Boston Celtics: 3 reasons to bring back Marcus Smart

As it begins to look less likely that the Boston Celtics will make a legitimate run at Kawhi Leonard, retaining Marcus Smart becomes even more essential.

It became rather abundantly clear to me last week that fans of the Boston Celtics simply do not want Kawhi Leonard. Look no further than the replies to this tweet from our Hoops Habit Twitter page.

We can go over just how insane it is to not want Kawhi on your side when facing the likes of LeBron James and Kevin Durant some other time. Maybe it’s out of a fierce sense of loyalty to Jayson Tatum and Jaylen Brown, or maybe people have just forgotten how great Kawhi is at basketball.

Nevertheless, it is beginning to look like the Celtics will be standing pat for the rest of the summer.

But before we start fantasizing about the incredible Kyrie Irving, Gordon Hayward, Jayson Tatum, Jaylen Brown and Al Horford starting lineup, there is still one minutiae to work out:

What should the Celtics do with Marcus Smart? He becomes restricted free agent this July. Restricted free agency is a bit of a complicated process, but the gist of it is that Boston will still have the final say as to whether or not he remains a Celtic.

I think they have to keep him. I know, it won’t be cheap. Marcus has made it very clear that he will not be taking a hometown discount, but at a certain point Danny Ainge has to throw caution to the wind and start pushing his chips in the middle. Smart is a great place to start.

Here are three reasons for the Boston Celtics to bring back the heart and soul of their team.