A rumor popped up Wednesday that the Cavaliers are interested in Boston Celtics forward Gordon Hayward.
Cleveland.com’s Chris Fedor listed the Boston Celtics as a potential trade partner for the Cleveland Cavaliers in the off-season.
J.R. Smith has a $15.7 million contract for next season, but he’s guaranteed only $3.8 million. That kind of contract is a relic of the old collective bargaining agreement (the rules were changed in 2016).
Trading for Smith and dumping him provides a unique opportunity for a team to clear cap space on the fly.
The rationale, per Fedor, is that if Kyrie Irving leaves, the Celtics can move Gordon Hayward’s burdensome contract and quickly rebuild around Jayson Tatum and Jaylen Brown. Per Fedor:
"The Cavs would gladly take the polarizing Hayward, who was an All-Star in Utah before his horrific leg injury. He would be the main prize, the exception to Cleveland demanding a draft pick or ascending player on a rookie deal. Hayward is healthy now and will have a full off-season to try to regain his old form, possibly giving the Cavs another piece to accelerate their timeline. Put Hayward, 29, alongside Kevin Love, Collin Sexton and the duo added in Round One and suddenly Cleveland has the look of a playoff team."
This seems crazy, especially while the Celtics are up 3-0 against the Indiana Pacers in the first round (while the Toronto Raptors and the Philadelphia 76ers have both looked more fallible in comparison).
Let’s look at the argument on both sides of this, then come down with a verdict.
Argument 1: the Boston Celtics should consider trading Gordon Hayward to the Cleveland Cavaliers.
Look, we have to face the facts.
Think of the whole arc of this season. This was supposed to be the year – LeBron James was out of the conference, and we were adding two all-stars back to a team that went to game 7 of the Eastern Conference Finals. The Boston Celtics were primed to make the leap.
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Let’s not belabor a point that we all know – suffice it to say, they didn’t make the leap. The Milwaukee Bucks made the leap instead, and looked like the most dominant team in the East by far. The Toronto Raptors also looked dominant. The Celtics have been punching in another weight class all season.
This iteration of the Boston Celtics just isn’t clicking, and Gordon Hayward is a big reason why. He’s been a shell of himself all season long. His success as a sixth man of sorts has been a nice story, but do you want to be paying a sixth man averaging 11.5 ppg upwards of $30 million?
When teams move on from a player dragging them down, it brings a breath of fresh air to the team. This squad definitely needs a breath of fresh air. Just ditch Gordon Hayward, save some cash and move on from the burden created by our high expectations.
Argument 2: the Boston Celtics should NOT consider trading Gordon Hayward to the Cleveland Cavaliers
Stay far, far away from this deal, Danny Ainge. Don’t touch this trade with a 39-and-a-half-foot pole.
Let’s start off by getting more realistic in how we talk about Gordon Hayward’s production. It’s true that he hasn’t looked like his pre-injury self this season – but he’s certainly looked a hell of a lot closer as the season has progressed. In his last 5 regular season games, he scored 18.4 ppg on 64 percent shooting and 39 percent shooting from deep.
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The Celtics were 1.7 points per 100 possessions better in their last 15 games with Hayward on the court, despite him playing largely with bench units. He’s looked more confident driving to the rim and more fluid in every facet of his game.
In a March article for Forbes, Evan Dammarell wrote, “This time, Ainge and his Celtics are the desperate ones, as they will likely try to do anything to offload Hayward’s contract. Thankfully for Cleveland, the Celtics have acquired the assets in order to make taking on Hayward more palatable for Cleveland.”
Can we take a moment to recognize the absurdity here? Cleveland folks think they can have it both ways. They talk about Hayward like he’s a giant negative asset – in this galaxy of thought, the Celtics would have to attach multiple picks to Hayward just to make the trade feel more fair for the Cavaliers. Yet in the same breath, they talk about Hayward elevating them back to the playoffs. The obnoxiousness makes me want to vomit out my internal organs.
Moral of the story: the best version of the Boston Celtics still involves Gordon Hayward. Players coming back from major injury always struggle out of the gate, and Hayward has shown enough progress that abandoning faith now would be senseless. This is a really, really awful idea for the Celtics.
The verdict: don’t do it
After a season as full of disappointment as this one, it’s natural to look at knee-jerk solutions. Maybe Boston needs to do something somewhat major.
But this is not the move.
A move like this would make sense if ditching Hayward was addition by subtraction. Maybe that would be true if he was still playing like game-10 Hayward, but he’s far removed from that. He hasn’t been himself, but he’s still helping the team. Shipping off Hayward alongside multiple other assets would be a huge minus for the Celtics.
The Cleveland folks are arguing that this makes the most sense for the Boston Celtics if Kyrie Irving leaves in free agency – but they’re missing something somewhat obvious.
If Irving leaves, you desperately want Hayward on the team. He’s one of the few Celtics who really makes his teammates better when he has the ball in his hands, and could slot in very nicely in a point-forward role for the starting unit.
A team centered around just Jaylen Brown and Jayson Tatum doesn’t have nearly enough to remain competitive.
Hayward has been a useful player for the Celtics this year, and figures to be better next year. Don’t give up on him and make a bad trade just because it feels like we need to do something.
The best version of the Boston Celtics includes a healthy and thriving Gordon Hayward.