Seriously, if you had a do-over and could head into this Summer with max cap...

[LarBrd33]

Someone on Reddit made a joke post using Hayward's stats this season (in 5 minutes) to joke that we were better off without him according to advanced stats.  He joked that we should trade him to Denver for a Dunkins Donuts gift card and cash considerations.

I half-jokingly responded:  "if you dump Hayward's 30 million for a dunkin donuts gift card and then let Smart walk, you now have around 71 million on the books. With the cap set around 102 million, that gives Boston right around max cap space to target an unrestricted free agent like Boogie Cousins, Paul George or even LeBron/Durant (both unrestricted).

I'm not saying I'd do it, but I'd want to be [dang] sure Hayward can return 100% next year and I'd need to know how much value is on the Dunkin Donuts gift card."

It's think it's worth questioning, though.  If you could hypothetically just trade Hayward to a team with cap space and take back nothing... and let Smart walk...  how would you feel about heading into this Summer with essentially max cap room coming off a season in which we almost made the Finals?  Are we all confident Hayward is going to return to 100%?   Any of the upcoming free agents you'd rather pitch to?

https://hoopshype.com/2018/04/22/nba-free-agency-2018-the-top-players-2/

[Vermont Green]

I know that this is a hypothetical but we signed Hayward before the Irving trade.  I don't think that Boston expected IT to come back so the whole salary situation really changed.  After we got Irving and found out how good Tatum is, yeah, $31M tied up in Hayward suddenly looks a whole lot different.

Let's give him chance to actually play though before we start to do the "what ifs".  I don't think this will become a contract that is a problem.

[CelticsElite]

Hayward is better than any free agents. I like him better than Paul “I couldn’t get out of the 1st round” George, plus PG WAS ALWAYS going to go play in La.

 lebron is going to gut the team to get his agents players on the team. Who’s left as free agents? Demarcus “no player especially center has ever recovered from a ruptured Achilles” cousins?

With kyrie  and Hayward coming back this off season, we already won the 2018 off season free agency

[CelticsBR]

Someone on Reddit made a joke post using Hayward's stats this season (in 5 minutes) to joke that we were better off without him according to advanced stats.  He joked that we should trade him to Denver for a Dunkins Donuts gift card and cash considerations.

I half-jokingly responded:  "if you dump Hayward's 30 million for a dunkin donuts gift card and then let Smart walk, you now have around 71 million on the books. With the cap set around 102 million, that gives Boston right around max cap space to target an unrestricted free agent like Boogie Cousins, Paul George or even LeBron/Durant (both unrestricted).

I'm not saying I'd do it, but I'd want to be [dang] sure Hayward can return 100% next year and I'd need to know how much value is on the Dunkin Donuts gift card."

It's think it's worth questioning, though.  If you could hypothetically just trade Hayward to a team with cap space and take back nothing... and let Smart walk...  how would you feel about heading into this Summer with essentially max cap room coming off a season in which we almost made the Finals?  Are we all confident Hayward is going to return to 100%?   Any of the upcoming free agents you'd rather pitch to?

https://hoopshype.com/2018/04/22/nba-free-agency-2018-the-top-players-2/

That is a very good question. Cousins would be a perfect fit in terms of play style, but he doesn't seem to be one of most desirable players to DA and BS.

I like Paul George better than Hayward, but he would be a long shot to go to Boston. There would be no shots at getting either Lebron or KD.

Therefore, no, we are probably just fine with Hayward.

[CelticsElite]

I know that this is a hypothetical but we signed Hayward before the Irving trade.  I don't think that Boston expected IT to come back so the whole salary situation really changed.  After we got Irving and found out how good Tatum is, yeah, $31M tied up in Hayward suddenly looks a whole lot different.

