The marriage between Gordon Hayward and the Boston Celtics always felt preordained.
Though Utah Jazz fans felt spurned during the summer of 2017, most in the basketball world expected Hayward to land with the Celtics and their head coach, Brad Stevens, who coached the fellow Indiana native at Butler University. Hayward validated those expectations while announcing his decision to sign with Boston.
But maybe everyone had it wrong. Maybe the prophecies were misread (Yes, that’s a Yoda reference.) Or maybe hindsight is just 20/20.
Regardless, it might be time for Hayward and the Celtics — a relationship that quite literally got off on the wrong foot — to go their separate ways.
You don’t have to poke around too much find rumors about Hayward’s potential departure. There’s talk both of Hayward opting out of his current deal — a nightmare scenario for the Celtics — and of Boston trading away the star forward.
The former scenario feels unlikely, considering Hayward’s injury history coupled with the financial and logistical uncertainty of the 2020-21 NBA season. It’s difficult to envision any team giving Hayward more than the nearly $34.2 million he’d make if he plays for the Celtics next season.
But a trade? The Celtics absolutely should consider one if they can find the right deal. You can do the ESPN trade machine stuff on your own time but, from our perspective, the Celtics should prioritize frontcourt help (Myles Turner, anyone) and/or legitimate bench scoring.
The reality is that Boston’s current roster construction doesn’t leave much room for Hayward to maximize his potential. That’s nobody’s fault — it’s just the way it is.
Danny Ainge signed Hayward with the intention of pairing him alongside point guard Kyrie Irving and stretch-big Al Horford. And, if you gave Ainge truth serum, he’d probably admit his grand plan was to flip all those fancy draft picks for Anthony Davis to assemble a true super team.
We know how all of that turned out.
But Boston’s Plan B hasn’t looked like one. Jayson Tatum is on the cusp of superstardom and Jaylen Brown looks like a more-than-capable co-pilot. Kemba Walker is a talented, capable leader, even if his injury woes are cause for concern.
The future looks bright for the C’s. The problem is that Boston’s offense runs through Walker, Tatum, Brown and sometimes even Marcus Smart before it reaches Hayward. That’s not worth $34 million, nor is it worth the time for a player like Hayward, who was a ball-dominant floor general in Utah and could return to such a status with another club.
When Hayward has been healthy in Boston, he’s looked like a square peg in a round hole. Sure, his all-around skill set occasionally pops and sometimes he looks like the best player on the floor, but the Celtics have two other wings who can say the same thing and are younger.
The Celtics roster has reduced Hayward to a redundancy, albeit a highly talented one. His stats last season — 17.5 points, 6.7 rebounds, 4.1 assists, 0.7 steals — were very good, but neither essential nor irreplaceable.
Moreover, Hayward’s career in Boston has felt like a cursed existence, one filled with one fluke injury after the next. The stars might have aligned to land him in Boston, but they’ve shot off in all kinds of different directions in the years since.
Ultimately, it would be in the best interest of both Hayward and the Celtics for him to be dealt to another team. Whether there’s a club willing to swap legitimate assets for 30-year-old with all that aforementioned baggage is something Trader Danny must figure out.
