The Houston Rockets are wasting no time in 2026 NBA Free Agency. According to reports, they have signed away former Los Angeles Lakers guard Marcus Smart to a two-year, $13 million deal. Smart is already familiar with Rockets head coach Ime Udoka from their time together in Boston.
The 32-year-old Smart is coming off of a season in which he averaged 9.3 points, 2.8 rebounds, and 3 assists for the Lakers, and he gave the Rockets absolute fits in their first round playoff series this past season. He
was also the plus-minus leader for the Lakers on the year.
The 6’3″ guard won the NBA’s Defensive Player of the Year in 2022 and has long been thought of as one of the league’s premier defenders on the perimeter.
However, he’s not likely to do much for Houston’s need for shooting, averaging just 38.9 percent from the floor and 32.4 percent from deep for his career.
Smart will give Houston another guard off of the bench and for Fred VanVleet insurance, though Smart is hardly the floor general that VanVleet is. It also brings into question how many minutes Reed Sheppard will receive this upcoming season, with VanVleet back and now Smart in the fold. Udoka’s disdain for playing Sheppard is obvious, even though the Rockets were unequivocally better with him on the floor.
Smart hasn’t averaged over 30 minutes a night since 2023, so he’s not going to be taking a ton of minutes, but anything Smart plays will likely be taking away from Reed. Although I am curious to see what the Rockets look like with Smart and Sheppard playing together.
Anyway, with the Bogdan Bogdanovich signing and now Smart, the Rockets have added shooting (Bogdanovich) and now defense (Smart) to their guard rotation.
Tell what you think of these signings in the comments.
