With the NBA season potentially over in the next 24 hours and the NBA Draft less than two weeks away, the insanity that is the month of July and NBA free agency is right around the corner.
While this off-season won’t have a LeBron James or Kevin Durant on the market, there will be a few top notch players that could be on the market including Chris Paul, Blake Griffin and Gordon Hayward.
Hayward is the youngest, and to many teams, the most coveted free agent asset on the market as a play making two guard at the age of 27 is hard to come by in today’s NBA.
It has been rumored for about a year that the Boston Celtics, with their accumulation of talent and assets and the fact that their head coach was Hayward’s college head coach, I’m talking about Brad Stevens of course, would be the one huge competitor for Hayward’s services along with this current team, the Utah Jazz.
According to a report from ESPN’s Marc Stein, the Jazz themselves seem to be just as concerned with the prospect of Hayward taking his talents to South Beach (minus the TV special of course).
Free Agency Scuttle: Volume is rising on the whispers that the team worrying Utah in Gordon Hayward's free agency is Miami as much as Boston
— Marc Stein (@ESPNSteinLine) June 9, 2017
Pat Riley has been known for his charm and recruitment abilities (I mean how can you say no to that slicked back hair and fresh suit? So much swag) he did you know help convince LeBron James and Chris Bosh to join the Heat in the greatest free agency haul in sports history.
When comparing the roster’s of the Jazz and Heat, they are actually similar in some ways. They both have a young defensive center and rim protector in Rudy Gobert and Hassan Whiteside, a point guard who can run the point or slide over to the two guard and defend a two guard if need be in George Hill and Goran Dragic, and a number of role players and long defenders surrounding them.
While the Jazz’s roster is a little deeper and more skilled than the Heat’s roster in my opinion, the prospect of playing and living in South Beach compared to Salt Lake City Utah has got to be appealing.
When it comes down to it I still think Hayward will decide to stay in Utah, but you can be assured there will be an extravagant meeting set up for Hayward by Riley and the Heat, and he may go to bed one night thinking he will be a member of the Miami Heat, as least for a moment.
