2020 NBA Free Agency
The Charlotte Hornets were a team a lot of NBA experts and insiders projected to be heavy spenders in free agency as they had over $30M to play around with and will have around another $40M to spend next offseason. With 9 players on this year’s roster currently under their rookie contracts, they have plenty of money to go out and pursue high-level veteran players to lead their young core. That is exactly what they did in free agency when they went out and signed Gordon Hayward.
After opting out of his $34M player option with the Boston Celtics for the 2020-21 NBA season, it was clear that Hayward’s time in Boston had come to an end and he was ready to move on to another team. Ahead of the 2017 NBA season, the Charlotte Hornets made a run at signing Hayward then, but he ultimately decided to sign with the Boston Celtics. Now, the Hornets did not take no for an answer twice when it came to signing Gordon Hayward and they made sure they locked him up for the next several years.
The Charlotte Hornets agreed to a four-year, $120M deal with Hayward in one of the first few days of free agency, which ultimately turned into a sign-and-trade deal with the Boston Celtics since Boston did not want to give up Hayward without getting something in return. The Celtics announced on social media Sunday afternoon that they sent Hayward and two second-round picks to the Hornets in exchange for a future conditional second-round pick.
Along with signing Hayward, the only other move the Hornets made in free agency was bringing back shot-blocker Bismack Biyombo on a one-year, $2.33M deal. Biyombo is nothing more than a rotation player, but Gordon Hayward is the guy the Hornets hope can lead them into the future. LaMelo Ball, Devonte’ Graham, P.J. Washington and Miles Bridges are the young faces of the franchise for Charlotte, but they needed a leader and Gordon Hayward will be perfect in this role.
Hayward will be turning 31-years old this upcoming season and after three injury plagued years with the Boston Celtics, he is ready to turn back the clocks and get back to playing at the All-Star level he played at back in Utah with the Jazz. Over the course of his career, Hayward has always been an offensive-minded player and should be the clear number one scorer on this Hornets roster.
Much like a lot of players who were undervalued coming into the league on Charlotte’s roster, Gordon Hayward will be playing with a chip on his shoulder this season as he looks to prove all of his doubters wrong. Hayward still has plenty of basketball left in him and with a fresh start leading the Charlotte Hornets, he can easily get back to being an 18-20 PPG type of wing.
