After a lot of twists and turns, the Celtics finally finalized the Porzingis deal. It was still a three-party deal, and polzingis still settled in Boston, but the third party became a grizzly bear, and the main player sent by Celtics changed from Brogden to smart.

This is an unexpected result. A few days ago, Smart was still promising Celtics fans to bring them the 18th champion, without any trade rumors involving smart. After all, Smart is the player who has played for the Celtics for the longest time. It is known as the “heart and soul” of Celtics and the hardest spokesman of Celtics culture. But the reality is that Smart was sent to Memphis.

The Celtics upgraded the number five and got two first-round signatures to complete the “blood return”. From this perspective, it is obvious that they have turned over. It seems that Celts believe Derek White can replace smart. Perhaps White can do it at the tactical level, but who can make up for the loss of Smart’s spiritual attributes and dressing room leadership?

Smart grew up in the chaotic streets of Dallas, which was full of shootings. Smart was almost gun shoot at the age of 13. Such a growing environment made smart develop a character that was brave and ruthless and could not move at all.

Smart’s tenacity originated from a miserable family. Smart witnessed his brother Todd died of kidney disease when he was 9 years old. His mother Carmelia also suffered from severe kidney disease, and he could only live on one kidney for many years. In the last few years of Carmelia’s life, she suffered from kidney stones and lost her ability to move. She needed help when she went to bed, took a car and took a bath. Before Carmelia died, Smart wrote “Let’s fight together” on the sneakers in every match, which was to motivate mother to fight cancer and herself.

In December, 2014, in the first battle between Celtics and basketable nets, smart met Kevin Garnett, who had already been dressed in basketable nets at that time. Before Smart, Garnett was the “heart and soul” of Celts “. In a floor ball fight, smart and Garnett got together, and the winner was smart.

Garnett patted Smart’s chest and praised him for “completing a great fight”. Smart said that Garnett’s affirmation gave him great encouragement and he firmly believed to continue to play the role of workaholic. “Garnett’s affirmation has injected confidence into me. I need to continue playing games of my own style, not playing hard to get high marks, but playing my own style.”

This reckless style brought praise to smart, but also brought controversy. When smart fell to the ground to grab the floor ball and hurt Stephen Curry, the decibel of doubt reached the highest value. Smart was labeled as “dirty”, but there were also many people who were able to support smart. For example, the Clippers coach Tyron Lu said, “Smart is very tough, if the probability of getting the floor ball is five or five, it must be smart winning. Our team also needs players like smart.”

The struggle is the label of smart, and the starting point for his defense to be truly recognized is probably the fourth in the first round of the 2016 playoffs. At that time, the Celts were 1-2 behind, and the situation was critical. Paul-Milsap was unstoppable. Seeing who blew up who, the Celtics changed several defenders. Milsap had no effect.

“You come to prevent Milsap.” Stevens, then the Celtics coach, looked at smart.

Smart knows that the height difference between the two is close to 10cm, but he regards this group of opponents as an opportunity to prove that he can defend against any player. He regards this opportunity as “one of the most important moments in his career”. In the fourth quarter and overtime, Milsap, who scored 36 points in the first three quarters, scored only 9 points in total. The Celtics won and dragged the series into Tianwang Mountain. Smart said proudly, “my restriction on Milsap made us bite the score.”

“Fighting”, “defense” and “confrontation” are the meanings of smart to Celtics. He has won the NBA best fight Award twice. He is the spokesman of Celtic culture. Tatum, Jay Brown and others once called him “the heart and soul of the team”. He set the tone for the team with fierce confrontation and decided the strength of the team’s game. When the team needs someone to speak out and stand up to offend people, this person is usually smart.

An assistant professor of the Eastern team said in an interview: “A lot of his energy comes from the defensive end. He can play against any player at any time. He always fights for floor balls and rebounds, the details that can make the team win are reflected in the defensive end. These are very infectious. He has established the Celtics team culture and made so many talented players willing to follow his leadership.”

Smart is not only playing the role of defensive gate in Celtics, but many people define him as a “3D player”. Smart himself prefers to be called a “point guard”. In the era of double exploration of flowers, Celts have always been troubled by the lack of excellent traditional control guards. There are many experts who suggest Celts to strengthen the backcourt, but Smart’s attitude has always been “the best control guards are already in the battle”.

“When I first left college, I was a point guard. People always said that I was not a point guard. I felt very funny after hearing this. I played point guard in high school and led the team to win two state championships, so I felt funny hearing them saying that I was not a point guard.”

Since the 2018-19 season, the average number of assists per season has been increasing, and the 2022-23 season has set a career record of 6.3 times.

However, compared with excellent traditional control guards, Smart’s organizational ability is obviously lacking, and his ability to deal with the ball at critical moments is insufficient, and some meaningless mistakes are speechless.

Moreover, in the 2022-23 season, Smart’s defense declined to a certain extent compared with the past. In the previous season, Smart was elected as the best defender and was selected as the first team of the best defensive team, but even the second team of the best defensive team did not enter in the 2022-23 season.

Perhaps in the eyes of Celtic management, such smart could be replaced by white. Anyway, both smart and white are not Orthodox control guards, and there is little difference between them in organizational ability. However, White’s three-point projection in the 2022-23 season improved more obviously, with 38.1 percent of the regular season and 45.5 percent of the playoffs. On the defensive side, White was selected as the second team of the best defensive team last season, and passed Smart in various versions of the defensive influence high-end data rankings. In the series of eagles and heat in the playoffs, white defended his opponent’s outer arrow (Trey-Yang, Jimmy Butler) more than smart.

Considering that Robert Williams has a hidden danger of injury, Horford is too old and other insiders are embarrassed. It is understandable that Celtics send smat to replace Porzingis to upgrade the insiders first, even if Porzingis has a serious hidden danger of injury.

Celts have enough reasons to send away smart, but the gains and losses on the book can be measured. How should those intangible assets and characteristics that are difficult to be measured by data be measured?

The most typical example is that the Pacers sent Danny Granger away for Avon Turner before the transaction deadline in 2014. The Pacers on combat capability were the winners, but the deal made by Larry Bird destroyed the Pacers’ dressing room. After losing the leader of the dressing room, the Walker dressing room got out of control and fell into infighting, and the failure of the sniper heat quickly disintegrated.

Can Celts who lost the leader of the dressing room find a new leader to hold the dressing room? How does the Celtics maintain hardness after losing the strongest player in the team? Can the too quiet Tatum take the responsibility of the leader?

No one can answer so many questions, only time can.