With the Summer League just days away, most of the top available free agents have been signed by now. However, rumors are now starting to swirl about veterans who could potentially be bought out by their current teams. The Knicks still have space to add a player with the veteran minimum and will undoubtedly be closely monitoring any buyout candidates. A dream target who could emerge is former rival Marcus Smart.
Now, no credible source has indicated that Smart is likely to be bought out by the Washington Wizards, at least not yet. That said, it is not hard to see why it could potentially get there. The Wizards are in the midst of a rebuild and will likely want to prioritize playing the young talent on their roster this season.
At the same time, they have multiple veteran guards on their team, such as Smart, Khris Middleton, and CJ McCollum, all of whom would likely relish the idea of competing for a championship as their careers start to wind down.
Smart is on the final year of his contract and is owed $21 million this season.
Why Smart would be an ideal fit
The Knicks know as well as any team in the league what kind of passion and fire Smart brings to the court whenever he is on it. He spent the first nine years of his career with the Boston Celtics, winning the Defensive Player of the Year award with them in the 2021-22 season.
The Celtics dealt Smart to Memphis as part of a trade to land Kristaps Porzingiz, and he has only appeared in 54 games over the last two seasons while battling injuries. So, while his best days may be behind him, he brings some intriguing talents to the table.
For starters, he is still an elite defender. In the 34 games he played last season, he was in the 97th percentile in Defensive Estimated Plus-Minus. He has averaged over one steal per game in every season that he has been in the league and would help to patch up some of the defensive weak points on the Knicks roster.
The other positive is that Smart is a willing shooter. He has averaged over four 3-point attempts per game in every season that he has been in the league. He definitely isn't a lights-out shooter, but he does have the ability to get hot, which he certainly did during the final 15 games of the season last year, where he knocked down 39.2 percent of his threes.