Locked On Lakers - Daily Podcast On The Los Angeles Lakers - EMERGENCY PODCAST: The Lakers to Sign Former DPOY Marcus Smart!

Starting point is 00:00:00 Welcome to a special emergency Locked-on Lakers podcast. The Lakers are reportedly on the verge of signing Marcus Smart after a buyout. Good move for the Lakers. Get into that coming up next. You are Locked-on Lakers. Your daily Los Angeles Lakers podcast. Part of the Locked-on Podcast Network, your team every day. And thanks for making Locked on Lakers.

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Starting point is 00:00:52 Please leave your comments. We try to use them as part of the show, often giving us topics, stuff like that. And hitting you up on a rare weekend because, per Sham Sharania of ESPN, the Lakers are on the verge of signing Marcus Smart after a buyout with the Washington Wizards once he clears waivers,

Starting point is 00:01:14 which everybody is expecting will be the case. He is going to sign with the Lakers on a reportedly two-year, $11 million deal. Second year is a player option. It is basically, by the way, the Bradley Beal money that the Lakers were, I guess at the time, depending on how you want to put it, unable or unwilling to give to Bradley Beale because this is going to

Starting point is 00:01:40 require some doing. Sheikh Milton is definitely going to be waived to make this happen. And there is a possibility that Jordan Goodwin could actually, with his non-guaranteed contract, be let go in the process of this. The Lakers, as it stands per Yossi Goslin, great cap expert that everybody should be following on Twitter. quote, the Lakers can sign Marcus Smart to a two-year, $11 million with a full biannual exception. They'll need to clear about $4.2 million to gain access to the full amount while staying below the first apron.

Starting point is 00:02:11 They are a first apron cap team because they've used their full mid-level exception. Shake Milton and Jordan Goodwin are on non-guaranteed contracts. So the implication is there without some type of consolidation deal, shake Milton, who everybody expected to get waived one way or another non-guaranteed was not going to be with the Lakers past July 20th, but Jordan Goodwin could be a casualty in all this as well. We shall see. But as far as the signing of Marcus Smart, he is somebody that has been linked to the Lakers for a while in the case that he and the Wizards did end up agreeing to a buyout, which felt very likely to a lot of people observing the league because the Wizards have a lot of players on guaranteed contracts and they were

Starting point is 00:03:02 going to need to make some trades or make some waiving something to get themselves roster legal. Marcus Smart seemed like a very obvious choice for this. And I think he seems like a very obvious choice for the Lakers. I like this signing a lot for the Lakers. We've talked a lot in recent shows about in particular my desire to see the Lakers rebalance the starting lineup, the projected group of Luca Dantzich, LeBron James, Austin Reeves, Rui Hachemora, DeAndre Aiton, a lot of offensive talent there, a lot of talent, period,

Starting point is 00:03:41 but very unbalanced, the Lakers have also needed to find a way to add some more scoring to the bench. Rui, to me, is the most obvious candidate to move to the bench, but you needed to find somebody who could provide that defensive utility while I think providing as much offense as possible. And I think Marcus Smart is a pretty good candidate along these lines. We'll get into the defense and his defensive credentials, which are very good in a second. But I think it's a stretch to consider Marcus Smart a two-way player. We're talking about somebody that on his career averages 38% from the field, 32%

Starting point is 00:04:22 from behind the arc, whether you're talking about as an overall score or as an outside shooter, he has never been particularly effective or efficient to the scoring that he has done over his career, which has been he's been double digits in a few seasons for his scoring averages, but he's never been a particularly prolific score. It's always been kind of volume, volume-ish and inefficient. But where I do think Mark is smart, I wouldn't consider him a two-way player, but I think he could be rightly considered a one-and-a-half-way player because there are certain things that he does help an offense with,

Starting point is 00:05:06 in particular as a playmaker. He averages 4.6 assists on his career per game per 36 minutes. And I think this matters because the last couple seasons with Memphis and then especially with the Wizards, his minutes went down. per 36 minutes he averages 5.6 assists per game and about two and a half to one assist to turnover ratio, which is pretty solid. He is not an elite point guard by any stretch, but he is, I think, a good point guard and somebody that has just been very good at setting up teammates within the expectations and within the asks of him as somebody who has

Starting point is 00:05:48 not always been a primary point guard or the primary facilitator for his team, like case and point. He led the Celtics in assist percentage over a few seasons with Boston, despite not being always the primary ball hander or the primary guy running an offense. He's always been, I think, pretty good at finding open teammates. And in that sense, I think Marcus Smart can help the Lakers offense just by at times being the guy who can handle the ball while Luca or LeBron or Austin or D'Andre Aiton get into certain spots and Marcus Smart can find them quickly. He's somebody that I think can help grease the wheels offensively and keep things going, even if he's not necessarily going to be a consistent source of scoring or shooting.

