What Does Gordon Hayward’s Exit Mean For The Celtics?
On Saturday, as you all probably heard, former Celtics forward Gordon Hayward signed with the Charlotte Hornets for 4 years, $120 mil.
Free agent Gordon Hayward is signing a 4-year, $120M deal with Charlotte, per source.
— Adrian Wojnarowski (@wojespn) November 21, 2020
Now, my initial reaction was good, see-ya later. But then I looked at what the Celtics had for a bench and I nearly almost threw up my lunch! This was obviously before they signed Tristian Thompson and Jeff Teague, and I keep hearing rumblings of a sign-and-trade with Charlotte for Hayward (which I believe is very false).
But anyway, the Celtics did the right thing not matching the Hornet’s offer to Hayward. The Hayward era in Boston was just flat out weird. He was never the player he was supposed to be and that is not his fault. But both parties did the right thing and moved on. If Charlotte wants to pay you $30 million a year then you can’t say no to that.
But, where does this leave the Boston Celtics? The Celtics are coming off of a bad upset in the ECF to the Miami Heat and I am not sure if they got better. Deep down, I think they did but time will tell. When they lost Hayward and I saw free agent after free agent sign elsewhere I got really nervous that this team was running out of time to make some moves. But the addition of Tristian Thompson and Jeff Teague, along with all the rookie shooting, all fix immediate needs. Thompson can come in and help us rebound and guard elite bigs, Teague is the much needed back-up point guard and proven starter for when Kemba is out, and the Celtics did exactly what they had to do in the draft – draft shooters.
So, what does Hayward’s exit mean for Boston? Well it turned into everything we needed to fix AND we get out of one of the worst contracts in the league. We can finally put this Hayward-Kyrie era behind and move forward with Tatum, Brown, and Smart as our key pieces to win a championship for at least the next 5 years.
-John (Uncle_mac4)