Porzingis is a better basketball player than Smart. Smart is a great defender, but he was less great last year, and as much as his IQ defensively is a positive, his decision making on offense still is not.

The bottom line is that we had three point guards on the roster. None of them was an impact playmaker on offense, while they can all shoot from 3, none was a catch and shoot sniper, and somebody had to go. They tried to make it Brogdon and couldn't. I'm perfectly happy keeping White over Smart. He was better last year.

Grant was a casualty of the new CBA. Jaylen, Tatum, Porzingis are 100M, and White, Rob, Brogdon are another 50. You can't lock yourself into 13 more for a guy who best case is your 7th best player and is probably 8 or 9. He's a good defensive role player, but I don't think he has the versatility to be an every day impact defender. His offense is almost entirely catch and shoot corner 3s. He's a nice piece to have, but you can't tie yourself to paying him that money to be your 4th big.

Edit: meant to be a reply to @Drewsteau. Oh well.