Making sense of Gordon Hayward rumblings heading into draft night

There was some cooperation on Tuesday afternoon as the Celtics and Gordon Hayward’s camp agreed to push back his option deadline from Tuesday afternoon until Thursday afternoon in order to both sides to get a better sense of their market landscape and offseason options. However, a look beneath the surface signals a bit of a staring match here between Hayward’s agent Mark Bartelstein and the Celtics front office as they both try to navigate offseason priorities.

This is not a great year for any player to become a free agent amid a pandemic with just five teams now expected to have meaningful cap room ahead of the draft after the Suns traded for Chris Paul earlier in the week. However, there have been a steady stream of leaks in the past few weeks about teams interested in Gordon Hayward. The safe assumption is that all of them have been coming from Hayward’s camp in an attempt to put a scare into Danny Ainge, who figures that Hayward does not have $34 million (or anything close to it) waiting for him on the open market in this climate.

A job of an agent though is to protect his client and try to maximize both money and preferable situations for him to play in. Bartelstein knows that once Hayward opts in, he’s vulnerable to be dealt on draft night or in free agency, especially if Hayward has not been receptive towards extension talks with Boston. There’s probably a number that Hayward would be happy with to stay in Boston but the expectation is that the Celtics are nowhere close to it at this point. They have big extensions coming up with Jaylen Brown and Jayson Tatum so signing Hayward to a bloated long-term deal that may end up becoming a negative asset within months (if more injuries rise) would hamper their flexibility. They would very much like to keep Hayward if he’s open to staying, according to league sources but the guess here is maintaining as some kind of trade asset would be just as likely as him playing out an extension.

Hayward’s camp knows this. They see the writing on the wall in Boston after watching him turn from a prized free agent signing into a very strong No. 4 option due to a combination of factors, some of which were beyond his control. Why would Hayward sign for anything less than his perceived full value for this kind of situation, especially if his camp believed he could be traded sooner rather than later? That perception has led to the current staring match between both sides as draft night approaches.

It’s a safe assumption to make that Hayward would not be crazy about going to play with the Hawks. There is a bigger role for him there but he would still be a clear second or third banana on that roster, depending on what Atlanta decides to do with John Collins. However, they are a crucial wildcard from Bartelstein’s perspective. They need to be viewed as a legitimate threat to sign him outright by Ainge in order for Hayward to maintain any kind of leverage here, whether it comes to a possible extension with Boston or pushing for a trade to a preferred destination. This is why the leak of the Hawks’ interest came out right after the player deadline was pushed as this was Hayward’s camp trying to re-assert some leverage they had lost by signaling they weren’t willing to opt out just yet. Whether or not the Celtics buy that stance remains to be seen. The Hawks are desperate to add some veterans but there are a lot of different ways they could go on the trade and free agent market that don’t necessarily involve a high-priced, long-term commitment for a 30-year-old Hayward. Atlanta is only bidding against Boston here.

All of this will come to a head on draft night in some form. The Hawks will explore their options with the No. 6 pick which may or may not use up their large chunk ($45 million) of cap room. The Celtics may find a deal with their first-round picks that they can pull off that expands to more teams and helps them facilitate a secondary trade for Hayward’s camp to a preferred spot. If the Hawks disappear as an outright signing destination, the leverage shifts back to Boston, leading to the possibility of a opt-in and playing out the season or the Celtics being able to make bigger demands in trade talks with preferred Hayward destinations.

All things considered, a lot of this comes down to where you think Hayward really wants to go. There are probably a number of places Hayward may prefer to be than Boston next season but I don’t think Atlanta is one of them unless they offer him a boatload of cash. That’s not a scenario I see playing out. For now, the posturing continues but by the end of draft night, expect one side to have a clear upper hand.