Let's give him chance to actually play though before we start to do the "what ifs".  I don't think this will become a contract that is a problem.

how does $31 mill look different? Hayward is still our best 2 way player. He’s a bonafide superstar and all star. What exactly do you think Hayward is worth? He was going to get paid significantly more by the jazz

[CelticsElite]

Someone on Reddit made a joke post using Hayward's stats this season (in 5 minutes) to joke that we were better off without him according to advanced stats.  He joked that we should trade him to Denver for a Dunkins Donuts gift card and cash considerations.

I half-jokingly responded:  "if you dump Hayward's 30 million for a dunkin donuts gift card and then let Smart walk, you now have around 71 million on the books. With the cap set around 102 million, that gives Boston right around max cap space to target an unrestricted free agent like Boogie Cousins, Paul George or even LeBron/Durant (both unrestricted).

I'm not saying I'd do it, but I'd want to be [dang] sure Hayward can return 100% next year and I'd need to know how much value is on the Dunkin Donuts gift card."

It's think it's worth questioning, though.  If you could hypothetically just trade Hayward to a team with cap space and take back nothing... and let Smart walk...  how would you feel about heading into this Summer with essentially max cap room coming off a season in which we almost made the Finals?  Are we all confident Hayward is going to return to 100%?   Any of the upcoming free agents you'd rather pitch to?

https://hoopshype.com/2018/04/22/nba-free-agency-2018-the-top-players-2/

That is a very good question. Cousins would be a perfect fit in terms of play style, but he doesn't seem to be one of most desirable players to DA and BS.

I like Paul George better than Hayward, but he would be a long shot to go to Boston. There would be no shots at getting either Lebron or KD.

Therefore, no, we are probably just fine with Hayward.

cousins is a terrible fit. His playstyle is ball dominant on offense, perimeter defense isn’t amazing, and he has the worst personality in the nba

Look at the pelicans wins with cousins , then look at their wins after cousins got injured . If you think that’s a coincidence or luck, then you’re just  ignoring the obvious

[gouki88]

I’d rather Hayward than any upcoming FA (except LeBron, but I loathe him anyway )

[LarBrd33]

I know that this is a hypothetical but we signed Hayward before the Irving trade.  I don't think that Boston expected IT to come back so the whole salary situation really changed.  After we got Irving and found out how good Tatum is, yeah, $31M tied up in Hayward suddenly looks a whole lot different.

Let's give him chance to actually play though before we start to do the "what ifs".  I don't think this will become a contract that is a problem.

Again, this is all hypothetical.  I'm 100% in support of Hayward and hope to see him return healthy. 

But just to point out... the "window" to regain hypothetical max cap space basically closes after this Summer.  It's the final season of Kyrie's contract so he's going to get paid big money if we keep him about a year from now.  That would make it kind of impossible to free up the necessary big cap space.

If we were going to hypothetically dump Hayward's contract to free up money, it would hypothetically have to happen this hypothetical summer... hypothetically.

[Bucketgetter]

Hayward is better than any free agents. I like him better than Paul “I couldn’t get out of the 1st round” George, plus PG WAS ALWAYS going to go play in La.

 lebron is going to gut the team to get his agents players on the team. Who’s left as free agents? Demarcus “no player especially center has ever recovered from a ruptured Achilles” cousins?

With kyrie  and Hayward coming back this off season, we already won the 2018 off season free agency

Well PG has taken teams farther than Hayward ever has. And how was he always going to LA? Did I miss him signing there already?

And you're assuming that not only Kyrie, but Hayward as well will be "coming back this off season", but Cousins won't because he ruptured his achilles? Doesn't make sense. Hayward's dislocated and broken ankle is just as serious.

Also, Dominique Wilkins came back from a ruptured achilles and was a beast.

[CelticsElite]

Hayward is better than any free agents. I like him better than Paul “I couldn’t get out of the 1st round” George, plus PG WAS ALWAYS going to go play in La.

 lebron is going to gut the team to get his agents players on the team. Who’s left as free agents? Demarcus “no player especially center has ever recovered from a ruptured Achilles” cousins?

