NBA: Smart about upcoming Free Agency: “My heart is in Boston”

Marcus Smart of the Boston Celtics spoke at the closing press conference on his upcoming Free Agency. The Guard reaffirmed that he would like to stay in Beantown.

“I’m here and I think I will be next season,” Smart said at his closing conference. “I have so much respect for these guys here. You don’t see many organizations that care about players the way they care about them.

Smart will be Restricted Free Agent in the summer, so the Boston Celtics could take any offer from another team to keep the point guard. Jackie MacMullan of ESPN reported on Sunday that Smart thinks that he should earn between 12 and 14 million dollars with his influence on the game.

“I’ll think about it a lot,” Smart said of his free agency. “I want to stay in Boston. I love this town, I love the team and I love the atmosphere here. After four years, my heart is here.”

However, it is questionable which teams could pay the guard. Capspace now only have teams that are significantly worse positioned than Boston. One possibility is that Smart is offered a midlevel exception. On the other hand, Smart could also accept the Celtics qualifying offer of 6.1 million to become an unrestricted free agent in 2019 when more franchises have capspace available.