Fans of the Boston Celtics with a soft spot for former Celtics guard Marcus Smart can’t help but feel a twinge of remorse when thinking about the fact that their favorite team is excelling due to the trade that sent Smart to a reeling Memphis Grizzlies squad. And it hasn’t exactly been an easy landing for the Flower Mound native, who recently opened up about the transition in an interview with Sportskeeda’s Mark Meding.

“It’s been hard, especially when you’re not used to losing and with this team,” said Smart. “Last year, they were the No. 2 seed and were used to winning,” he continued. “There weren’t many games that they lost.”

“So it’s about understanding that it’s okay that you’re losing and that you can still have fun and be happy,” suggested the OSU alum.

“Things are going to be okay. For this team, it’s huge to be able to have fun and play even when things aren’t going well,” he related optimistically. “When we have the right mindset, things start to go right.”

As to how he has been coping with the losses until that mindset settles in, the answer was classic Marcus Smart: “Control what you can control.”

“Coming in, we knew we would be at a little bit of a disadvantage,” said the Flower Mound native. “Then things started spiraling for us.”

“So we control what we can control – that’s coming in here every day and working with what we’ve got,” he finished, the mark of his time in Boston still very evident in how he conceives of the game.

Or, perhaps, it is the other way around, his imprint on an iteration he helped mold still guiding it in his absence.

And while this season might be on the rocks, we can’t think of a better influence for Memphis to have on its roster to push that trend firmly in the other direction again.

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Story originally appeared on Celtics Wire