The Los Angeles Lakers are reportedly interested in a reunion with Marcus Smart this summer, and they should be. Smart outperformed his $5.1 million salary in 2025-26, rejuvenating his value in the process. It's why the former Boston Celtics guard (and Defensive Player of the Year) is set to decline his $5.4 million player option for 2026-27.
Smart's penultimate season in Boston (2021-22) was spent under defensive-minded head coach Ime Udoka, who's now with the Houston Rockets, of course. And it sounds like Udoka is still a fan of Smart's, as NBA insider Marc Stein and Jake Fischer just reported that Houston has interest in Smart and could be a threat to sign him this offseason.
"The Rockets do, however, loom as a possible free agent destination for another one of Udoka's former players in Boston: Marcus Smart," Stein and Fischer wrote.
The Houston Rockets could sign Marcus Smart this summer
The Rockets swooping in and snagging Smart would be a bad outcome for the Lakers. Losing Smart to any team would be bad enough, seeing as Smart has shown that he's an excellent fit alongside Luka Doncic and works well within JJ Redick's system. But to lose Smart to a Western Conference rival like the Rockets? That would be the worst-case scenario for his free agency, from LA's perspective.
If that happened, the Lakers might have to settle for overpaying Lu Dort, who is an inferior player to Smart and someone the Lakers should steer clear of, generally speaking.
The Ime Udoka connection gives the Rockets an in to sign Marcus Smart
Smart's relationship and familiarity with Udoka -- paired with a nice offer sheet -- could easily convince Smart to sign with Houston, despite his happiness with the Lakers. The Rockets are a clear threat to sign Smart for these reasons, and they'd love to spoil the Lakers' summer plans with Smart, especially since LA just handled the Rockets in the first round of the playoffs.
Rockets could force Lakers into a phantom bidding war for Marcus Smart
Houston might also decide to just mess with the Lakers' front office by sending out mixed signals about certain offer sheets for Smart. If Houston feels that it's fallen behind in the race to actually sign Smart, its front office might still try to get tangled in the Lakers-Smart negotiations in an attempt to muck things up.
All in all, the fact that the Rockets reportedly want Smart is just flat-out bad news for the Lakers. Let's hope Lakers general manager Rob Pelinka has a clear plan to do away with this threat and bring back Smart.
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