The Boston Celtics have been desperately hunting for a star player this summer.

They shopped the 3rd pick during the NBA Draft and did their best to go after Kevin Durant after eventually settling for Al Horford.

While anyone can understand a team's search for a star player, it may also be in the franchise's best interest to stand pat and hold on to some of the young assets it has, in particular Marcus Smart.

Via Chris Forsberg of ESPN:

FiveThirtyEight released updated CARMELO player projections last week, and it was hard not to notice the glitzy prediction for third-year guard Marcus Smart.

CARMELO didn't just predict a monster leap for Smart this season; it pegged him a “future All-Star” with a value of $156.5 million over the next five seasons. After Smart produced 2.5 Wins Above Replacement last season, CARMELO projects him to more than double that total this season (5.1) and suggests he'll make a pronounced offensive leap that will raise his on-court value to $26.2 million this season (he'll actually earn just $3.6 million on his rookie-scale deal).

Player projections aren't an exact science, but it may be finding something in Smart that many are overlooking.

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Smart has already proven that he can be a very good defender, and entering his 3rd NBA season, he may be due for having his offense start to come around as well. His scoring rose from 7.8 per game in 2014-2015 to 9.1 last season, but his three-point shooting declined from 33.5 to 25.3 percent. He'll definitely need to get that outside shot back up if these projections are going to ring true.

Every player on a rookie contract that can contribute is already of great value in the NBA. So there's no doubt Smart is a good deal right now. But worth over $26 million this season? He's got a lot of work to do for that to be the case.

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