Boston Celtics: 2 Gordon Hayward trades to land a new starting center

The hot and heavy rumor this offseason is Gordon Hayward being traded from the Boston Celtics in the final year of his deal. These two potential deals land the Cs a new starting center.

If you have kept your finger on the pulse of any NBA related news as of late, you’d know that the Boston Celtics do not plan to have a quiet offseason. Beyond owning three first-round picks in the upcoming 2020 NBA Draft, the Cs expect to be players in free agency via their taxpayer’s mid-level exception.

That last part is key: the Celtics will be deep in the luxury tax this coming season and were set to be even before the Coronavirus pandemic swept the world and wiped away several billion dollars of revenue for the league.

Many believe that fact to be the potential impetus to a Gordon Hayward trade this offseason. The mechanics are simple: Hayward makes $34.7 million and doesn’t own a strong grip on a starting role for next season.

There are way too many better ways for Boston to be spending that salary. Today, the Houdini is bringing back a concept we genuinely thought would be buried after the regular season but has returned because of the work of the rumor mill: acquiring a big-man with Hayward’s contract.

Among the popular names tied to Hayward, Andre Drummond and Rudy Gobert have both come up, but instead of acquiring those two, we have put together these two multi-team blockbusters to bring on a starting center instead: