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Former Longtime Celtics Star Reportedly Makes NBA Free Agency Move Amid Reunion Rumors originally appeared on NESN. Add NESN as a Preferred Source by clicking here.
Former Boston Celtics guard Marcus Smart signed with the rival Los Angeles Lakers last July.
It appears that the former Defensive Player of the Year's stay with the Lakers will last just one season.
"JUST IN: Los Angeles Lakers guard Marcus Smart will decline his $5.39 million player option for the 2026-27 season and enter unrestricted free agency, league sources told HoopsHype. Smart started 54 of 62 games played last season for the Lakers. He’ll be coveted in free agency," senior NBA insider Michael Scotto of HoopsHype posted on Bluesky.
The Celtics selected Smart with the sixth overall pick during the 2014 NBA Draft, and he spent the first nine seasons of his career with the franchise.
Smart earned First Team All-Defense honors with Boston three times, including in his penultimate campaign with the Celtics when he was named the NBA's Defensive Player of the Year in 2022.
The 32-year-old Smart was traded to the Memphis Grizzlies in June 2023 in a three-team deal that center Kristaps Porzingis.
Smart was then sent to the Washington Wizards as part of a three-team transaction in February 2025.
NBA insider Marc Stein reported Monday afternoon that Smart is interested in reuniting with former Boston head coach Ime Udoka, who now leads the Houston Rockets.
"Marcus Smart is now officially declining his $5.4 million player option with the Lakers for next season amid a growing expectation Houston is eager to reunite Smart and Ime Udoka once free agency begins Tuesday at 6 PM ET," Stein wrote on X.
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