Bleacher Report’s Zach Buckley proposed this fix to the Boston Celtics signing of Gordon Hayward back in the 2017 offseason.
Unfortunately, all of the injuries to Gordon Hayward since his ill-fated and short-lived Boston Celtics debut have made his $127 million contract an easy one to scrutinize. Being that he is so infrequently on the hardwood, exploring deals for the 2017 NBA All-Star is one of the Houdini’s favorite hobbies.
Can you blame us? $34 million is a lot of cap space. To use that on a player who has proven to be injury-prone, and can most likely excel more in a different uniform isn’t the best use of funds for a Boston team that seems either one piece away or ready to contend without him.
Bleacher Report’s Zach Buckley laid out a plan to correct Danny Ainge’s max-contract investment in Hayward:
"A lot of deals put under this microscope were doomed from the start. This was the opposite. Boston’s 2017 investment in Hayward made all the sense in the world. It not only reunited him with his college coach, Brad Stevens, but it also positioned him as the potential missing piece after the Celtics had fallen in the 2017 Eastern Conference Finals.It all made sense on paper, until a gruesome leg injury ended his Shamrocks’ debut five minutes after it started. That wiped out his first season in Boston and forced him to spend much of his second scraping off the rust…if hindsight corrects anything here, it’s finding a way to convince Stevens not to play him that fateful night in Oct. 2017."
Obviously, the fact that Hayward was named the Celtics’ worst signing is a testament to how great of a job Ainge has done onboarding talent throughout his time as general manager. Buckley’s solution–delaying his debut–is one that really only works in hindsight as he points out.
There was no better move than signing Hayward when they did. An unfortunate injury has knocked off course what was supposed to be a “cherry on top” signing for a Boston Celtics squad that was ready to become contenders.
They’ve become that in spite of Hayward’s injury woes. Tonight, they will prove whether or not they can reach the Eastern Conference finals without him in a critical Game 7 of the Eastern Conference semifinals against the defending champions.