Keith Smith: Celtics create a small trade exception in the Richardson-Brown swap. The usable portion of the Gordon Hayward TPE for Boston is now gone. Mavs will create a $10.8M TPE for Richardson. It will likely get renounced for cap space later.
Gordon Hayward Rumors
All NBA Players
Position: F
Born: 03/23/90
Height: 6-7 / 2.01
Weight:207 lbs. / 93.9 kg.
Salary: $29,925,000
Born: 03/23/90
Height: 6-7 / 2.01
Weight:207 lbs. / 93.9 kg.
Salary: $29,925,000
Former Celtics Al Horford and Gordon Hayward opted out of their contracts in Boston to sign longer-term deals with other teams, each with his own set of reasons. While there’s no way to put their decisions 100 percent on Irving’s move to Brooklyn, league executives believe Irving opting to leave Boston certainly played a factor in the departure of the franchise’s two biggest free-agent signings, Horford and Hayward.
Meanwhile, their bodies were being ground down by the compressed 72-game schedule. The physical injuries potentially caused by such a grueling endeavor have received ample attention; no shortage of media hands have been wrung over Kevin Durant’s strained hamstring, LeBron James’s high ankle sprain or Jamal Murray’s torn ACL. But comparatively little notice has been paid to an unseen element of players’ well-being, one affected as much if not more by this season’s atypically harsh conditions: mental health. “Although we have special gifts and talents that make us seem more than human, at the end of the day we’re just people,” Gordon says. “With the same struggles and the same sufferings, the same day-to-day anxieties and insecurities that the rest of the world is going through.”
Shams Charania: Hornets were vying for homecourt advantage this season prior to extended absences for Gordon Hayward and LaMelo Ball, and have upgraded player development under Borrego. Charlotte made Play-In Tournament this month and has young core progressing under staff into next season.
