Will Gordon Hayward Help Celtics Beat Cavs? This Projection Hints Otherwise

The Boston Celtics got their man in Gordon Hayward, but that doesn’t necessarily mean they’re now ready to beat LeBron James and Co.

The C’s earned the No. 1 seed this past season over the Cleveland Cavaliers, but they still were no match for the Cavs in the Eastern Conference finals. But, considering they now have two max-contract players in Hayward and Al Horford to go along with All-Star Isaiah Thomas and recent lottery picks Jayson Tatum and Jaylen Brown, they must be in a better position to compete for an NBA title, right?

Well, if you ask FiveThirtyEight, that’s not necessarily the case. FiveThirtyEight’s Neil Payne broke down what the Hayward signing means for Boston, with the main number being the projected win totals for the Celtics (44.7) and Cavs (53).

[protected-iframe id=”aa7c6e47027948e37827627a9e8a8654-38215605-90765852″ info=”http://www.espn.com/core/video/iframe?id=19844065″ width=”640″ height=”360″ frameborder=”0″ allowfullscreen=””]

Now, to be fair to Boston, it probably still needs to make a few more moves to come in under the new lower salary cap. So, it will be interesting to see what the C’s projected win total is heading into the regular season. But right now it might not be as good as the basketball world would think.

Thumbnail photo via Derick E. Hingle/USA TODAY Sports Images