There were two players Luka Doncic described as the 'biggest headaches' of his NBA career: Marcus Smart and Herb Jones. One of the two is now his Los Angeles Lakers teammate. That comes with the responsibility of Smart proving to Doncic that the Lakers superstar did not get it wrong.
Doncic made those comments when speaking to Jason Gay of the Wall Street Journal. It was clear the generational talent wanted Smart to be causing headaches for others when Doncic recruited him to join the Lakers this offseason following his buyout from the Washington Wizards.
The problem is Smart has been a different type of headache for a few seasons now. The new Lakers arrival only managed 54 games over the past two years in the NBA.
The vision of who Smart is as a player comes from his Boston Celtics days. The onus now falls on the man who Doncic lobbied for to showcase that type of production is not a thing of the past. Otherwise, Luka and the Lakers will absolutely feel duped by season's end.
Marcus Smart must stay on the court and provide dominant defense for Lakers
The feeling for many in Los Angeles will be that Smart arrives at Lakers training camp with more to prove than anyone else. There will be a lot of doubters who think there is just no opportunity for the Lakers guard to get back to the player that he was at his peak.
In all fairness, expecting Smart to deliver the type of ferocity that got him his Defensive Player of the Year trophy might be setting him up for failure. However, there should be a reasonable level of excitement surrounding him providing spurts of what made him such a headache for the likes of Doncic.
Smart brings relentless energy on the court. It is what secured him the type of defensive accolades and reputation that follow him to this day. That can be a dangerous game for his body at 31 years old.
There will be a tough balancing act that needs to be struck that allows the tenacious defender to do what he does best without hitting the breaking point that has cost him so many games over the last two years. It is a challenging ask, but not an unfair one.
Whether the strategy is to rest him accordingly throughout the season, or limit his playing time, Smart needs to remain healthy. If more time is spent on the injury report than disrupting opposing teams, this experiment will feel like one big trick by the end of it.