Marcus Smart declined his $5.4 million player option on Monday and is now on the open market, a move that could send him away from the Lakers after one season in which he became one of their most trusted defenders. The decision turns a contract deadline into a roster problem for a team that benefited from his edge and now has to plan for the possibility that he does not come back.
Smart’s search is already drawing attention because The Stein Line linked him a few days ago to a potential multi-year deal with the Houston Rockets, where Ime Udoka would be his head coach. That is the kind of offer that changes the math fast: a player option at $5.4 million gives way to the chance of multiple guaranteed seasons, and that is the sort of structure a veteran on the open market has to weigh carefully.
The case for Smart is easy to make from the Lakers’ side. He started 54 of 62 games and averaged 9.3 points and 3.0 assists per game, but his value went well beyond the box score. During the Lakers’ first-round playoff series against the Rockets, he forced a late steal with 30 seconds left in Game 3 and helped push the game to overtime. JJ Redick put it bluntly during the season: Smart is “a winner” who “makes winning plays.”
That is why the risk here matters. The Lakers leaned on Smart’s defensive intensity through much of the season, including a 16-2 run through March, and if he leaves they will have to replace more than minutes. They would be replacing the kind of perimeter pressure that changes possessions and, at times, games. There is also a cost question built into the market now: if the Rockets or another team offers more years, the Lakers may find that keeping Smart at the old number was never going to be enough.
Monday also brought another contract decision that sharpened the picture around the market. Deandre Ayton opted into his $8.1 million salary for the 2026-27 season, giving a different kind of example of how players can choose certainty over freedom. Smart chose the opposite. For the Lakers, that leaves one clear next step: decide whether to chase a replacement at all costs or try to preserve flexibility while the defender who mattered most to them last spring decides where he wants the next phase of his career to go.
