Before Gordon Hayward agreed to a four-year, $120 million deal with the Charlotte Hornets, the Indiana Pacers were reportedly trying to pursue a sign-and-trade with the Boston Celtics.
According to J. Michael of The Indianapolis Star, the Pacers offered the Celtics Myles Turner, a first-round pick and a bench player for Hayward. However, the Celtics wanted another starter in the package instead of a bench player. The Pacers reportedly didn't want to give up that much, therefore, the trade talks fell off.
Furthermore, according to Zach Lowe of ESPN, the Celtics were never that high on Turner:
“Talking to people and reading the tea leaves as best I could, it really comes down to the Celtics didn’t want Myles Turner,” Lowe said on The Lowe Post. “I did hear from some teams around the league that the Celtics have done some preliminary research on what Myles Turner’s trade value would have been to them had they acquired him either in this deal or in a separate deal, and obviously didn’t like what they saw.”
After the sign-and-trade talks fell off with the Pacers, Gordon Hayward ended up with that massive four-year, $120 million deal with Charlotte. Celtics president Danny Ainge tried to go back to Indiana as a show of “good faith,” but Hayward's agent, Mark Bartelstein, pulled the plug on those talks.
Now, Ainge is trying to work out a sign-and-trade with the Hornets so he doesn't lose Hayward for nothing. Boston could get a large trade exception to use to improve its roster if a sign-and-trade can be agreed upon. Nicolas Batum's contract is a hangup right now.
As for the Pacers, they're still in good shape for this upcoming season in terms of being a playoff team, though Victor Oladipo's situation will continue to loom over them. While Oladipo recently committed to the franchise for this season, he's set to be an unrestricted free agent in 2021.
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