Gordon Hayward has agreed to sign with the Boston Celtics, but the exact terms of his deal have not yet been hammered out. While it was initially assumed that Hayward will sign a max deal worth $128 million over four seasons, there has been some talk of him taking slightly less.
As it stands, the Celtics don’t have the salary cap space needed to sign Hayward. They’ve been exploring sign-and-trade possibilities with the Utah Jazz, but it doesn’t seem like those talks are going anywhere. According to Steve Kyler of Basketball Insiders, Hayward could just end up signing for less than the max to solve the issue.
Has been talk that Hayward may solve this problem for the Celtics by taking a slightly smaller deal if C's can't find something they'd do. https://t.co/WMUiIYV2QR
— Steve Kyler (@stevekylerNBA) July 7, 2017
They want to make a move but Hayward is open to helping make it work. https://t.co/P4g1N0DTSB
— Steve Kyler (@stevekylerNBA) July 7, 2017
Kyler notes that Hayward would likely be taking something in the range of $300,000 less than a max deal, so he isn’t exactly doing what Kevin Durant just did with the Golden State Warriors.
The Jazz were able to offer Hayward a five-year, $172 million contract. The 27-year-old obviously wants to play for Brad Stevens and the Celtics badly enough that he turned that down, so it’s not a surprise that he is willing to be flexible.
If it comes down to the Celtics having to trade a player like Jae Crowder, Avery Bradley or Marcus Smart to make room for Hayward, perhaps Hayward will decide he’d rather take slightly less to have all three of the aforementioned players as teammates.
