NBA Free Agents 2017 Rumors: Latest on Gordon Hayward, Boston Celtics, Cleveland Cavaliers and more
Sixers fans appear to be the big winners of the first day, as their team landed shooting guard J.J. Redick on a one year, $23 million deal.
What will the second day bring?
Here are the latest rumors heading into Day 2 of NBA free agency:
Gordon Hayward: The biggest and best free agent remaining on the market is forward Gordon Hayward.
Hayward seems to be deciding between the Miami Heat, Boston Celtics and his own team, the Utah Jazz. First up for Hayward was the Heat.
Sixers Sign J.J. Redick
Here is the latest, via Barry Jackson of the Miami Herald has the latest on how Hayward’s meeting went:
Hayward was greeted by five Heat players – Hassan Whiteside, Udonis Haslem, Josh Richardson, Tyler Johnson and free agent James Johnson. He also met with president Pat Riley, coach Erik Spoelstra, Alonzo Mourning and several other coaches and executives.
Besides telling Hayward all of the obvious positives of playing here – weather, lack of state income tax, the Heat culture and championship pedigree – coaches also explained to Hayward how the offense would play to his strengths. The meeting lasted several hours.
Hayward will reportedly meet with the Celtics next before he holds his last meeting with the Jazz.
Boston Celtics: The Celtics have been involved in plenty of rumors since the midway point of last season, but up until this point, they have struck out on players like Paul George and Jimmy Butler.
Will they strike out on Hayward too — and what will happen if they do?
Gary Washburn of the Boston Globe offers this take on where the Celtics stand:
Right now, the Celtics are solely focused on signing Hayward, who left Miami without accepting a contract offer. So there remains a chance he chooses Boston.
But if he doesn’t, there’s no reason to panic. The Celtics need to continue their baby steps to elite status until they are confident that difference-making player is available and ready to come to Boston.
The Celtics will meet with Hayward in the coming days.
Cleveland Cavaliers: The Cavaliers are currently trying to figure out a way to get past the Golden State Warriors. One way is to open up salary cap space, and one player they might move to accomplish that is guard Iman Shumpert.
Joe Vardon of Cleveland.com has the latest:
The Cavaliers are in discussions with the Houston Rockets to trade Iman Shumpert there to free up salary space, sources confirmed to cleveland.com. It is not immediately clear who the Cavs would get in return for Shumpert, but the Rockets have cap space and non-guaranteed contracts to absorb his salary and give Cleveland the pieces to clear room and potentially make future trades.
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