1 contract every NBA team would want back
By Ian Levy
Charlotte Hornets: Gordon Hayward
To be clear, Gordon Hayward has not been a disaster. The Hornets acquired him before the 2020-21 season in a sign-and-trade with the Celtics, inking him to a four-year, $120 million deal. He’s been productive in a Hornets’ uniform, averaging 16.6 points, 4.9 rebounds, 3.9 assists per game, shooting 38.1 percent from beyond the arc. The problem is how rarely he’s been in a Hornets uniform and how little his production has mattered to the team’s bottom line.
Hayward has appeared in just 143 of a possible 236 games over the past three seasons, just over 60 percent. And over that same stretch, the Hornets have posted a 0.436 win percentage, missing the playoffs all three times. Hayward’s struggles to stay healthy haven’t been the only issue in Charlotte. But investing $120 million in him was an attempt to go all in on competitiveness with a core of Hayward, Terry Rozier, LaMelo Ball and Miles Bridges and that era has run its course.
It’s not clear that the Hornets would have been better off not signing Hayward three years ago, but if they had a time machine they might like to go back and try something else.