Lets say Hayward walks.. How can they best damage control it?

[Game6Conley]

Lets also presume a few more things;

-Rudy gets a 5-year extension signed after the Olympics.

-The Jazz have a successful(injury-free) but unspectacular(In the grand scheme of the NBA) season, and lose in the 1st round.

-George Hill puts up George Hill type of stats.

-Exum shows promise/progress but it's not glaringly obvious that he's ready to lead the squad.

-Hood continues on his upward trajectory (Same for Lyles but it's not much of a consequence to this).

-Snyder proves to be worth every penny they're paying him.




Now Hayward's obviously a key cog, but I'm of the opinion that him walking wouldn't be a crippling blow to all of the momentum the FO has built.. If the right reactionary moves are made.. One might say Joe Johnson on a 2 year deal is a bit of a hedge for if this happens. With Hood, Johnson, Burks 2 first rd picks and of course the cap space left by Hayward it's certainly plausible they could field a playoff worthy backcourt with the obvious playoff worthy frontcourt thats in place.

That cap space must be spent immediately to entice Favors not to walk the next summer.. There's no hitting the breaks now, this is how the game is set for Utah in the next 2 seasons. Thats why this is threadworthy in my mind.

I have a plan, specifically one player they should offer the max, that I kinda think is the best course of action. I wanna hear what y'all think first though.

 

[VINYLONE]

If Hayward walks, I am confident enough in DL that he will know that Hayward is leaning towards walking and ends up trading him. The move will NOT be reactionary but preemptive.

 

[Dr. Jones]

If Hayward walks, I am confident enough in DL that he will know that Hayward is leaning towards walking and ends up trading him. The move will NOT be reactionary but preemptive.

I tend to agree... but time is ticking. Big time.

 

[Game6Conley]

If Hayward walks, I am confident enough in DL that he will know that Hayward is leaning towards walking and ends up trading him. The move will NOT be reactionary but preemptive.

So you think that if the team is on track to make the playoffs, D Lindsey will still pull the trigger on a Hayward deal to ensure his value is with the Jazz next season in some form?

That doesn't seem to add up if ya ask me. This is also going to be a difficult year to try and pry top draft picks in return and with the mix of old and new salary cap contracts, I'd have to say these aren't ideal conditions to extract value..

Jazz fans will be bloodthirsty for a playoff spot, I say given those circumstances the FO will let the team ride out, let the chips fall where they may, and then make decisions/tweaks in the offseason.

 

[8]

If Hayward walks, I am confident enough in DL that he will know that Hayward is leaning towards walking and ends up trading him. The move will NOT be reactionary but preemptive.

I really doubt this will happen. I don't think there's any way DL is gonna know what Hayward will do. In fact, Hayward seems like a pretty reasonable guy, and I assume he still doesn't have any idea what he will do. I'm sure he'll wait until that time comes to figure it out and make the best decision for himself.

I don't think DL is gonna trade the best player on the team on a hunch because this the best Jazz team on paper since DWill was on the team.

In response to the OP, it'd be a bummer if Hayward walked, but I don't think it'd too bad considering how the team is structured. They haven't gone all-in to quickly contend, or been uber patient in a massive rebuilding process (maybe they've kinda done this a little in the past few years). I think once this season has finished they'll evaluate things and decide which way to move - either a promising season leads them to be more aggressive and try more win now moves, or a disappointing season might cause them to pump the *brakes a little, maintain flexibility, and focus on building a stronger foundation for their team to be competitive.

So, in short, I don't think it will be the end of the world if Hayward left because of the way the team is constructed. The strength of its construction imo is its ability to adapt to whatever situation comes its way. Sure, the Jazz will be worse without Hayward, but the organization shouldn't go very far backwards if they do at all.

 

[Game6Conley]

I tend to agree... but time is ticking. Big time.

If only John Wall was actually gettable in a Hayward trade... That'd be such a powermove considering his contract.

