If Indy wanted Hayward so bad they could easily have matched the Charlotte offer and continued negotiating with Boston. I find it incredibly difficult to believe that Hayward's agent, a very good player agent, wouldn't have offered Indy a chance to match Charlotte's offer.
All the stuff coming out of Indy seems like a PR smokescreen to me. It takes three parties to do a sign and trade and Gordo wanted money that Indy looks like they didn't want to pay him. That's the story right there. Everything else is white noise.
Talks between Indiana and Boston had been broken. What was there to talk about for Hayward's agent?
As long as Boston wouldn't agree to the Indiana offer it was impossible for Hayward to sign a contract there.
All the reports say the same: Indiana offered Turner + McDermott + 1st rounder (probably protected). From the beginning it was reported that Turner was on the table and we even had reports that Boston was looking for suitors for Turner to involve a 3rd team. Then we even had a detailed report that Boston wanted Warren + Turner
or Oladipo, and wasn't satisfied with the Indiana offer.
Then we had reports that talks between Boston and Indiana had stalled and that there wasn't any progress in these negotiations. And then Hayward signed with the Hornets. We even had an interview by the Indiana GM that they were unwilling to offer anything more than Turner + McDermott + 1st.
There really is no mystery here. I haven't seen any report that would suggest otherwise. Oladipo and Warren were off the table and Ainge wasn't high on Turner, or at least not enough to agree to a sign-and-trade of Hayward to the Pacers.
The only question is whether Hayward would have reconsidered signing with the Pacers if the Hornets would have been in time to come up with their bigger offer. I think Hayward would have preferred to play in Indiana, but that's something we don't really know.
All the other information is out there, in fact more than usual, probably because the Pacers got frustrated that Ainge wasn't willing to accept the offer they deemed very reasonable and it was hurting both franchises (Pacers not getting Hayward, Celtics seeing Hayward leave for nothing).