Letting Marcus Smart leave to join the Houston Rockets was a baffling offseason decision to many Los Angeles Lakers fans out there. Smart had been a transformative defender for the team last season, but that was not enough to overlook a key factor in the decision to forego his reunion — age.
Smart is already 32 years old, with 12 years of NBA mileage under his belt. Despite his excellent play in 2025-26, and Luka Doncic's efforts to recruit him in the first place, his age had to have loomed large when considering what Dan Woike reported about the Lakers' offseason priorities.
"None of the Lakers’ newly added players is older than [Collin] Sexton — who will turn just 28 in January. Getting players who align with [Austin] Reaves and Doncic's timeline was a large part of Los Angeles’ plan, according to team sources."
Perhaps 32 just stood out as way too big of a number for the Lakers to justify bringing Smart back into the mix. Rob Pelinka and the front office will be banking on the long-term vision to vindicate them in their decision to allow a former Defensive Player of the Year to walk.
Marcus Smart's age made his stay in Los Angeles a short one
The Lakers had a path to retaining Smart, if they wanted it. The money that went to a guy like Sexton could have definitely been used to keep their tenacious defensive guard in Los Angeles. Perhaps the franchise did not like their odds in having a season like 2025-26 replicated.
This past campaign was easily Smart's healthiest in a long time. Between the 2023-24 and 2024-25 seasons, the former Memphis Grizzlies and Washington Wizards guard played a total of 54 games combined. That number was exceed with 62 regular season outings in 2025-26 alone.
Maybe the Lakers did not want to push their luck. They were able to enjoy the best version of Smart that any team, other than the Boston Celtics, had gotten. Amid that, they could have been wondering whether they were living on borrowed time given his combo of relentless play, age, and injury history.
The upcoming 2026-27 season will answer that, to some capacity. Perhaps this could end up as a similar story to that of Dorian Finney-Smith.
The Lakers paid a pretty penny to acquire Finney-Smith from the Brooklyn Nets, sacrificing D'Angelo Russell and three second-round picks. After one season in Houston, the Rockets had to give up three second rounders to the Charlotte Hornets to get off his contract.
No one will actually wish that fate upon him, of course. That being said, the decision to move off Smart due to his age will be continuously questioned as long as the now former Laker is still thriving as a role player in the NBA.
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