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After helping beat the Rockets in the playoffs, Marcus Smart will be reuniting with his former Boston coach Ime Udoka in Houston.<\/p>\n
Jason Fochtman\/Houston Chronicle<\/p>\n
The Houston Rockets<\/a> bolstered their backcourt depth Wednesday by agreeing with Marcus Smart to a two year, $13 million contract, according to a person with knowledge of the deal, granted anonymity to speak on a transaction that had not been officially announced. The second year of the contract is a player option.<\/p>\n The signing reunites Smart with Rockets coach Ime Udoka. Both were on the 2021-22 Boston Celtics, with Udoka coaching Smart en route to the guard\u2019s lone Defensive Player of the Year award as the team reached the\u00a0NBA Finals.<\/p>\n It seems very likely that the Rockets will now exceed the NBA\u2019s first apron after signing Smart, especially as they try to retain restricted free agent Tari Eason<\/a>. If Houston does not trade away salary, signing Smart will exhaust the team\u2019s mid-level exception and means the only external free agents it can add are on minimum contracts or a sign and trade.<\/p>\n Article continues below this ad<\/p>\n FIRST MOVE: Rockets agree with Bogdan Bogdanovic on one-year deal<\/a><\/p>\n Those factors make this contract a sizable investment in the 32-year-old Smart, who\u2019s from the Dallas suburb of Flower Mound.<\/p>\n Smart averaged 9.3 points, 2.8 rebounds, three assists and 1.4 steals per game last season for the Los Angeles Lakers. He gives Houston another gritty defensive presence on the perimeter and another ballhandler with point guard experience.\u00a0He embodies the toughness Udoka covets and has largely made his teams better in recent years.<\/p>\n The Lakers were nearly nine points per 100 possessions better with Smart on the court last season, according to the analytics site Cleaning the Glass. That is partially a function of poor opponent 3-point percentage, which can be somewhat random, but also because with Smart on the floor, Los Angeles forced more turnovers and limited opponents shot attempts at the rim.\u00a0<\/p>\n Article continues below this ad<\/p>\n Smart ranked 86th among all players in the advanced all-in-one metric DARKO plus-minus last season and was in the 88th percentile of all players in estimated plus-minus.<\/p>\n But the signing does come with questions.<\/p>\n