The Boston Celtics ended up letting Gordon Hayward leave and sign with the Charlotte Hornets, but there may have been some more complications to the situation.
Back in October, a report said the Indiana Pacers were interested in Hayward. As recently as Friday, a report said Hayward wanted a trade to the Pacers. A possible trade to the Pacers would have involved Myles Turner. The Celtics reportedly were seeking Victor Oladipo or T.J. Warren in addition to Turner.
However, it sounds like something else came in the way.
On an episode of “The Lowe Post” published on Monday, Zach Lowe said he believes things fell through because the Celtics did not want Turner.
“Talking to people and reading the tea leaves as best as I could, I think it just comes down to the Celtics didn’t want Myles Turner,” Lowe said about 23-24 minutes into the episode.
Lowe says the Celtics did some research about what kind of trade value Turner would have, and they didn’t like what they saw. That’s why they walked away from a possible sign-and-trade with Indiana, which cleared the way for Hayward to sign with the Hornets the next day.
Turner signed a four-year, $80 million contract extension with the Pacers in late 2018. He’s making $18 million for each of the next three years as part of the deal, and that apparently wasn’t attractive to the Celtics. The 24-year-old center averaged 12.1 points, 6.6 rebounds and 2.1 blocks per game last season. He led the league with 2.7 blocks per game two seasons ago and was miffed over an All-Defense snub.
