BREAKING: Lakers Sign Marcus Smart

BREAKING: Lakers Sign Marcus Smart

Breaking news. The Los Angeles Lakers have signed Marcus Smart to a two-year deal worth $11 million. I’m Sean Davis. Make sure you guys hit that thumbs up button as hard as you possibly can. We have a lot to talk about here today on the channel and going forward as the off season wraps up. Marcus Smart has agreed to a contract bio with the Washington Wizards to attend to sign a 2-year 11 million dollar deal with Los Angeles Lakers after cleaning waivers. Sources tell ESPN a return to a grand stage. I’m just going to finish reading the tweet. A return to uh a grand stage for 2022 defensive player of the year. Um so really quickly quick thoughts on the Marcus Smart deal for the Lakers. I am I I I am excited about the deal. I think Marcus Smart at the very least is an upgrade at the guard spot over Gay Vincent. That’s been something that I’ve I’ve really really kind of been hammering home. Um, something I’ve been I’ve been really really hammering home over the over the offseason for this Lakers is that a sneaky need for this team is the fact that they need a they they need an upgrade at the Gay Vids spot. I think Gabe Bits is fine, but I think we are very clearly past the point of Gabe Vitz being a legitimately good basketball player. think he’s a fine back end of the rotation piece at this point that is streaky as a shooter, but I I I feel a lot better about your guard, about your POA defense with it being Marcus Smart compared to it being 2025 Gabe Vincent, if that makes sense. And honestly, to a certain extent, I would have felt a little bit better if if it was Bronnie in in some cases over Marcus Smart. And I’ll do a full deep dive on kind of Marcus Smart as a player uh in a video coming out tomorrow morning. We’ll have a video on that really really diving into what Marcus Smart is going to do for this Lakers team. But let’s talk about Marcus Mart as a player. And there there in my opinion there are some things about this that I am kind of like I’m not all the way sold if if if that makes sense. Um I do like Marcus Martin. Like I said I think he’s an upgrade at the guard position over a over a um specifically I don’t know why I can’t think over Gay Vincent. And I I I do think though to a certain extent I do think that reputation is better his reputation as a defender is kind of succeed like superseding or succeeding what he is as a player I think at this point. Um and I think the biggest is the biggest problem with Marcus Smart over the past few years really since said 2022 um it really since 2022 when when he won said defensive player of the year. he has really really struggled to stay healthy. Um 2023 61 games, 2024 last year when Memphis 20 games played and then 2025 this year in Memphis and in Washington played a combined 25 games this season. Um did shoot the three ball well in in Washington, did not shoot the three ball well in Memphis either of his of the of his two seasons with the Memphis Grizzlies. So, I do think that the biggest thing with Marcus Smart is please can you stay healthy? And that is the biggest thing that’s going to look at his value is is he on the wrong side of 30 at this current stage of his career. Now, with Marcus Smart though, he adds some legitimate positional versatility. He has guarded up way more compared to years past. He’s a completely different defender now. I think he has guarded one through four pretty equally. guarding point guards 20 and a half% of the time, guarding twos 28% of the time, threes 22% of the time, fours 20% of the time. And I’m going to ri on on my guy cranes Tim_NBA on Twitter who put out a a good post I think that is talking about the Lakers and their kind of their their the matchups they can look at. So Tim says facing a strong opposing guard and not and not a heavy scoring wing. You could go Marcus Smart as your uh POA guy, Chaser as Austin Reeves, your helpers as LeBron and Luca, and then you could have your anchor mobile big as Aiden. And if you’re facing a stronger scoring wing and a weaker lead guard, uh they looking at potentially Marcus Smart as the wing stopper, Luca as the chaser, and Austin Reeves as your POA, which to Austin Reeves’s b uh to Austin Ree’s credit, I think AR is in certain matchups not a he’s not a bad defender. I think he showed specifically in the second half of last season that also Reese can can guard up and and and at least hold his own, especially I think with Aiden and with LeBron on the back line. So I do think that they are going to start Marcus Smart with Luca and with Braun. Um potentially I’m actually going to backpedal on that and and spend some more time. But I I do think as doom and gloom FC as the Lakers are right now, I do think this is a better roster compared to last season. Now, have some of the other teams in the Western Conference also gotten better? Specifically, the Houston Rockets, Denver Nuggets. Yes, they have. But if you look at this team, this team is so clearly deeper than they were last year. Even if the starting lineup is Luca, Austin, Braun, Ruy, Aiden. Okay, cool. It’s Marcus Martin, Jake Larabia. It’s Jackson Hayes, which is a backup big is perfectly fine. The problem was he was a starter for the last half of the season. Jackson Hayes as a top eight and then you go to Gabe, you go to Daltton, you go to Bronnia, Dutiero, uh like Maxi Cleveland, they have at the very least upgraded their depth and it’s honestly going to come down to can Luca Brown and Austin figure it out this year. Can you get the upside from from DeAndre Aiden that you need to see specifically defensively? Can he be a good enough play finisher and a a big that can attack mismatches well enough? So, I like this team. I think they are, if we go back to my offseason kind of breakdown, I said you need a starting big in the worst way. You need a backup big in the worst way, too. I think in a way they kind of addressed that. At the very worst, I think DeAndre at his worst has proven that he is a starting level big. Now whether or not he pushes the boundaries of that and can be a all-star caliber big or a elite starter that is to be seen or you know you’ve seen the moments the ups and downs of that but at his floor he’s a starting caliber big. Jackson Hayes’s floor isn’t backup. I think his median maybe even his ceiling is a high quality backup big. His floor is a lot lower than that though. But at the very least the Lakers in a sense I didn’t think Jack A was going to be coming back after the way last season ended. But Jackson Hayes as your backup big for 8 to 10 minutes, I expect some iteration of small ball still is perfectly okay. So, I’m going to provide some optimism. I’ll talk more about what Marcus Martin specifically brings to the table, but I really wanted to talk about this from a grand scheme of things and what this means for the Lakers. So, I hope you all enjoyed this video. Make sure you hit the like button and subscribe here to the channel if you are new. And as always, go Lakes Show. I’ll catch you guys in the next one. Stay safe. Peace out.

Sean Davis reacts to the news that the Lakers have signed Marcus Smart and more!

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