Marcus Smart reveals Ja Morant's secret to taking a leap this year, bittersweet reunion with Celtics and more (Exclusive)
Usually, Memphis Grizzlies guard Marcus Smart shares wisdom to his younger teammates about the NBA playoffs and dealing with adversity. Lately, he has also tried to lead a different way.
After experiencing a handful of injuries, Smart has inherited a bench role amid the Grizzlies’ intrigue with rookie wing Jaylen Wells.
“It’s not easy. But he and I have had great conversations,” Grizzlies coach Taylor Jenkins said. “He knows it’s about how it’s going to impact winning. He’s a pro. He’s been in this position before. I think he’s handled it really well.”
Smart called the role “different” after spending his first nine seasons with the Boston Celtics (2014-23) more as a starter (360 combined games) than a reserve (combined 240). After Boston dealt him to Memphis in the 2023 offseason, Smart started all 20 games last season before suffering a handful of injuries.
The Grizzlies (18-9) enter Thursday’s game against the Golden State Warriors (14-11) with the second-best record in the Western Conference. But that has coincided with Smart averaging 9.2 points on 36.5% shooting and 3.9 assists in a career-low 21.9 minutes per game.
Nonetheless, he has vowed to stay professional amid his hopes both to maximize his role as a valued shooter and defender, to maintain a positive locker room influence and to win his first NBA championship. Smart also finds it meaningful that Jenkins still grants him crunch-time minutes.
“I’ve been really impressed,” Jenkins said. “That’s a lot of sacrifice right there when you’re asking a guy who has played at the highest level for many, many years. The team is playing well, and that is probably not what he’s accustomed to coming as a starter. Coming off the bench, he’s been really dialed in.
"His energy has been great. He’s been really pulling that bench mob together a lot to see how they can help with the identity or grander identity as a team.”
Marcus Smart spoke to Sportskeeda about adapting to his bench role, Ja Morant’s defensive growth and his mixed emotions facing his former team in Boston for the first time.
Editor’s note: The following one-on-one conversation has been condensed and edited.
How do you evaluate the first start of the season?
Marcus Smart: “We’re doing great. We got off a little slow a little bit, but we found a rhythm. We’re just trying to cling onto it and continue to do the things that got us into this position and try to fix the things we need to mix to stay here.
What have you all done to still be second [in the West] amid all the injuries?
Marcus Smart: “Just keep going. ‘Next man up mentality.’ We have a deep roster. We play a lot of guys. They can come in and change the game and have that impact. When you have that ability to have guys that you can just throw in the mix to mix and match different lineups, it makes you as a team so much better. You can throw things at teams in every direction, and they’re not ready for it.”
How do you look at your start of the season?
Marcus Smart: “It’s different. I’m healthy this year, which is always a good thing. I’m just trying to do what I can to bring some wins to this team. From everything in my experience that I’ve learned from playing and in my position with how far I’ve gone [in the playoffs], I try to pass along that knowledge to these guys and get us going.”
How have you adjusted with your different role with coming off the bench?
Marcus Smart: “It’s been different, for sure. But as a professional, whatever role you’re put in, you just try to be the best that you can be at it and control what you can control.”
What enables you to think that way?
Marcus Smart: “My experiences in life. I’ve always been overlooked. I’ve always been the underdog. Each and every day, I continue to prove people wrong. That’s my mentality. That’s who I am. I love every last bit of it.”
From a practical standpoint, you’re still getting significant minutes and usually closing out games. What does it mean to you to still have that responsibility?
Marcus Smart: “At the end of the day, you want to be on the court. You want to be on the court in the moment of the game that matters the most. That’s the goal. As long as I’m in those moments, I’m not really complaining. I think my resume speaks for itself that it shouldn’t even be a question on whether I’m going to be in those moments or not. But like I said, I can just control what I can control.”
What has the collaboration been like with Taylor?
Marcus Smart: “It’s been unique relationship building. We’re still relatively new to each other and we’re still trying to learn each other. In the process as we’re learning each other, we’re doing some great things on the court.”
You are healthier than last season. But you’ve had some different things with food poisoning and things with your ankle and knee. How have you managed that so far?
