For a few hours on Wednesday, it looked like Marcus Smart would remain with the Boston Celtics and Malcolm Brogdon would be shipped out in a three-team trade that would bring Washington Wizards' big man Kristaps Porzingis to Massachusetts.

But after that fell through, it was Smart who ended up being dealt to the Memphis Grizzlies — and the 29-year-old did not see the trade coming at all.

“I think if you're an established guy, a guy with some equity like a Dame Lillard, a Kevin Durant, I think you have some equity with the team, I think you have some level of say, some partnership,” Shams Charania explained on the Pat McAfee Show on Thursday.

“But Marcus Smart, I can tell you for a fact, he did not see that trade coming until the team notified him maybe 10-15 minutes before.”

It seems to be a continuing trend of players being blindsided after Chris Paul admitted he found out he was being dealt from the Phoenix Suns to the Los Angeles Clippers while he was on a plane to New York.

“I was surprised,” Paul said on Good Morning America on Monday. “I found out on the plane yesterday flying here for this. You know, in this league, anything can happen, so you just figure out what's next.”

That's probably exactly what Marcus Smart is thinking on Thursday as he prepares to play for a Western Conference team for the first time in his career.

Smart has played with the Boston Celtics since he was drafted by the team with the No. 6 overall pick in the 2014 NBA Draft. The guard is learning the hard way, as so many have before him, that the nature of the business can be brutal.