5-0. I know they’ve been playing without Coby but again he’s an UFA after this szn, so a deal where they get back a currently undervalued Morant is a chance they may not get again.
Did you miss the fact that Giddey has been out injured?
The Bulls lost 5 straight. Giddey missed 2 of those 5.
The Bulls already have a better PG in Giddey. They dont need Morant.
The TWolves seem to be most interested in Ja. Only they would need a third team to take Randle.
Randle’s leading the Wolves in ppg (25.5) and apg (6.2), and is 2nd in rpg (7.4).
Zero chance that the Wolves trade him.
Bulls trading for Ja?
Is Morant still the player that he was 4 and 5 years ago?
I mean, maybe if he got back to that.
Bulls just re-did Giddey who is making almost half of Morants $.
I wouldn’t do it if I were CHi.
And the Grizzlies, (besides Giddey) would also have to take on Zach Collins or Patrick Williams $20 mil yearly. Gross?
Or else Huerters dead money expiring contract.
If huerter, then the Grizz would have an extra $20+ available next year for all those free agents that can’t wait to go there.
What about:
Coby White
Zack Collins
Dalen Terry
Protected 26 1st
The Bulls are going to lose Coby to free agency anyway. Collins is an expiring deal, and the Grizz get a 3rd FRP in a deep draft. It’s a way for them to rebuild quickly… there may be few options for dealing Ja.
Teams building around spectacular but always injured players like Morant and Zion are crazy or should I say unlucky. Move on or stay in a morass for years.
It would have been helpful if any blogger with journalistic aspirations had asked the questions that would help us understand what Smart meant. For example, when he said he was the only one on the bench coaching did he mean the entire time he was in Memphis? The entire 2024-2025 season after Iisalo was hired by management as an assistant? Or just the last 9 games of the season after Jenkins was replaced as head coach?
I took it more that he was referring to he was the only player doing that. Like the coaches were, but really good teams tend to have a lot of player to player communication, etc during the games. Especially from the vets.