{"id":161882,"date":"2025-10-09T12:41:06","date_gmt":"2025-10-09T16:41:06","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/?p=161882"},"modified":"2025-10-09T12:44:19","modified_gmt":"2025-10-09T16:44:19","slug":"when-will-marcus-smart-make-his-lakers-debut","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/2025\/10\/09\/when-will-marcus-smart-make-his-lakers-debut\/","title":{"rendered":"When Will Marcus Smart Make His Lakers Debut, and What is His “Superpower” According to Teammates?"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Los Angeles Lakers<\/a> made a few critical roster additions this summer in an effort to get LeBron James<\/a> a likely final shot at a fifth NBA<\/a> title. However, the Lakers<\/a> have been slow to get acclimated as several veterans have been limited this preseason, including Marcus Smart<\/a>.<\/p>\n

When Will Marcus Smart Make His Lakers Debut, and What is His “Superpower” According to Teammates?<\/h2>\n

Smart signed with the Lakers just two days after getting waived by Washington<\/a> on July 20. Smart<\/a> is one of the preeminent defensive guards who has struggled to stay healthy over the past two seasons. The 31-year-old has dealt with Achilles tendinopathy throughout camp.<\/p>\n

While JJ Redick<\/a> proclaimed on October 1 that Smart should be fully healthy by the end of last week, he missed the second preseason game on Sunday. While the 6-3 guard practiced on Tuesday and reportedly looked good, he sat out Wednesday’s session.<\/p>\n

\u201cMarcus participated in some live [practice] and then was out at the end,\u201d Redick told Broderick Thomas of The Los Angeles Times<\/a>. \u201cYeah, he was awesome. He was awesome. He, I think, given the workload of today, I was impressed that he was able to sustain his level of intensity for as long as he did.\u201d<\/p>\n

Smart missed Wednesday’s practice because he was sick, per NBA Insider Jovan Buha<\/a>.<\/p>\n

“JJ Redick<\/a> said Marcus Smart has flu-like symptoms and stayed home from practice today,” Buha tweeted.<\/p>\n

Per ESPN<\/a>, as long as the illness is not severe, Smart is trending in the right direction and could play when the Lakers host Golden State on October\u00a0 12. However, his status is unclear at this point. After the Warriors rematch, the Lakers have three more preseason contests.<\/p>\n

High Hopes For Smart<\/h3>\n

The Lakers picked up Smart for his veteran leadership and on-ball defense. Smart, who signed a one-plus-one (player option) worth a total of $11 million, is expected to have a significant role for the Lakers and is reportedly in competition to start. Smart is in contention for the team’s fifth starting spot along with Rui Hachimura<\/a>, while Jake LaRavia<\/a> may have an outside shot to begin with the first unit.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019ve talked with JJ and what he expects from me on both ends, especially the defensive end,\u201d\u00a0<\/em>Smart said, per Khobi Price of the Orange County Register<\/a>. \u201cIt\u2019s everything I\u2019ve been doing my whole career. It\u2019s nothing new, and I remember the first thing he told me was, \u2018Hey, if we\u2019re going to get the Celtics\u2019 Marcus Smart, that\u2019s who we want, that\u2019s who we need. And we need you to be that person and be who you are.\u2019 So for me, it\u2019s just coming out and giving everything I got on this court and leaving it out there every night.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n

Smart has been a starter for much of his career. Smart is a volume three-point shooter and can have big scoring games, but he is inconsistent because he is not a good shooter. For his career, he averages 10.6 points, 4.6 assists, 1.9 turnovers, and 3.4 rebounds to go along with shooting splits of 38.8\/32.4\/77.6.<\/p>\n

The Area Where Smart Can Help The Lakers The Most?<\/h4>\n
\"\"
Mandatory Credit: Gary A. Vasquez-Imagn Images<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Los Angeles was pretty good defensively last year, particularly in opponents’ scoring and field-goal percentage. But the Lakers were only 17th in defensive rating, as they struggled to force turnovers and protect the paint.\u00a0 The Lakers are counting on Smart and Jarred Vanderbilt<\/a> to help force more turnovers. Smart averages 1.6 steals a game.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe looked great. He was moving great,\u201d Vanderbilt said when talking about Smart’s impact,<\/a> \u201cBut like I said, his main power is that he\u2019s vocal. So, being able to help the guys. Communicate \u2014that\u2019s a big part of defense, too. Being physical is one of them, as is being vocal and able to communicate. I think he does both at a very high level. So, he can definitely help us on that end of the floor.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cAw, man, just causing havoc,\u201d Vanderbilt added about how he projects the defense to be like. \u201cNot only physically, but just vocally. He\u2019s a vocal guy as well, so it\u2019s being the anchor of the defense, flying around, setting that tone defensively. Like, I\u2019m excited. I can\u2019t wait to share the court together.\u201d<\/p>\n

Other Notes<\/h4>\n

Luka Doncic<\/a> and James were limited in practice on Tuesday and Wednesday. Neither player participated in live action, per Buha<\/a>. Buha added that\u00a0Gabe Vincent<\/a> participated for most of the session. Vincent made his preseason debut on Sunday, tallying 16 points and five assists in a loss to the Warriors.<\/p>\n

Dalton Knecht<\/a> on the trade market? According to Dan Woike of The Athletic<\/a>, the Lakers were open to moving the 2024 first-round pick for a second time this summer, including in their failed deal for Mark Williams<\/a>, and that may still be the case. However, Knecht has not made it easy for the Lakers as he struggled in Las Vegas and this preseason. He averages 9.0 points, 6.0 rebounds, and 1.5 assists while shooting 23.8\/21.4\/83.3 in the first two preseason games.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\u00a9 Gary A. Vasquez<\/a>, Imagn Images<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The Los Angeles Lakers made a few critical roster additions this summer in an effort to get LeBron James a likely final shot at a fifth NBA title. However, the Lakers have been slow to get acclimated as several veterans have been limited this preseason, including Marcus Smart. When Will Marcus Smart Make His Lakers […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3146,"featured_media":162044,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_lmt_disableupdate":"no","_lmt_disable":"","sfio_featured_image":false,"sfio_embed_code":"","_ef_editorial_meta_date_first-draft-date":"","_ef_editorial_meta_paragraph_assignment":"","_ef_editorial_meta_checkbox_needs-photo":"","_ef_editorial_meta_number_word-count":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[1608,2285,2,26,62],"tags":[1133,428,1749],"class_list":["post-161882","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-basketball","category-fantasy","category-featured","category-lakers","category-nba","tag-luka-doncic","tag-marcus-smart","tag-rui-hachimura"],"modified_by":"Daniel Benjamin","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/161882","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3146"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=161882"}],"version-history":[{"count":9,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/161882\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":162043,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/161882\/revisions\/162043"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/162044"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=161882"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=161882"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=161882"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}