Gordon Hayward signs with Charlotte 4 years/120M

[woahfraze]

3 minutes ago, Proudiddy said:

But we didn't just outright waive Batum and take all the hit this year,.we stretched it across 3 years so we'll carry 9M dead money per season. 

We had to do that to make cap room this year for Hayward.

[Proudiddy]

18 minutes ago, Shocker said:

I get what you are saying and somewhat agree but even with major cap space I have to wonder who we could get to come here thats better than Hayward in free agency next offseason.  We needed a shooter/scoring wing and that is what he is.

Talking myself into this here.  

I appreciate your optimism, but I was much more excited letting Batum's contract expire, signing a few role players for cheap, and watching Melo and the young core play big minutes and develop.  

I'm just worried we just restarted the clock on a new Batum-level contract with Hayward.  I like him, but not at 30M.  We just paid him, combined with the dead cap stretch on Batum, 39M per over the next 3 seasons.  We essentially just paid him to be Kevin Durant, and he was the 4th option on his own team last season.

[Proudiddy]

1 minute ago, woahfraze said:

We had to do that to make cap room this year for Hayward.

That's my problem lol.  We are paying 39M to Hayward for the next 3 years as a result for a guy who was relatively inconsequential to their success or failures last season. They could've moved Cody or Terry and made the room.  Instead of having 30M of open cap space following this season, we will now be paying 9M each of the next three seasons.  This was handled horribly.

[woahfraze]

1 minute ago, Proudiddy said:

That's my problem lol.  We are paying 39M to Hayward for the next 3 years as a result for a guy who was relatively inconsequential to their success or failures last season. They could've moved Cody or Terry and made the room.  Instead of having 30M of open cap space following this season, we will now be paying 9M each of the next three seasons.  This was handled horribly.

I agree that moving Zeller or Rozier would have been preferably. But it's possible we couldn't find a willing trading partner to unload them.

[Shocker]

8 minutes ago, Proudiddy said:

I appreciate your optimism, but I was much more excited letting Batum's contract expire, signing a few role players for cheap, and watching Melo and the young core play big minutes and develop.  

I'm just worried we just restarted the clock on a new Batum-level contract with Hayward.  I like him, but not at 30M.  We just paid him, combined with the dead cap stretch on Batum, 39M per over the next 3 seasons.  We essentially just paid him to be Kevin Durant, and he was the 4th option on his own team last season.

I hear you man...this is a ridiculously risky move with his injury history lately.  Hey it ain't our money man.  Hornets will be fun at least

[Zaximus]

The only thing I can think of is, maybe it's even harder to get a star here than we think, not sure.   Maybe MJ banking on Melo being a star and giving him help.    I hate to think we're just letting Batum off the hook for being a bum, should at least make him show up each night lol.  

[KendrickPanther]

It seems like they need to trade some guys off the team, too much of the same. He's a good player. He will help them get back to that 8th seed territory they've always aspired to. He is overpaid though. He's still young... the injuries have always been a knock though.

[OldNorthPowell]

Waving Batum was absolutely dumb and no where near defensible.

[CarolinaNCSU]

Anddd just like that, the Hornets did dumb poo again.  

Maybe Hayward stays healthy, but even then it's still an overpay and one hell of a roll of the dice on a 30 year old player who has lost a lot of his athleticism because of that injury.  Hayward going back home to Indiana seemed like it was happening. or eventually would.  And then we paid him so much money he couldn't agree fast enough lol.  Leave it to Charlotte to overpay in a year of garbage FAs. in the hopes of becoming a perennial 6 or 7 seed throughout the end of this contract.  I mean seriously, the upside here is he ACTUALLY stays healthy and this team steals one game off the Bucks in the playoffs? Couldn't be me. 

 

[rippadonn]

This is a waaaay better team than even last year if healthy.

Playoffs?!

[WOW!!]

54 minutes ago, OldNorthPowell said:

Waving Batum was absolutely dumb and no where near defensible.

This is the part I really hate about the deal.. We are Bobby Boniea Batum sorry ass. Why the fug are we waving him to pay him 9 mil for 3 more YEARS!!! That's so fuging stupid... Our cap situation better be incredibly all 3 of these years.. And we better be trading some players...This is dumb AS F***!! Any other way..

[WOW!!]

Damm you MJ.. Stay the fug out of the basketball operation...

[bLACKpANTHER]

This is what I was saying a few days ago - "Our FA dollars are worth less than LA or Miami dollars." So we have to spend almost double what someone else might pay for a FA. But tbh, it isn't my money so I am not that pissed off. I don't know if we could get any of the big names next year in FA and think if you can bring in someone now - you do it. 30M for Hayward is definitely overspending - but we would have to throw that same money at someone else to bring them here. Who do you feel comfortable giving that same money to next year and truly think will give us the time of day: Giannis, LeBron, Kawhi, PG13, Gobert, Oladipo, Holiday, Lowry, Derozen, CP3, Blake, Conley, Drummond???

Anyways, I think this definitely improves the team in the short term. Long term it might be brutal. I don't know what the last 2 years of Hayward will look like.. the next 2 years should be on point though.

Now - before the signing - we were a very young team with 0 vet leadership outside of Zeller. I think it was huge for us to get someone that can talk to Ball on his bad nights (that will certainly be upcoming) for him to know to just keep plugging away and to uplift him. There is possibly no one better than Hayward to give Ball and our young guys leadership and guidance towards progressing towards a playoff run.

[Cary Kollins]

I think the Hornets were close to dead last in attendance last year. I imagine Jordan wants to get people in the stands by any means necessary, and he sees this as a chance to roll the dice on Hayward staying healthy and LaMelo living up to the hype. If he can stay healthy, this will be a fun to watch young playoff team with solid coaching and veteran leadership. 

I’m as excited to see the Hornets as I can remember, so in that sense Jordan is halfway there.