Gordon Hayward spurns Miami Heat, signs with Boston Celtics

Gordon Hayward won’t be signing with the Miami Heat, so now Pat Riley must move on to plan B: re-sign his own free agents, and hope for internal growth.

Pat Riley and the Miami Heat didn’t land their whale.

After days of meetings, the summer’s biggest free agent Gordon Hayward will sign with the Boston Celtics.

The initial report by ESPN’s Chris Haynes was walked back by Hayward’s agent, as reported by David Aldridge and Adrian Wojnarowski. Eventually, though, Hayward’s decision was made to ship out to Boston via an article on the Player’s Tribune.

The Heat had a meeting with Hayward on Saturday that, according to reports, lasted four hours and went well. Hayward was especially impressed by Erik Spoesltra, as Amin Elhassan said on ESPN over the weekend. It didn’t go well enough, though. Hayward met with the Celtics on Sunday and the Jazz on Monday.

By signing Hayward, the Celtics continue to expand the gap between the top two teams in the East and the rest of the conference (even if they haven’t narrowed the gap with the conference-champion Cleveland Cavaliers by enough of a margin).

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This leaves the Heat in a bind. With no road to an All-Star available, they’ll likely turn to re-signing their own free agents James Johnson and Dion Waiters, both of whom could command between $10 million and $15 million next season. With Hayward, the Heat would have only been able to keep one. Without him, they could be able to re-sign both.

First, they’ll release Chris Bosh and clear his cap hit to create the necessary space.

At least that keeps the core of a team that went 30-11 through the second half of the season together. Waiters can reunite with Goran Dragic in a one-two-punch backcourt; while a freshly-minted Johnson returns as Miami’s most dynamic wing player.

The failure here, though, is significant. As much as he downplayed the chase for Hayward this summer, Pat Riley needed this one. He’s now missed on every big-name free agent acquisition since the big haul of 2010. He missed on LaMarcus Aldridge, Kevin Durant, and now Hayward.

Because of Haywards’ delayed decision, the Heat won’t have the opportunity to pursue Blake Griffin or Millsap either, as they have already signed.

Much like the Heat’s position last summer after Durant’s decision, all that remains now are their own free agents and scraps. Re-sign Johnson and Waiters–maybe call up Rudy Gay–and roll this thing back and see if their young players continue to develop.

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By no means is this the end of the road for the Heat, but the gap between the NBA’s haves and have-nots continues to widen.