Gordon Hayward is gone, and the Utah Jazz have to move on
By Ti Windisch
It’s tough for the Jazz that Gordon Hayward left for the Celtics. It’s really tough for the fans who experienced a glimmer of hope when the report that Hayward chose Boston was refuted.
For those brief few hours, anything was possible. Maybe Hayward, upset that the Celtics leaked his choice, would come home. Maybe Rudy Gobert, Ricky Rubio and company would show up at his house and barricade him in with a chair, and give him the DeAndre Jordan treatment. Alas, it was not to be. With his copy approved by Derek Jeter and published on The Players’ Tribune, Hayward became a Celtic. (Not really, not yet, as there are salary cap things and a potential sign-and-trade to be worked out, but soon enough it will be official.)
Jazz fans are upset, Celtics fans are ecstatic and a very strong anti-Hayward narrative has quickly built outside of Boston. Utah needs to move on, however, as does their fanbase. Take a breath, remember the good times. Burn a jersey if you must. Then let’s get back to business.
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Here are a few hard truths that explain why Hayward is gone and why everyone needs to reconcile with the situation. The first is that in seven seasons in Utah, Hayward made the playoffs two times. Five straight times before this past season, Hayward played for a lottery team. Additionally, the Jazz aren’t in a fantastic spot moving forward. They are in the Western Conference, which got impossibly better this summer with Paul George, Jimmy Butler and Paul Millsap all coming West. Despite how good the Jazz were last season, there’s real reason to believe they would win less games this season, even with Hayward.
Making playing in the West even less desirable is the fact that Utah’s best non-Hayward player, Rudy Gobert, is a center who is incredibly effective around the basket and who becomes exponentially less effective the farther he moves from it on both ends of the floor. Teams who can stretch the floor by playing five shooters — primarily but not exclusively the Warriors — can make life very difficult for Gobert, and thus for the entire Jazz team. Gobert is a fantastic player but he may limit Utah’s ceiling against the Warriors, who Utah would likely have to get through if they were going to improve on their finish from last season.
Hayward, in choosing the Celtics, picked a team with exactly zero of these problems. The Celtics have been to the lottery once in the last decade, were the top seed in the East last season even before it got weaker and start a center in Al Horford who can shoot 3s and guard somewhat effectively away from the rim. Plus the Celtics have a ton of assets, more than any team in the NBA with the possible exception of the 76ers. Really, Boston had to be one of the most desirable destinations of the summer.
Now, onto the Jazz.
With Hayward, Utah was not truly a contender. The Jazz were good to be sure, but they couldn’t compete with the Warriors after a nice series win over the Clippers. Everybody liked the Jazz, but it’s a good thought experiment to wonder how much of that was due to the novelty of a unit that had never been to the postseason together finally making it there after years of setbacks for one reason or another.
Still, without Hayward the Jazz are undoubtably worse than they were with him. That’s what happens when an All-Star leaves town on almost every occasion.
Fortunately for the Jazz, there is a road map to dealing with this kind of situation. Kevin Durant, who is far and away better than Hayward, left the Thunder last summer. Roughly one year later, they traded for Paul George and paired him with the reigning league MVP, Russell Westbrook, on a team that will also include Steven Adams, Patrick Patterson and Andre Roberson. Even without Durant, the Thunder have life.
The Jazz don’t have a Westbrook, but they do have Gobert, a bevy of young wings now including Donovan Mitchell, a like-new Rubio and one of the best coaches in the NBA in Quin Snyder. This isn’t a true rebuilding situation, but it is a chance for the Jazz to retool and stage a comeback, albeit on a slightly longer timeline than they had hoped.
Much like the Thunder trading away Serge Ibaka for some interesting assets, the Jazz have a power forward they’d like to move in Derrick Favors. The Thunder actually flipped the assets obtained in the Ibaka trade to the Pacers in exchange for George just one summer later. Every move matters. Gobert, who just turned 25 on June 26 and is about to begin the first year of his four-year contract extension, has a lot of mileage yet in front of him. If the Jazz can keep putting good pieces around him, this team can remain competitive.
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Something will have to break the Jazz’s way for them to be any better than good, but such was the case when Hayward was on the team, too. As much as it sucks for Jazz fans to lose one of their favorites, that’s just part of the NBA. Teams can deal players whenever they want, and players can choose their destination in free agency when that time comes around.
Hayward made a choice, and now he’s gone. The good news for Utah is that they may not have dropped as far as it appears. Get back up on that horse and start playing some smothering defense again.