Hindsight is always 20-20.
I wish he didn't get injured. I wished IT was 7" taller too. I think Hayward will fit into any style of play the Celtics can dream up. He can pass well, score well, rebound, and defend.
I'm thankful for the team and organization we have.
Me, too - which is what made me think of the question. We assigned 30% of our cap to a player who played a total of 5 minutes and we still went to the ECF last year. Not only without Hayward, but without Kyrie, too - that is crazy!
But, in another world where we didn't make the BKN trade (or the Tatum/Fultz deal by extension), we re-signed IT to a huge contract, and Horford chose to go elsewhere, well, then this would put us in an entirely different position. Our entire livelihood would have depended on Hayward and it would have been devastating.
I was just trying to ask the question, if you had it to do all over again, would you make a different decision? One of my main reasons for being in the middle is because Danny has been on one of the greatest GM runs of all-time. If he wasn't able to sign Hayward, he surely would have made other dramatic moves. Can't we assume another impact player, say of Joe Ingles' caliber, probably would have pushed us to the Finals. That would have been exciting! And it still would have allowed us to sign our own FAs when the time comes next spring.
Like I said, though, good for Celtics Strong nation. You people really are a stand-up crowd. Having Hayward's back like this is not something all franchises can count on. I can't imagine the Miami Heat fans are too happy still paying Chris Bosh's max contract, despite the fact that he helped bring them two championships.
The premise of this thread and east subsequent post you try to justify it with doesn’t make any sense.
Wishing for Joe Ingles instead so we could’ve won one extra game in May is ridiculous. I have no idea why you go to this parallel universe where we didn’t make the BKN trade or signed Horford (but we did steal IT from Phoenix), yet still expect him to have the same injury when ALL of his teammates would have been different (and at least two of his opponents) at the time it happened. I really don’t see the logic there.
Basically what you’re saying is that we bought a stock for $100 (all-star in his prime), it plummeted to a penny stock for a year (inactive), is currently at $75 (shaking off the rust and regaining strength/conditioning/mentality) with a forecast of $150 (main cog on championship team).... and you wish you bought a stock for $60 that’s now maybe $70. If you were a day trader, you should have done that. But Danny doesn’t hand out max contracts for what he gets in year 1 only. Nobody could have predicted what happened, and without Kyrie I don’t think Hayward (or Joe Ingles) made us better than GSW last year. This year with Kyrie and Gordon healthy, we are close.
So what did he really cost us, an Eastern Conference title? We are the Celtics, nobody is celebrating 2010. I’ll take what he gives us on the backend of his contract than the missed year that would have led us to maybe two or three extra wins that didn’t hang a banner.
Hayward was the right play in July 2017, and everything that’s happened since still doesn’t change that.