Marcus Smart is braced for the winds of change that inevitably will blow through his workplace.
The Boston Celtics guard addressed potential offseason roster upheaval Monday in an interview with The Boston Globe’s Adam Himmelsbach. The Celtics reportedly traded Aron Baynes to the Phoenix Suns last week, and Kyrie Irving, Al Horford and possibly Marcus Morris are expected to depart in free agency. The Celtics picked four players last week in the NBA Draft, and others are expected to arrive after the June 30 start of free agency.
Smart has considered the possibility of looming transactions this summer and he’s not worrying too much about details yet.
“I expected things to change,” Smart said. “I wasn’t expecting big or little, I just knew something was going to change. I think everyone kind of knew that. Now, what that is, we have no clue. Like I said, you can’t really focus on that. You have to let the guys whose jobs it is to focus on that. You focus on what you can.”
Regardless of how the Celtics re-tool, Smart is keen to right the team’s ship following the disappointing 2018-19 campaign.
“I’m excited,” Smart said. “We’re excited. As competitors, you have a season like we did last year and it leaves a funny taste in your mouth. We use that as our motivation and to keep going. We’re very excited. Whatever team or whatever people or whoever is on the board or whoever is on this roster with us, we’re excited to have them to go out there and fight.”
He cites the Toronto Raptors’ surprise NBA championship win as reason to believe the Celtics can contend for a title next season.
“The thing is, the Raptors just won the championship, right?” he said. “But they’ve got to start back over from the beginning just like we do. So we all start back over at the starting line, we all start at zero, and we all get a chance to do it.
But the Celtics first must fill their roster and allow the dust to settle before Smart and Co. can take aim at the Larry O’Brien trophy again.
