Agreed. I didn’t see Smart getting traded. I’m really going to miss him.

However, if you take a step back you can see how Brad might see the core of Tatum, Brown, Smart as not being able to win a championship. Of those 3, there isn’t one elite ball handler who can initiate and direct the offense when things get tight. I’d rather play to Tatum’s and Brown’s strengths rather than try to shoehorn them into primary playmaking responsibilities.

I think the calculus was, “we have a logjam at PG, we need more frontcourt depth with Al getting older, and we need to find a way to stop committing those bad turnovers late in playoff games.”

The KP trade doesn’t solve it all in one motion but maybe there are more moves to come that will complement this trade and potentially solve the problems I stated above.

To their credit, their first move was about Brogdon. Once that deal fell apart, it looks like Brad panicked a little…beacuse yes, Smart brings a lot to the table, stats only tell a part of it…letting him go it’s a huge price to pay for KP.

On a related note, if Smart is gone this will mean a huge boost for Pritchard playing time, which may not be a bad thing -I sorta like him and think he’s underappreciated. He’s no Smart ofc.