 

[Game6Conley]

I've come to the conclusion that the top priority move is to roll out the red carpets for (future HOF'er) Chris Paul on a 1-2 year max deal with a player option. Blake Griffin can opt out, which means Paul will be in play, looking for something less stale.. Utah can offer a talent laden team thats tailor-made for his style of play.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P5uCYJS-PTw

He'd be able to bring out the best in some of our players immediately he played his best ball(robbed of the MVP) next to Tyson Chandler and Rudy's better, he'd make it much easier for Hood to transition into the #1 scoring option. He'd also be great at feeding Favors(and keeping him around) and obviously he's a perfect mentor for Exum..

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EmAasJcOssk


CP3's got a legit chance to lead the troops deep into the playoffs immediately, I really think the squad would be live as ****... I'm not sure if he's the type to concede and take a pay cut to form some super team either, he's a HOF'er with 0 championships, this move makes basketball sense, he can lead this squad deep into the playoffs, I'm certain of it. This is a great spot for his last hurrah as a max player.

CP3 - Burks - Hood - Favors - Gobert
Exum - 1st rd pick/(FA or Hill)- Johnson - Lyles - Withey re-signed/backup C/Diaw's option picked up/anything but Pleiss/1st rd pick?
Neto and they've got plenty of 2nd rd picks and vet minimum options to fill in the rest..

A wing defender would be necessary, but theres many avenues they could go for that.

They could also dump a salary or 2 and go after another big name.. It's plausible.. People will hate this idea because it's not the Jazz team they envision, this is a part of staying flexible though.

This leaves room for Favors to get market-value 2 summers from now, and then they can match any deals on Hood and Exum to go over the cap..

 

[Dr. Jones]

If only John Wall was actually gettable in a Hayward trade... That'd be such a powermove considering his contract.

I consider Wall one of those "ungettable" guys.

 

[FalseFlagg K]

Isn't he a little too ball dominant for the style of play Q is running ?

 

[Game6Conley]

I consider Wall one of those "ungettable" guys.

On that contract he's totally not gettable whatsoever. Hayward, Hill plus 1st round picks wouldn't get it done.

 

[Game6Conley]

Isn't he a little too ball dominant for the style of play Q is running ?

Chris Paul would be a monster in this system, his anticipation would constantly be on display.. He'd spearhead the defense and infuse a junk yard dog attitude that the team already has upfront..

Paul being ball dominant is inconsequential, there's no one on the court who deserves to have the ball more than him -- he gets players the ball in positions to succeed.

It's about countering Golden State, we've got the frontcourt in place to cause them issues already.. Minus Hayward, CP3 is how the backcourt can hang...

This is a good spot for him to ease up a bit, and lengthen his prime, instead of doing everything like the Clippers ask of him. Favors isn't Blake Griffin but he's damn good. Hood's 3pt shooting is the key. Burks is as good of a slasher as you could ask for, who also can pass and shoot, He and Hood both are capable of near 20ppg IMO. The 3 of them would be rather interchangeable defensively.


I assure you, you can look at ****loads of different scenarios but this is the best. This still leaves wiggle room for the FO to make great value signings to fill out the roster and they can continue to look for gems in the draft without much of a need in mind (one of the 1st rd picks should be a wing of some sort)

 

[green]

If Haywards walks, then you blow it up and start over again...sort of.

You trade Favors for the best you can get. You build around Exum and Gobert and maybe Hood. UNLESS Exum blows up. Then Exum steps into Hayward's role.

BUT, if Exum blew up, Hayward wouldn't leave.

If we end up 4 or 5, Hayward isn't going anywhere. Especially if Exum shows glimpses of an all star future.

 

[green]

Chris Paul would be a monster in this system, his anticipation would constantly be on display.. He'd spearhead the defense and infuse a junk yard dog attitude that the team already has upfront..

Paul being ball dominant is inconsequential, there's no one on the court who deserves to have the ball more than him -- he gets players the ball in positions to succeed.

It's about countering Golden State, we've got the frontcourt in place to cause them issues already.. Minus Hayward, CP3 is how the backcourt can hang...

