Trade rumors are out that the Utah Jazz could possibly trade small forward Gordon Hayward to the Miami Heat or Boston Celtics next summer as the team is expected to face "hard financial decisions" at the end of the upcoming season.
The Salt Lake Tribune's Tony Jones reported that Hayward is anticipated to "opt out of the final year of his contract next summer and cash in for max dollars, whether it be with the Jazz, or with another team" and Utah is said to be set to make difficult decisions who among their current crop of young players are they going to invest their future in.
The report noted that it is the "flip side to amassing talent" as young players Derrick Favors and Alec Burks are also about to finish their rookie contracts which mean extension negotiations are about to start as well.
Hayward's intention to become an unrestricted free agent next summer, as the opts out the last year of his four-year, $63 million deal with the Jazz, and negotiate for a maximum salary contract is well-documented and so Jazz general manager Dennis Lindsey "may have some interesting decisions on his hands".
The Jazz traded German center Tibor Pleiss to the Sixers late last month for Kendall Marshall, who was eventually waived five days later, in a salary dump move that report sees as an attempt "to create more cap space".
Jones said that GM Lindsey could "do nothing" with the cap space created and just make it ready for the "financial hit that's sure to come after this season" or he can "wait until the trade deadline and possibly make a move" depending on how the team and the players will perform in midseason.
Meanwhile, Fansided suggested that Hayward's former coach, Celtics' Brad Stevens, could be interested in trading for him before the deadline as well as Heat president Pat Riley, who is still on a lookout for a possible wing replacement for Dwyane Wade, and so these two teams will be an option for Hayward in the future.
The Jazz has "historically been against" going into luxury tax area and so it is expected that they may decide to break up their young core of Hayward, Favors, and Burks if the team will not come up with a financial strategy to keep all of them.
