Aside from the few top-tier targets who signed on day one, the NBA’s 2018 Free Agent Frenzy has been a bit of a dud.

Many believe the inactive offseason can be linked fallout from an expensive 2016 frenzy, which saw massive contracts handed out left and right, due in large part to the salary cap explosion. That same spending has not been seen since, giving way to more frugal handling of the cap across the league.

As a result, many high-quality free agents remain un-signed as July rages on. The remaining players on the market have become a daily topic of discussion on ESPN’s The Jump, where Paul checked in from Summer League this week to catch up with host Rachel Nichols and NBA reporter Dave McMenamin.

“The money is just drying up,” The Truth said. “This is a summer where you’re seeing a lot of top names that’s just not getting the money they think they deserve. When you look and see guys like Isaiah Thomas, Jamal Crawford, Clint Capela. They don’t have deals right now. It’s just free agency—after the guys at the top get their money—those guys that are stuck in the middle, there’s just not any money left.”

Among those left on the market is a key piece on one of Paul’s former teams, the Boston Celtics: Marcus Smart, who finds himself sitting on the market, waiting for offers as a restricted free agent.

The dynamic guard was a key cog on last year’s Celtics squad, which nearly took down LeBron James and the Cleveland Cavaliers in the Eastern Conference Finals, despite being without stars Kyrie Irving and Gordon Hayward. Even if he won’t be lined up to start for the Cs, Smart could be a big piece of the depth makes Boston perhaps the one team that could challenge the Golden State Warriors for the title in 2019.

But he has yet to receive an offer, not only from Boston, from anyone. It’s a puzzling development that caught the attention of The Jump crew this week, as they assessed potential landing spots for Smart and the possibility of him still returning to the Celtics.

Smart himself even remains unsure of where he will be suiting up next season. When asked about where things stand with the Celtics, Smart said, “That’s what I want to know. I have no clue. I can only control what I can control.”

As Paul mentioned, the biggest problem for Smart is that there just are not many teams with the requisite cap space to make a strong offer to the fiery guard this offseason. The Truth believes the most likely scenario is that Smart re-signs with Boston via a qualifying offer, which will pay him less money, but give Smart an opportunity to build up his value in hopes of obtaining a more lucrative offer next summer.

“I think he does come back with the Celtics,” Paul said. “A lot of these guys are going to be faced with taking the qualifying offer, betting on themselves, playing out the one year, until next summer where there is going to be more teams with more cap space. That’s just the position a lot of quality players are being put in this summer.”