How WNBA Star Rationalizes Celtics Trading Away Marcus Smart

The Celtics made a decision that didn’t sit right with many Boston fans in dealing away Marcus Smart, but WNBA star Candace Parker understood the blockbuster trade.

Parker, a two-time WNBA champion and seven-time All-Star, has experienced both the joy of winning and the heartbreak of losing throughout her 16-year playing career. The 37-year-old justified the blockbuster trade that sent Smart to the Grizzlies and brought Boston Kristaps Porzingis from the Wizards with a pretty simple explanation.

“Sometimes, in championship pursuit, there are some things that are unpopular decisions but much needed,” Parker told Bobby Krivitsky of Sports Illustrated. “I don’t think you could have come back with the same core. You needed to keep Jaylen (Brown), needed to keep Jayson (Tatum), and I think the Celtics have struggled from that four or five position in the playoffs.

“Anytime (that) you’re able to have somebody like Kristaps, who is able to step out and knock down a three, I think it will give him more space to an offense that already creates and makes you make choices. So, I personally like it on the offensive end. I think it’s to be determined defensively because that’s where they’ll miss Marcus Smart the most.”

Losing Smart will be an obvious blow, mostly dependent on the defensive emphasis this season from Celtics head coach Joe Mazzulla. That X-factor of prioritizing defensive intensity, which left with now-Rockets head coach Ime Udoka, dragged the C’s last season, making a playoff exit inevitable.

Making Smart the sacrificial lamb will definitely sting from a sentimental perspective, but that line of thinking doesn’t raise banners or help avoid embarrassing Game 7 losses to a No. 8-seeded team in the Eastern Conference finals.