Northwest Arkansas Democrat-Gazette
Heat linked to Hayward signing
MIAMI — It is a rite of spring that inevitably becomes a rite of summer for Pat Riley, no matter previous words to the contrary from the Miami Heat president.
So, yes, the Heat again find themselves linked to one of the biggest names in NBA free agency, as was the case a year ago, when reports of a Heat pursuit of Kevin Durant turned into time at the negotiating table for Riley with the All-Star forward.
In the wake of that failed pursuit and then the Heat’s revival over the second half of this past season behind lower-tier 2016 free-agent acquisitions Dion Waiters and James Johnson, Riley expressed regret over his previous comments of focusing on the biggest “whales” of free agency.
Yet against that backdrop, ESPN NBA insider Mark Stein posted Friday on Twitter, “Volume is rising on the whispers that the team worrying Utah in Gordon Hayward’s free agency is Miami as much as Boston.”
Hayward holds a $16.7 million player option for 2017-2018 with the Jazz, but is expected to opt out of the final year of his contract and become a free agent on July 1. While Hayward has been linked to Heat interest, the prevailing notion had been that if he did leave the team that drafted him out of Butler in the first round in 2010, it would be with an eye toward the Boston Celtics, who are coached by his former college coach, Brad Stevens.
Hayward is eligible for a free-agent contract that would start at about $30.9 million next season. He is eligible for a five-year contract to remain with the Jazz worth about $175 million or a four-year contract to leave the Jazz worth about $130 million (the bulk of that difference would come in the $40 million fifth year he could receive from the Jazz as Utah’s own free agent).
The Heat are expected to have approximately $37 million in cap space, which would mean that adding Hayward likely would end the Heat tenures of both Waiters and Johnson, who again will be free agents.
A move toward Hayward (along with other ancillary moves, perhaps retaining three-point specialist Wayne Ellington and backup center Willie Reed) could leave the Heat with a starting lineup of Hassan Whiteside at center, Hayward and Justise Winslow at forward, and Goran Dragic and Tyler Johnson at guard. That would leave a bench of Josh Richardson, Rodney McGruder, Josh McRoberts, Okaro White, the player selected at No. 14 in the June 22 NBA draft, as well as potentially Ellington, Reed and possibly returning lower-priced free agents Luke Babbitt and Udonis Haslem.
Hayward averaged 21.9 points, 5.4 rebounds and 3.5 assists in 73 games this past season, shooting .471 from the field and .398 on three-pointers. His Jazz were swept by the Warriors in the second round of the playoffs.
Asked about again pursuing a top-tier, maximum-salary free agent during the offseason, Riley indicated other plans in his season-ending comments, citing a change in league rules since signing LeBron James, Chris Bosh and Dwyane Wade together during the 2010 offseason and then advancing to four consecutive NBA Finals.
“I regret ever making that statement because now that’s always out there,” Riley said of hunting for “whales” during free agency, having lost out on Durant last summer to the Golden State Warriors. “I think the collective bargaining agreement is going to dictate a lot of things about free agency. If you go back to 2010 when we were fortunate to be able to secure the services of LeBron and C.B. and Dwyane, the rules were different, the money was lower, they could sign six-year deals, you had sign-and-trades. You had all of those things.
“Today, it’s a lot different, and for any great player who plays with a team is going to have to give great pause to probably walk away from $65 to $70 million or whatever the number might be to go somewhere
else. He’s going to really have to want to come to you or he’s going to want to leave where he is.”
That, Riley said at the time, was why his offseason focus would be internal.
“We’re going to focus on our guys,” he said. “We’re going to really focus on this group of guys.” He added, “I think first thing is first are to really focus in on our team and we’ll always observe what’s going on in free agency. We do have that flexibility.”