Luka Doncic Closed Marcus Smart Value Deal for Lakers: Report

The Los Angeles Lakers just made a valuable addition to the roster, due in no small part to the efforts of superstar Luka Doncic.

Doncic was instrumental in the team’s signing of former NBA Defensive Player of the Year Marcus Smart to a two-year contract on Saturday, July 19, according to a report from Marc Stein of “The Stein Line.”

“Lakers star Luka Doncic made a direct recruiting pitch to Marcus Smart this week that resonated with the veteran guard, league sources tell @TheSteinLine, after Smart’s agent Jason Glushon was granted permission by the [Washington] Wizards to explore potential post-buyout landing spots,” Stein posted to X. 

Marcus Smart Remains High-Level Backcourt Defender in NBA

GettyMarcus Smart, formerly of the Memphis Grizzlies.

Smart is a combo guard who stands at 6-feet, 3-inches tall and weighs 220 pounds.

He will play next season, his 12th in the NBA, at 31 years old. Smart is coming off a variety of injury problems that cost him the majority of each of the past two seasons, as he played just 34 total games for the Memphis Grizzlies and Wizards combined in 2024-25.

Smart saw the court just 20 times the year prior in Memphis after the Boston Celtics traded him there ahead of the season in which they finally broke through and won a title behind the star tandem of Jayson Tatum and Jaylen Brown.

However, Smart was a vital part of several successful Celtics teams, including multiple squads that ended their respective years in the Eastern Conference Finals, along with one Boston unit in 2021-22 that lost to the Golden State Warriors in the NBA Finals in six games. That was the same year Smart won the DPOY award. He has also earned first-team All-Defense honors three times in his career.

Lakers Have Roster to Incorporate Marcus Smart Seamlessly, Despite Offensive Flaws

GettyMarcus Smart.

Smart is the type of player who should work well alongside Doncic, as Doncic focuses the majority of his energies on ball-handling, playmaking and scoring duties.

Smart can then assume the toughest defensive assignment in the backcourt, which is a role he can also play alongside Austin Reaves when Doncic is off the floor. He is far from elite offensively and can’t offer the Lakers the kind of 3-point shooting that would be ideal playing off playmakers like Doncic and Reaves, as Smart has connected on just 32.4% of his 4.9 attempts per game from deep over the course of his career.

However, Los Angeles can rely on Reaves (37% on 4.8 attempts), Doncic (35% on 8.8 attempts) and LeBron James (35% on 4.7 attempts) to pick up the slack in that regard. At full health, most Lakers lineups should include at least two of those players on the court with Smart and serving in the roles of primary/secondary ball-handlers. James can also still function as a plus-defender when the team calls upon him in that context.

L.A. dealt with some of its size issues by acquiring center Deandre Ayton on a two-year contract following a buyout from the Portland Trail Blazers, signing him to a value deal worth $8.1 million annually.

Forward Jake Laravia, who the Lakers signed to a two-year deal worth $12 million total, will also add size (6-feet, 8-inches) and 3-point shooting (37.1% on 2.7 attempts) as a less expensive, younger version of Dorian Finney-Smith who left for the Houston Rockets in free agency.

Smart joined L.A. two-year contract worth $10.52 million, which is also solid value after inking a four-year deal worth $76.5 million in Boston in 2021 that would have paid him north of $19 million in Washington in 2025-26.