As time passes, the rumbles get louder that Boston Celtic veteran forward Gordon Hayward may seriously be considering recamping to a new team.
Speaking on a recent episode of the “Bill Simmons Podcast,” Ringer analyst Ryen Russillo dropped an easily-missed but potentially explosive nugget, if true.
“I’ve heard Gordon Hayward does want out, but I don’t know if he’s going to get the money,” shared Russillo. “He’s not opting out of that huge number unless he knows he’s getting the deal.”
Does the Ringer analyst have intel we do not? Is he repeating things he’s heard from third parties, or just repeating what he heard ESPN podcasters Zach Lowe and Bobby Marks discussing last week?
Unfortunately for us, it’s not clear in the podcast.
Hayward has a player option on the final season of his current contract, meaning he can elect to become an unrestricted free agent and sign elsewhere — or put pressure on his current team to match an offer to stay with the team.
Boston, facing a cap crunch with an impending extension for All-NBA forward Jayson Tatum on the docket as well, would likely prefer to keep the Butler product long-term on a less-than-max deal given all he does for the team when healthy.
There have been reports that Hayward could opt out and leave. That would certainly keep them under the luxury tax next season. If it stays at $132M, they’d have plenty of space to use the MLE and potentially take back some salary in a sign-and-trade.
— Yossi Gozlan (@YoggiMane) November 4, 2020
But it is increasingly looking like Hayward could be a flight risk if there is a team with interest in outbidding Boston for his services, even in a market with few teams possessing what the Celtics would prefer to pay below in cap space.
If the Indiana native did leave in free agency, the team would have no way to easily replace the cap space he now occupies.
Though it would at least lower their tax bill long term by letting the franchise dip below the luxury tax this season, fending off the league’s punitive repeater tax for a more distant season in the club’s contention window.
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