Gordon Hayward doesn’t come cheap. With Hayward’s arrival in Beantown, the Boston Celtics are necessitated to explore options on how to free up salary cap space to absorb the ex-Utah Jazz swingman’s max contract that’s calculated to be worth $128 million and spread out across four years.
And according to the report of ESPN’s Ramona Shelburne, the Celtics are looking at the the possibilities of moving Marcus Smart, Jae Crowder, and Avery Bradley somewhere else for them to be able to secure Hayward in a max deal.
The Boston Celtics have been aggressively trying to create enough salary-cap room to give Gordon Hayward the four-year, $128 million maximum contract he agreed upon by discussing trades involving Marcus Smart, Jae Crowder and Avery Bradley, sources told ESPN.
Of the three, it seems that Crowder has the biggest target on his back. The Celtics have a glut of players in his position and Hayward’s coming into the mix of Boston small forwards has made him an expendable asset. While just 26, Crowder arguably projects a smaller value in the future than the likes of Jayson Tatum and Jaylen Brown, whom the Celtics appear to be invested in developing. Crowder has three years left on his contract that will pay him $21.8 million until 2020.
Bradley is set to pocket $8.8 million next season, his final with the Celtics before hitting free agency in 2018. Smart, on the other hand, will also be on a contract year this season, in which he’ll be earning $6 million, as he’s going to be a restricted free agent next summer.
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