Atlanta Hawks: 5 potential free agency targets in 2018

1. Marcus Smart

This one’s a bit trickier. Smart is a restricted free agent (assuming the Boston Celtics tender him a qualifying offer), meaning that Boston can match any offer that a team gives to the former Oklahoma State standout. Smart, who made about $4.5 million in the final year of his rookie deal, is expected to get some sort of a pay raise.

In some ways, it’s easy to see why. Smart is a good playmaker, had impressive defensive metrics (1.1 defensive BPM, 2.5 defensive win shares) and the Celtics were better with him on the floor (their net rating improved from +1.6 to +6.6 with Smart on the floor). However, his awful shooting (47.9 true shooting percentage) and below average PER (10.8) can’t be ignored. Teams have to take that into consideration when they decide to invest a significant portion of their payroll to him.

Smart has said in the past that he’s worth more than $12-14 million — a debatable point — but all it takes is one overzealous team to fork over the dough for his services. Atlanta has the space to sign him, but would be better served waiting for his price to come down first.

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If Atlanta can get Smart at a cheaper rate, he would bring defense and toughness to this young, developing team. If the price is right, the Hawks should bring him aboard, especially with Dennis Schroder possibly on the way out.