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Smart: I 'didn't ask for much' but Celtics 'weren't budging' on extension

Bob DeChiara-USA TODAY Sports / Action Images

The Boston Celtics played hardball with Marcus Smart this offseason, leaving the fourth-year guard - like the majority of his 2014 draft lottery cohorts - without an extension on his rookie contract, and putting him on track for restricted free agency next summer.

Smart knows the Celtics' front office negotiates shrewdly and hasn't been partial to rookie extensions in the recent past, so he wasn't exactly surprised to find himself without a new deal as the deadline passed on Monday.

"They're notoriously doing that," Smart told reporters at shootaround Tuesday morning, according to Jay King of MassLive. "I think the last guy to get signed to a rookie extension was Rajon Rondo."

Smart did, however, feel he and his agent, Happy Walters, were more than reasonable with their asking price during negotiations.

"We thought it was close from the fact that we didn't ask for much," Smart said. "We didn't ask for a max deal. We were going to take less money than what we probably are valued (at), and some other things, but they just weren't budging."

The 23-year-old understands the logistical considerations that factored into the Celtics' hard-line negotiating position. After a boom two summers ago, the NBA's salary-cap environment has tightened significantly, and Boston is facing a potentially hefty luxury-tax bill if it keeps its current core together.

"That was the big issue," Smart said. "They weren't willing to pay the luxury tax. We even gave them options of things where they wouldn't have to pay or be so deep into the luxury tax, and they still wouldn't budge."

Paying long-term money to a career 35.8 percent field-goal shooter and 29.1 percent 3-point shooter would've been difficult for the Celtics to justify, especially when they can have another season's worth of evidence before deciding how or if Smart factors into their future plans. They will also have the option to match any offer sheet he may sign next summer. If this offseason's restricted-free-agent market was any indication, the Celtics won't be ceding much leverage come July.

Smart, though, considers it an opportunity, and expects to cash in with an even bigger payday than he would have if the Celtics had met his price.

"I think that's how every guy looks at it when they go into free agency," he said. "You make a lot more than what the team could have got me for now and locked me up. But that's OK. It's not a bad thing. ...

"It's just as big a motivator as me playing well this year in general. It just makes it an even bigger year for me."

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