Boston Celtics: The Gordon Hayward conundrum
By Adam Taylor
A return to form gives Boston a legitimate big 3
Should Gordon Hayward return to a level similar or above his Utah days, the Boston Celtics will have a legitimate big three in Kemba Walker, Jayson Tatum and Hayward.
Boosting Boston’s chances of securing a home-court seeding and a deep playoff run, the front office will be keen to retain Hayward for the final year of his deal.
From Hayward’s perspective, he would be playing on a competitive team, under a coach he loves and may feel like he owes it to the city and team to opt in to his final year and roll the dice at another shot at contention in 2020-21.
It’s also worth noting that this contract is almost certainly the highest contract Hayward will ever be paid, so by choosing to walk away he would be leaving a lot of money on the table.
Also, there are not many teams with the cap space available next year that would be able to offer him an opportunity to contend at the same level that he currently has.
Using this scenario, Hayward will be playing at an All-Star level and consuming starter minutes all while being paid $30 million-plus to do so. This would by no means be too-little, too-late; it would be coming at the perfect time.
Kyrie Irving and Al Horford were both huge losses to this roster, which has added pressure on to Hayward to become what he was when he originally signed to the team.
Dream scenario? Yes. Likely to happen? Maybe.