The Boston Celtics have high hopes for this offseason.
How high, you ask?
Try adding-both-Paul-George-and-Gordon-Hayward high. I’m not even sure if online bookies like sportingbet have that one listed with odds. Could the Celtics possibly pull it off?
From The Vertical’s Adrian Wojnarowski:
The Boston Celtics are pursuing an aggressive summer plan of sequencing the signing of free agent Gordon Hayward and relinquishing the assets needed to complete a trade for Paul George, league sources told The Vertical.
For salary-cap purposes, Boston wants a Hayward commitment before it can finalize a trade for George and secure the most dynamic free-agent coup in franchise history, league sources said.
For Boston, here’s the hitch: While Indiana believes Boston can offer the best possible package, the Pacers may be unwilling to wait until the start of July free agency on Boston’s timetable and could turn toward making a deal elsewhere for George, league sources told The Vertical.
It’s crazy that this is possible. It’ll cost the Celtics impact players like Kelly Olynyk and at least one of Jae Crowder and Avery Bradley, but they have the flexibility and assets necessary to create the cap space it’ll take to sign Hayward, then turn around and strike a deal for George.
Picture a starting lineup of Al Horford, Isaiah Thomas, George, Hayward and one of Bradley or Crowder. That’s absolutely absurd.
The question, as always, is whether Celtics team president Danny Ainge will be open to forking over the assets it’ll take to land George. Independently, he might not be. But the party changes if the Celtics already have Hayward on the roster; it gives Ainge and crew more of an incentive to go all-in.
And if the Pacers know what’s good for them, they’ll wait until the free-agency dust settles and Boston’s best offer is on the table before making any decisions. The market for George will narrow a little bit during that period, but the teams most likely to move on from negotiations—think along the lines of the Houston Rockets and San Antonio Spurs—don’t have much to offer in the first place. And there’s no way the Lakers will pull whatever they’re offering , when they know they’ll be able to keep George long term.
Waiting on the Celtics only stands to drum up the Pacers’ return on what amounts to an expiring contract. Either Boston ponies up more assets, or Los Angeles, driven by the fear of losing George to the Celtics or Cleveland Cavaliers, bends to more of Indiana’s demands. Either way, holding serve, for now, since the draft is over anyway, helps the Pacers extract as much as possible from this no-win situation.
