Boston Celtics Step No. 1: Trade Gordon Hayward
Gordon Hayward’s injury hurt the Celtics against both the Raptors and Heat, but it did lead to another emergence of Marcus Smart. Even though the ’emergence’ of Smart seems like a phrase said every season, this year, his improvement was particularly significant. Because unlike in the past, it was not the prolific defense that improved; he became one of the team’s most reliable offensive players, and arguably their best shooter and passer in the playoffs. If he is able to become a consistent offensive contributor, it raises the question about what exactly Hayward brings to the table.
Hayward has a player option for $34 million this offseason, that he will presumably accept. With the Celtics over the salary cap for the second straight year, and looking like they may be in the luxury tax for three more years, it might make sense to dump Hayward’s contract.
It is hard to predict what Hayward’s value would be in the trade market. He is still incredibly efficient and one of the Celtics better defenders, but his large contract does not make him the most desired player. Some times could see him as their missing piece, will others see him as a pure salary dump. It also limits the number of teams interested.
Two teams that stand out, that have space and the pieces to make an offer are the Detroit Pistons and the Indiana Pacers. Since the Pistons are not competitive currently, they would likely want more from Boston than the Pacers – the Pacers would love to have another reliable player next to Domantas Sabonis and Victor Oladipo to make a real run in the near future.
If the Celtics make a trade with the Pistons, it would probably involve Derrick Rose, who is a great scorer, a reliable point guard, and could become a veteran leader. The Celtics ultimately need depth beyond their short rotation, especially behind Kemba Walker, whose knee is getting progressively worse. The problem is that that the Celtics, who would be downgrading, would have to likely also provide at least one of their first-round picks this year.
Derrick Rose would be a great addition, but the Celtics will still need wing depth unless Romeo Langford steps up and they are able to somehow draft a Brandon Clarke-type player. But chances are that is not going to happen next season.
The other potential option is to ship Hayward to Indiana. Indiana has several decent role players that are on tradable contracts: including T.J. Warren, Doug McDermott, T.J. McConnell, the Holiday brothers, and even maybe Myles Turner.
The trade would probably involve two or three of the players mentioned above. One possibility is Warren, McDermott, and McConnell for Hayward and multiple picks.
If Turner is involved, the Celtics would have to get rid of one of their young guys to balance the trade out, like Romeo Langford or Grant Williams. But Danny Ainge seems to want to keep them, at least for now. Even though neither Warren or McDermott are not at the level of Hayward, having both of them on the Celtics bench makes their depth less of a foible.
The other teams that may make an offer are the Miami Heat, Toronto Raptors and Denver Nuggets, who are all contending with cap space and a lot of movable players. However, with the salary cap issues, it is going to particularly hard for the Celtics to move Hayward anywhere.