In the coming days, the Los Angeles Lakers will try to keep LeBron James, who will become a free agent, and they also want to retain forward Rui Hachimura and guard Luke Kennard, both of whom will also hit the open market.
They will also have to make an effort to keep another key rotation player who will become a free agent. According to NBA reporter Chris Haynes, veteran guard Marcus Smart will turn down his player option for next season and hit the open market.
“Los Angeles Lakers guard Marcus Smart is declining his $5.4M player option to become an unrestricted free agent, league sources tell me,” Haynes wrote on X (formerly Twitter).
The Lakers signed Smart last summer after his previous contract was bought out by the Washington Wizards. He was coming off a couple of disappointing, injury-riddled seasons, and the thinking was that his best days were behind him, even though he was just 31 years of age.
But Smart performed well for Los Angeles this season. While he may not have been the same defensive force he was when he won the Defensive Player of the Year award in 2022, he was a definite X-factor for the team. He averaged 9.3 points, 2.8 rebounds, three assists and 1.4 steals a game during the regular season, and in the playoffs, with Luka Doncic out due to a hamstring strain, he stepped things up.
Smart put up 14.7 points, 3.7 rebounds, 5.5 assists, 2.7 steals and 1.7 blocks a game when the Lakers got past the Houston Rockets in the first round of the playoffs, and he even shot 44.8% from 3-point range in that series.
The team apparently wants to keep Smart on a new contract. But it remains to be seen how much money he demands and if Los Angeles will have enough salary cap space left over after signing other players and any other moves it may make.
This article originally appeared on LeBron Wire: Marcus Smart to opt out of his contract and become a free agent
