Another NBA trade deadline has come and gone, and Marcus Smart still is a member of the Boston Celtics.
The guard’s name has been tossed around in rumors seemingly every season of his seven-year career, and this one was no different. At this point, he’s a seasoned veteran on the court and around deadline day.
He wasn’t necessarily worried he’d be dealt — and Celtics president of basketball operations Danny Ainge reportedly told Smart personally the Celtics weren’t at all shopping him — but he was ready for a different outcome if he had to be.
“I think anytime you hear your name in trade talks you prepare for the worst,” Smart said Saturday after the Celtics defeated the Oklahoma City Thunder. “You pray for the best, but prepare for the worst. This is seven years in for me, my name has been in trade talks every year. So it’s nothing new.
“It’s a business. Sometimes you get so attached to guys, to players, to teammates, to organizations that we forget that. But we’re human. Especially when you’ve been in one place for a very long time and your name comes up in trade rumors, you definitely, like I said, just preparing for anything to happen. So, I wasn’t really concerned, but I was prepared.”
This year, Smart was rumored to be part of a package the Celtics were offering for former Orlando Magic players Aaron Gordon and Evan Fournier. That didn’t make much sense from Boston’s end, though, and obviously that’s not the outcome that prevailed.
