11 million in 2 years! What are the pros and cons of Smart joining the Lakers?

Smart, too, entered the lake. The latest report by

famous reporter Shams: Smart and the Wizards completed a buyout (21.34 million yuan left for a year), and after the clarification period, they will join the Lakers for 2 years and 11 million yuan, with the second year of the contract as the player option.

There are a lot of follow-up news. Let me summarize it:

1. The Lakers are now full of rosters and do not have enough salary space. They need to trade or at least cut one person (most likely Milton), and then free up about 4.2 million space to provide Smart with this contract

2. Smart told the Wizards in recent weeks that he wanted to go to a competitive team. The Wizards worked hard to trade him, but his expiration contract was not very large

3. Buy Before the contract was cut off, the Wizards allowed other teams to contact Smart. In addition to the Lakers, the Bucks and Suns also seriously pursued Smart. Smart had a positive conversation with the management of these three teams

4. Doncic took a lot of credit for choosing the Lakers. It is reported that Doncic personally contacted Smart and clearly stated that he wanted to fight side by side with this strongman with both offense and defense. This successfully impressed Smart

If Smart joins at the peak, to be honest, it is very suitable for the Lakers.

What do the Lakers lack the most now? Defense, and peak - in fact, it was just three years ago. Smart was still DPOY. That DPOY was not simple. The two defenders DPOY were still Payton in 1996 and Jordan in 1988. They were both Hall of Fame-level bosses.

Objectively speaking, Smart is the weakest among all previous DPOYs. That year, the Celtics had the first place in the league in defensive efficiency. Rowway, Horford, and Tatum were all very defensive. Smart was elected due to the team. For example, Smart's defense WS can only rank fifth in the team.

However, even the weakest DPOY is also DPOY. Peak Smart can be said to be the top defender among the defenders. Although he is not tall, only 1.93 meters tall, he is very strong. He can not only lead the defense, but also switch to multiple positions, and even occasionally hit the inside.

In addition, Smart is also very good at using his body to put pressure on his opponent, interfering with his opponent at a psychological level, and commanding defense on the court, checking for shortcomings and filling in leaks. These things are sometimes unreflectable by data.

If Smart joined the Lakers during this period, there is reason to believe that he can provide the outside defense he needs. In addition, his iron-blooded personality can also motivate the team, but the problem is also obvious. Smart is no longer the Smart three years ago.

After being traded by the Celtics in 2023, Smart has played in the Grizzlies and Wizards in the past two seasons. His performance can be said to have declined very seriously:

-2023-24 season, playing 20 games, averaging 14.3 points, 2.7 rebounds, 4.3 assists and 2.1 steals, shooting percentage of 43.0%, and 32 three-point shooting percentage .2%, real shooting percentage is 55.2%

——In the 2024-25 season, he played 34 games, averaged 9.0 points, 2.1 rebounds, 3.2 assists and 1.1 steals per game, shooting percentage is 39.3%, three-point shooting percentage is 34.8%, and real shooting percentage is 52.9%

First of all, the attendance rate is very worrying, and he has only played 54 games in two years.

Among them, last season alone, his ankle sprained as many as 7 times, and his injury caused his condition to decline a lot. If he joined the Lakers, his attendance rate would definitely not be worth the cost.

Considering the situation of the Grizzlies and Wizards in the past two years, Smart is likely to have minor injuries and he should be able to rebound after going to the Lakers, but his ankle is indeed one of Smart's injuries, and he will suffer ankle injuries almost every year.

Secondly, Smart has never been a stable offensive player. His three-pointers are not reliable, and his career shooting percentage is only 32.4%, but he has made many shots, averaging 4.9 games in his career.

Take the 2020-23 season as an example. In the three seasons before leaving the Celtics, Smart averaged 5+ three-pointers per game, but his shooting percentage did not exceed 34%. He sometimes got the most. He made many unreasonable moves, and there were many famous scenes of three-pointers against defense at critical moments.

and, Smart's personality, if you use it well, it is just a dream Green. If you use it poorly, it may cause some trouble to the locker room - considering that the Lakers have James and Doncic, Smart should not be in the case where the Celtics steal the show and the two-player treacherous children.

There is another point that is very important. Will Smart play the starting lineup? If it starts, who will be the substitute? The most likely one now is Reeves (refs refused to renew early in the offseason) or Hachimura, but these two people will be contract years next season, and they both expect to use data to get big contracts. If you let them start, it may not be good for the team's locker room.

I can only say that Smart joining is indeed good, but there are still many problems. The main thing is to see how much oil Smart has. It should be a big problem to produce the contract value, and it is hard to say whether it can meet expectations.

And to be honest, it should not be enough for the Lakers to solve the defensive problem with Smart alone. After all, the defender's defensive influence has always been limited. Do you think that the Lakers can rank among the top four in the Western Conference next season?