The Miami Heat are serious about making a splash move in the near coming seasons. None of them will involve Gordon Hayward though and here’s why.
The Miami Heat have been shunned quite a bit over the past few seasons, up until Jimmy Butler flipped all of that talk on its head by essentially declaring that Miami was the only place for him this past summer. However, before Jimmy and Miami made each other their own, one of those players that shunned the Heat was one Gordon Hayward, currently of the Boston Celtics.
For some reason, blame the boredom of our current world situation if you will, the talk of him reportedly joining the Miami Heat in the near future after opting out of his current deal with the Boston Celtics has re-emerged. In a recent piece published by Hardwood Houdini, they referenced a quote from former ESPN Insider turned Memphis Grizzlies front office executive, John Hollinger. Here is the quote.
"The team to worry about, at least a little, is Miami. Hayward nearly signed there in 2016 before picking the Celtics, and the Heat are absolutely in win-now mode. Miami can’t offer the same money in the short term — I project them to have $27 million in room, and that number shrinks if the current, pre-COVID-19 projected cap number ends up adjusted downward due to the ramifications from the shutdown."
Although it sounds good, he touched on one of the main reasons why it won’t happen. He spurned the Miami Heat when they could have used him the most to spark the comeback even faster.
Why now would they do him the solid of bringing him into a readymade contender? It’s the easy way essentially and that’s just not the way that the Miami Heat like to do things. If I’ve read Pat Riley right over the years, he wants to beat Hayward like a drum on every chance he gets, not team up with him at this point.
The next few reasons are rooted in the basketball stuff. When looking at Hayward and his time with the Celtics thus far, it hasn’t exactly been smooth sailing.
While his devastating injury has played a part in that, another reason in itself why the Heat might be shaky to give him the dollars necessary to sign him this summer, there are still other factors at play there. At times, he seems to be a ball stopper, needing to be in isolation to be his best self.
That wouldn’t work with the way that the Miami Heat have found success in playing early thus far in the Jimmy Butler era. You also have to touch on the fact that he doesn’t seem to be as aggressive, assertive, or confident when other big players are playing.
If you pay him what you are going to have to pay him to come to your team, you don’t want a tentative guy. You could say that it’s a result of having to fall in line with an already blossoming team without him after coming off of his injury, but to me, he has always been too passive for my liking.
In Utah it wasn’t that noticeable because he played with other guys like Paul Millsap, Al Jefferson, Derrick Favors, Rudy Gobert, and Joe Ingles, just to name a few. You can pick and choose, but still shine when you do choose to go hard when you aren’t depended on every night be the or one of the main guys.
Lastly, he just doesn’t fit. Where would he slot in? He can play the small-ball four, but does his optimal style of isolation fit into that role on this team?
I can’t see that being the case, especially with the shooters on this team. You also have to include the fact that he and Bam Adebayo would ideally like to operate in some of the same areas, which inevitably presents a problem. You don’t alter what is already working for you, especially in such a drastic way, if it’s not guaranteed to bring much better results.
The last reason is rooted in the financials of it all. Signing Hayward to any deal that it would take to land him would take up a grand amount of the Miami Heat’s cap space. Anything that would potentially prevent them from having the chance to swing big next summer, namely at Giannis Antetokounmpo, they probably won’t do it.
Gordon Hayward is still a really good NBA player. The sizzle just isn’t there for him anymore in Miami. This is why Gordon Hayward won’t end up on South Beach.