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With Celtics Roster in Flux, Marcus Smart Now Longest-Tenured Player in Boston

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In a salary cap clearing move this weekend, the Boston Celtics traded Avery Bradley and a future second round pick to the Detroit Pistons for Marcus Morris, making none other than 23-year-old OSU alum Marcus Smart the team’s longest-tenured Celtic.

Bradley and his $8.8 million expiring contract was dealt to clear space for All-Star forward Gordon Hayward, who will make $128 million over the life of an agreed upon four-year deal that lured him away from the high life in Salt Lake City.

Smart was drafted by Boston with the sixth overall pick in the 2014 draft and had reportedly been put on the trading block after the acquisition of Hayward; the move to deal Bradley, however, should keep him in town now that the Celtics have cap space to pay Hayward. For now.

Although Smart is now the longest-tenured Celtic for the reigning No. 1 seed of the Eastern Conference, he finds himself in an awkward situation headed into the offseason. He will likely enter the 2017-18 season in the final year of his rookie deal and will make more money than I could count on all my limbs combined ($4,538,020), but he’s officially extension-eligible—and Boston’s plans to pay him almost certainly won’t even be considered until next offseason. That could leave Celtics GM Danny Ainge dodging an extension like the 2013 version of Perry Ellis.

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Smart has proven to be a valuable backup point guard in Boston, but will they pay him big next season when he hits the free agent market? Long-term, he likely won’t be a starter for the team. He’s been a below average shooter and an average contributor. As far as priorities are concerned, Isaiah Thomas will be No. 1 next offseason followed by potential big name free agents followed by Smart.

If you’re going down the line of most tradeable assets, Smart, along with Jae Crowder, appear the most likely candidates should Ainge get trigger happy again before his deal expires.

Maybe it’s too soon to start looking into Boston’s crystal ball to determine what they will do with Smart, but it’s certainly noteworthy that the former OSU guard is somehow the longest-tenured player on the roster, especially given the amount of turnover within the organization recently. Here’s to (hopefully) many more of these beautiful flops being laid out in Boston.

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