Marcus Smart: “It’s part of the game, especially when you’re a physical player like me. Unfortunately, you’re going to get some knicks, knacks and bruises and things like that. You’re going to have to attend to them accordingly and make sure you listen to your body. Everything else will fall in place. When guys start to overdo it, start to rush back and get too anxious with these injuries, it creates even longer injuries.”
With your veteran presence in Memphis, what has been your main message to the group so far?
Marcus Smart: “It’s a marathon, not a sprint. We can’t get too high. We can’t get too low. I know that we’re feeling good. The momentum is on our side. We’re rolling, and we want to keep it that way. But let’s be realistic. There’s going to come a time where we meet some adversity. That’s when the real work is going to start. And we have to be ready for it.”
You had your own adversity with the NBA Cup Game in Dallas (0 points on 0-for-7 shooting) and an emotional night in Boston, but a big game against Detroit (25 points). How do you deal with the highs and lows of that?
Marcus Smart: “You just keep going. You take the good of those games, and you try to implement them again. Then you see what you did wrong in those games, and you try to exit them out of your game. You try to have a minimum of those as you can. It’s going to happen. But you just try to minimize them as much as you can.
"It’s about having that mentality that it's a different game and there’s a different thing that the game might need from you. This game might need me to score the ball. This game might need me to play a lot more defense. This game may need me to pass the ball. You just take what the game gives you, and that’s it. If you go in and try to press a little bit, I think you can get in over your head with it.”
How have you seen Ja take a leap forward this season?
Marcus Smart: “He never changes. He’s true to himself. That’s what you love. That’s what makes Ja so great. He can really care less about what everyone is thinking about him. He’s going to come in and do what he does. He’s an electrifying player, and he knows it. He feeds off of that, and his teammates feed off of that.
"But for me, I think it’s his ability to be disciplined enough and mature enough to say, ‘I got to get better on the defensive end.’ I’ve seen that this year from him. For him to be able to do that has definitely helped take his team to another level.”
What growth has he shown defensively?
Marcus Smart: “Just being able not to be picked on. This game is all about matchups. So it’s about finding that matchup and abusing it and keep going to it until they can stop it. But this year, he made an emphasis to make sure that he’s not going to be one of those guys that you can pick on easily. He’s going to make it tough on you.”
What stuck with you during your reunion in Boston the other day?
Marcus Smart: “It was all love. The love and respect that is shown and given from both sides with myself, the fans and the city is always there. I was a 19-year-old kid when I went to Boston and left as a 28-year-old man. So I definitely have a place in my heart for them as that young kid and them watching me grow and things like that. It was definitely a bittersweet feeling.”
How so?
Marcus Smart: “You’ve done so much work for a long time with a great group of guys and you build a relationship. You become brothers and more than just basketball players and teammates and colleagues.
"To go through the battles and struggles that you went through, to come up real close [in the 2021-22 NBA Finals] and think that you’re going to have another chance and opportunity to try again. And then not to be able to, and for those guys to get what you ultimately were there working with those guys for is a bittersweet feeling.”
[Jayson] Tatum and [Joe] Mazzulla made it clear that you were part of laying down that foundation [before the 2024 NBA title run]. What does it mean to you that they at least recognized you played a part in getting to where they’re at?
Marcus Smart: “It feels good. But at the end of the day, when I’m all done playing, that recognition isn’t going to mean [expletive]. Unfortunately, that’s another bittersweet thing. It’s cool to say you built the foundation. But at the end of the day, they’re only going to remember who was raising that trophy.
It is what it is. It’s part of it. That’s how life goes. One door shuts, and another door opens. I thank God for the opportunity to still be here. At the end of the day, I’m still able to do what I love to do. I still have an opportunity to have a chance. That’s all you can ask for, so I thank God every day.”
What are the moments you’ll remember the most there with your family or anything else?
Marcus Smart: “That was it with being able to have my son there. From my first time in Boston with being a kid to having a kid now and being able to bring him back to create those memories. When he’s able to understand what was going on and see it understand who his Dad is and the impact that he had, I think that’s more than anything that I look forward to. I’m glad that I had the opportunity.”
Mark Medina is an NBA insider for Sportskeeda.. Follow him on X, Blue Sky, Instagram, Facebook and Threads.