With kyrie  and Hayward coming back this off season, we already won the 2018 off season free agency

Well PG has taken teams farther than Hayward ever has. And how was he always going to LA? Did I miss him signing there already?

And you're assuming that not only Kyrie, but Hayward as well will be "coming back this off season", but Cousins won't because he ruptured his achilles? Doesn't make sense. Hayward's dislocated and broken ankle is just as serious.

Also, Dominique Wilkins came back from a ruptured achilles and was a beast.

pg is going to LA. Pg couldn’t get past the first round this year embarrassingly. Almost didn’t make the playoffs

 so 1 player returned, that means another will? Only like 30% players have returned from that injury, and almost none returned to the same level of play

[Roy H.]

I’d only undo it for Lebron or Durant.

[Vermont Green]

I know that this is a hypothetical but we signed Hayward before the Irving trade.  I don't think that Boston expected IT to come back so the whole salary situation really changed.  After we got Irving and found out how good Tatum is, yeah, $31M tied up in Hayward suddenly looks a whole lot different.

Let's give him chance to actually play though before we start to do the "what ifs".  I don't think this will become a contract that is a problem.

how does $31 mill look different? Hayward is still our best 2 way player. He’s a bonafide superstar and all star. What exactly do you think Hayward is worth? He was going to get paid significantly more by the jazz

It is not a question of whether or not Hayward is worth $31M, it is a question of whether or not it is the best way for the Celtics to spend the $31M.  What changed is that when we signed Hayward, we didn't have Irving and we didn't know what we had in Tatum (or even Brown for that matter).  Now we need to pay Irving and we are going to build around Irving, not Hayward.  To me, the equation around the value of paying Hayward $31M has changed.  It still may be good but the context has certainly changed.

[SparzWizard]

It could be worse. We could've signed Paul Millsap to a max contract!

[Bucketgetter]

Hayward is better than any free agents. I like him better than Paul “I couldn’t get out of the 1st round” George, plus PG WAS ALWAYS going to go play in La.

 lebron is going to gut the team to get his agents players on the team. Who’s left as free agents? Demarcus “no player especially center has ever recovered from a ruptured Achilles” cousins?

With kyrie  and Hayward coming back this off season, we already won the 2018 off season free agency

Well PG has taken teams farther than Hayward ever has. And how was he always going to LA? Did I miss him signing there already?

And you're assuming that not only Kyrie, but Hayward as well will be "coming back this off season", but Cousins won't because he ruptured his achilles? Doesn't make sense. Hayward's dislocated and broken ankle is just as serious.

Also, Dominique Wilkins came back from a ruptured achilles and was a beast.

pg is going to LA. Pg couldn’t get past the first round this year embarrassingly. Almost didn’t make the playoffs

 so 1 player returned, that means another will? Only like 30% players have returned from that injury, and almost none returned to the same level of play

So why do you keep saying Kyrie and Hayward will return no problem?

And like I said before, PG has taken the Pacers to the ECF game 7 against the Heat and their big 3. He was clearly their best player, too. I don't know why you're grading him based on one series. Hayward missed the playoffs plenty of times with the Jazz, and only made it out of the 1st round once. And even then they needed 7 games against the banged up Clippers, only to immediately get swept by the Warriors.

It's not smart to reference playoff performances when arguing for Hayward over Paul George.

[A Future of Stevens]

I'm kind of all in at this point with our starting 5. 1 PG, 3 wings and a skilled center. I have no reason to back it up, but I feel like Hayward fits alongside Tatum and Browns growth curve better than Paul George. I just feel that Hayward will accept an offball shooter/ secondary playmaker role more easily than Paul George.

You could make an argument that Boogie would make our overall ceiling higher, but I think we have seen that the System makes the sum of our parts hit their peak. Boogie usually destroys any semblance of cohesiveness. That was before the achilles. I hope he comes back close to his former self. His talents were mesmerizing.

And lebron is well lebron. Of course I would take him. I just dont think it is in the cards. But titles over anything.