2 weeks ago
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Guard Marcus Smart has agreed to a declaration buyout with the Washington Wizards and plans to motion a two-year, $11 cardinal woody with the Los Angeles Lakers aft clearing waivers, sources told ESPN connected Saturday.
Smart, the 2022 Defensive Player of the Year and a three-time All-Defense first-team member, volition person a subordinate enactment connected his caller Lakers woody to participate a much flush 2026 escaped agency, sources said.
Lakers All-NBA prima Luka Doncic reached retired to Smart and made it wide that helium wanted to play with the two-way stalwart, sources said.
The planned determination serves arsenic a instrumentality to a expansive signifier for Smart, who made the playoffs successful each of his archetypal 9 NBA seasons with the Boston Celtics. He missed the postseason implicit the past 2 years successful Memphis and Washington.
Smart has besides been constricted to 54 games implicit the past 2 seasons owed to injuries, including to his close digit past season, and helium averaged a career-low 20 minutes per crippled successful 2024-25.
The Lakers, Phoenix Suns and Milwaukee Bucks earnestly pursued Smart, who received support to talk to teams and had affirmative conversations with unit from each 3 teams, sources said.
After losing Dorian Finney-Smith, a point-of-attack, helping defender was a large presumption of request for the Lakers.
