Former Boston Celtic veteran forward Gordon Hayward is signing with the Charlotte Hornets, according to ESPN’s Adrian Wojnarowski.
Hayward, who had been working to try and get to the Indiana Pacers, evidently was unable to get his hometown team to pony up what Boston team president Danny Ainge was asking of the team — reportedly both point guard Victor Oladipo and center Myles Turner to complete the deal.
The Pacers preferred to send back just Turner and forward Doug McDermott.
The move leaves the Celtics thin on the wing and in star power as the third top-50 player leaves the team in three seasons, to the dismay of many Boston fans.
The Celtics have lost two max contract players in the past to free agency in the past two years — Kyrie Irving and Hayward. https://t.co/RimaSry8q2
— Adrian Wojnarowski (@wojespn) November 21, 2020
The Hornets had previously signed the Butler product to an offer sheet in 2014 that the Utah Jazz — his team at that time — ultimately matched to retain his services.
This time Charlotte got their man with a fully-guaranteed four-year deal per the Athletic’s David Aldridge, despite rumors he wanted to stay in a winning environment — the Hornets as a perennial losing team never really seemed a likely destination.
If nothing else, the exit is the exclamation point on the teambuilding argument that you almost always want to move a high-value player who won’t extend if you want to maximize your contention odds.
Last year, Boston and Charlotte came to a sign-and-trade agreement to swap Kemba Walker and Terry Rozier. Charlotte will now have to make some room available to sign Hayward, and would make sense for Boston to get something out of the deal.
— Tim Bontemps (@TimBontemps) November 21, 2020
At present, it is unclear whether the Celtics will finish the postseason with a top-tier contending team on their roster.
Barring another sign-and-trade, the team undoubtedly just took a big hit.
And one may indeed be in the offing, with Yahoo’s Keith Smith reporting the Hornets as having only $19 million in cap space (thus needing to move salary) and ESPN’s Tim Bontemps suggesting the path to achieving all of the cap space needed to bring the veteran wing onto the team could involve Boston.
For now, we wait.
This breaking news will be updated as the story develops.
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