Isaiah Thomas will be present for Celtics free agent sales pitch meeting with Gordon Hayward

The Boston Celtics have their sights sets on Gordon Hayward. Isaiah Thomas will assist the team in their meeting trying to land the star player in Beantown.

Hayward is coming, Hayward is coming, Hayward is coming; at least Celtics fans hope so, anyway. Boston’s first priority this summer has been to land Gordon Hayward. Now the time has come to recruit the Jazz forward to Boston. The Celtics will meet with Hayward Sunday, but one special player will be in the room pitching Hayward to Boston. Point guard Isaiah Thomas will do his best to help the C’s recruit Hayward in free agency.

Adam Himmelsbach of the Boston Globe was the first to report Thomas will be present for the meeting:

Danny Ainge and the Celtics have taken some heat for not landing Jimmy Butler and or Paul George but they simply couldn’t for cap reasons. Trading for Butler or George prior to signing Hayward would have eliminated the Celtics his free agency sweepstakes. Hayward is the team’s top target as they appear to have a great chance of landing him. Hayward would give Boston their second star alongside 29 points per game guard Isaiah Thomas.

The Hayward – Celtics connection makes a ton of sense for many reasons. Brad Stevens, the Celtics head man, coached Hayward at Butler University where the duo made an appearance at a National Title game at a relatively smaller college. Stevens was the first man to ever recruit Hayward so we will soon find out how fondly Hayward views the Celtics head coach.

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If Hayward does ink a max deal with Boston, he will be set to earn $29.7 million annually. Because he did not make an All-NBA team in the past, Hayward was not eligible for a supermax deal, meaning Utah lost a big financial advantage. The Jazz and Heat appear to be the Celtics biggest competitors in this free agency sweepstakes.