Starting point is 00:06:42 And then in the meantime, he can really help this team defensively. Marcus Smart was the 2002 defensive player of the year. He is a three-time all-defensive team member, and there's been a few seasons where he either just missed or was within striking distance, shouting distance, of making second-team all defense. He has always been a very strong, literally. He is a big dude.

Starting point is 00:07:10 Marcus Smart is, I believe, listed at 6-3-220. He is a big dude. a stout dude, he can defend a wide variety of positions, which I think is hugely, hugely important and missing from this Lakers squad, particularly in that starting unit, which I expect he's going to start. It makes the most sense that he would start, frankly, I think it makes very little sense for him not to start, but he is going to be able to provide some utility and versatility on defense for this starting unit that I think is really, really missing. Now, to be clear, Marcus Smart by himself, I do not think fixes this team's projected defensive issues and within the starting lineup.

Starting point is 00:07:59 Like one guy can only do so much defensively. And even the year that he won defensive player of the year, he was surrounded by some other good defenders. And, you know, Anthony Davis, the last few years, you know, he is an elite. I think one of the best defensive players in the league. And his last full season with the Lakers, I said this many times, I think he had the best two-way season of any high-profile player playing for a team with stakes that mattered. I think he was the best two-way player in the league.

Starting point is 00:08:32 But there was even then only so much Anthony Davis, who is, again, one of the best defensive players in the league, could do to fix an entire defense by himself. So just to make sure people's expectations are grounded, Marcus Smart is not going to fix everything. But I think he can help a lot. There are injury concerns with Marcus Smart. He only played 54 games over the last couple seasons. Granted, one of them was with Washington and who knows what's been going on with them.

Starting point is 00:09:03 There was also the season of Jaws suspensions and being away from the team. Marcus Smart was on the team during that. there's a lot of weird stuff happening. But nonetheless, Marcus Smart has had some injury concerns. So people need to be prepared for that. But I think he is really going to be helpful for this team. It feels like a very low opportunity cost acquisition by the Lakers, you know, in terms of other things they could have done instead,

Starting point is 00:09:33 other moves, other free agents that could be available. I think Marcus Smart is a very good, addition that makes a lot of sense for this team. It's also worth noting, and I think this is really important, per Shamshirania at ESPN, in his report about the Lakers on the verge of signing Marcus Smart, he said, quote, Lakers' all-NBA star Luca Donchich reached out to Smart and made it clear

Starting point is 00:10:03 he wanted to play with the two-way stalwart, sources say, obviously this does not guarantee that Lucas is going to be signing an extension, but I think as a general rule, players who are uncertain about their commitment to an organization or how much they want to sign an extension, put themselves in a position of being long term within an organization, they don't go out recruiting. So the fact that Luke Donchich actually recruited Marcus Smart, again, it guarantees nothing, but I think it's a really good sign of what lies ahead for the Lakers and this eventual extension

Starting point is 00:10:47 that they are hoping Luca Donchich signs. It certainly can't hurt matters that Luca went out and reportedly recruited Marcus Smart. So I'm going to get into more of this on Sunday when Brian's available, but all in all, I think there's a really good signing for the Lakers. I'm happy to see this. I think Marcus Smart can help in a lot of different ways. does not fix everything. He does not make the Lakers instant contenders. But I do think he's going to be helpful and he fills needs. And that's what really matters. Again, we're going to be back with a full show on Sunday. But before I go, want to make sure that everybody knows that Locked on Lakers is brought to you by Monarch Money. And have you ever wished that managing your

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Starting point is 00:12:37 Again, we will be back with a full show on Sunday. Then, enjoy your weekend and talk to everybody soon.

Locked On Lakers - Daily Podcast On The Los Angeles Lakers - EMERGENCY PODCAST: The Lakers to Sign Former DPOY Marcus Smart!

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