Marcus Smart remains one of the marquee remaining unsigned free agents, but he may be reunited with the Boston Celtics as soon as Thursday.
According to Shams Charania of Yahoo Sports, Smart and his agent are meeting with the organization in hopes of finalizing a deal.
Smart, a restricted free agent, was seeking a major pay increase. If an earlier report is correct, the upcoming deal will be worth approximately $50 million over four years.
Although he’s a paltry 36.0 percent career shooter, Smart’s biggest value is outside the scoring category. The versatile guard is both a tenacious and relentless defender. He regularly guards the opposition’s best scorer.
Granted, it’s not as if Smart is a liability on offense. He averaged a career-high 4.8 assists last season.
Once he officially returns, the Celtics will have kept every significant contributor from 2017-18 and will enter the upcoming campaign as the favorite in the Eastern Conference.