No Marcus Smart, No Grant Williams, No ‘In-Your-Face’ Celtics Leader?

For the Celtics, the predraft move to trade away Marcus Smart, after first attempting to dump guard Malcolm Brogdon, was made in the name of roster balance. That’s becoming an increasingly vogue term in NBA circles these days, especially among the pencil-pushers who have to do the grinding work of balancing teams’ books.

Making that happen has gotten all the more difficult in the face of a new collective bargaining agreement which calls for the institution of what is, essentially a restrictive hard cap at the so-called “second apron,” which kicks in when a team’s payroll goes $17.5 million over the luxury tax threshold.

The Celtics could not afford a guard trio of Smart, Brogdon and Derrick White, who earned a combined $57 million last year, not with Jayson Tatum and Jaylen Brown slated to make $62 million combined in 2023-24—and with Brown due for a significant on a potential supermax extension.

So Smart is out and center Kristaps Porzingis is now a Celtic in his place. That means $17 million has been moved out of the backcourt and $36 million (Porzingis’ salary) moves into the frontcourt. Presto: Balance!

But there is something missing from the equation when it comes to reconfiguring the Celtics’ payroll into positional equality: Passion. Fire. Gumption.

The Celtics are decidedly lacking in those traits. Tatum and Brown, each among the Top 15 players in today’s NBA, bring a wealth of talent. And, off the court, the work ethic of each guy is unquestioned. No one doubts that the two take their professions seriously.

It’s fair to doubt, though, whether Tatum and Brown have the personality type to be the emotional leaders of this Celtics group. Both are decidedly cool characters, keeping the highs of playing in the NBA largely under emotional wraps and shrugging off the lows of the league altogether. Each player is a leader for the Celtics, but they’re leaders based on talent, not on voice or status.

“That is the thing you always loved about Marcus Smart,” one NBA coach said. “He was not afraid to grab anyone by the jersey and yell if he needed to. He was not afraid to call out his teammates when mistake were made. He was not afraid to take big shots and answer all criticism in stride. It’s a tough role, especially when you are not the best player on the team—or even third- or fourth-best. But Marcus could walk that line.

“I do not see anyone on that roster who can do that right now. Who is going to give the a**-kickings when they need a**-kickings?”

Finding Leadership Should Be On The Celtics’ Agenda

One of the offshoots of the Porzingis-Smart trade was that it added salary to the Celtics’ already burgeoning payroll ledger. That left even less room for the Celtics to keep restricted free agent Grant Williams, who was the only other Celtic regular capable of “getting in guys’ faces” as the coach put it. It did not always work out for Williams, but he backs down from no one (neither Draymond Green nor Jimmy Butler) and has a knack for using controversy to rally his team.

Al Horford is 37 years old and Brogdon is 30—ideally, the Celtics could count on them as veterans for fire-and-brimstone leadership. Alas, Horford is a thoughtful leader, but certainly not a loud or confrontational one. The same can be said, with only small variations, of Brogdon.

The Celtics, back in 2022, took considerable inspiration from coach Ime Udoka, himself a former longshot journeyman as a player. But it’s not Joe Mazzulla’s personality to ride players the way Udoka sometimes did, and if he began replicating Udoka’s syle, it would ring hollow among his players.

Tick down the list of current Celtics, and you’d be hard-pressed to find a known loudmouth leader, a guy with the potential to deliver swift kicks to various backsides, as needed. The focus will be on adding players as free-agency approaches in Boston, but finding a guy who can both shout and command respect at the same time—as Smart often did—is a secondary task the Celtics will not want to ignore.