This is a good spot for him to ease up a bit, and lengthen his prime, instead of doing everything like the Clippers ask of him. Favors isn't Blake Griffin but he's damn good. Hood's 3pt shooting is the key. Burks is as good of a slasher as you could ask for, who also can pass and shoot, He and Hood both are capable of near 20ppg IMO. The 3 of them would be rather interchangeable defensively.


I assure you, you can look at ****loads of different scenarios but this is the best. This still leaves wiggle room for the FO to make great value signings to fill out the roster and they can continue to look for gems in the draft without much of a need in mind (one of the 1st rd picks should be a wing of some sort)

Lindsey's all in on Exum. We won't go for any type of starting level PG. It's why they traded for Hill over Teague.

 

[SCS]

They shouldn't let it get to that point. And the crippling move would be to pay him the max. He's a 3rd or 4th best option on a championship contender and we have NONE of our core locked up long term. Re-signing him would probably cost us multiple other pieces of our core and/or kill all financial/roster flexibility that could be used in obtaining the player(s) that can put the bulk of this core into championship contention. Re-signing Hayward is not a championship winning path. Which is why I've been advocating a Hayward trade all off-season. DL has done a great job in the asset acquisition portion of this rebuild. The foundation of certain key pieces going forward is there. Now the key is to keep flexibility and as many of the assets as possible until the opportunity arises to get that star player to carry those key pieces to a championship level. Moving Hayward for good assets allows you to do that. Let's say they move him to Boston for example which I think would be a perfect trading partner because they have great assets and are dying for a player like Hayward right now. The best piece they could get back would be Brooklyn's 2017 1st rounder, likely a top 3-5 pick (could easily be #1), in a loaded draft.

Let's look at our future with that deal...
2017- Rudy is a free agent. They could easily sign him to the max, no issues.
The player selected with Brooklyn's pick would be under contract until 2021.
Decisions will need to be made on George Hill, Shelvin Mack, Boris Diaw, Joe Ingles and Tibor Pleiss. They will have room to keep any if they want too.

2018- Favors, Exum, Hood and Joe Johnson will all be free agents. If we kept Hayward, we would be in cap hell at this point. Weighing our options between likely going over the luxury tax or maybe letting one or two of these guys walk. But with that money available we have options. It's possible Favors, Hood and Exum could all be kept. Especially if we have found our star by then (whether that star be someone on the team already who broke out, the Brooklyn pick, or someone acquired via free agency or trade)

2019- Lyles and Burks will be free agents. It becomes hard to speculate what the team will look like at this point. But this path is much stronger than the one re-signing Hayward would be. It opens the door to keeping the bulk of our core. Gobert, Hood, Exum and Favors and/or Lyles could all be kept. Assets are maintained. Roster flexibility is kept. Financial flexibility is kept. We stay a solid team. And the organization buys itself precious time (2-3 years) to see if any of these young guys Hood, Exum, Lyles, Gobert or maybe the Brooklyn pick breaks out and carries us to another level. Time is everything. THIS is a possible championship path.

 

[FalseFlagg K]

They shouldn't let it get to that point. And the crippling move would be to pay him the max. He's a 3rd or 4th best option on a championship contender and we have NONE of our core locked up long term. Re-signing him would probably cost us multiple other pieces of our core and/or kill all financial/roster flexibility that could be used in obtaining the player(s) that can put the bulk of this core into championship contention. Re-signing Hayward is not a championship winning path. Which is why I've been advocating a Hayward trade all off-season. DL has done a great job in the asset acquisition portion of this rebuild. The foundation of certain key pieces going forward is there. Now the key is to keep flexibility and as many of the assets as possible until the opportunity arises to get that star player to carry those key pieces to a championship level. Moving Hayward for good assets allows you to do that. Let's say they move him to Boston for example which I think would be a perfect trading partner because they have great assets and are dying for a player like Hayward right now. The best piece they could get back would be Brooklyn's 2017 1st rounder, likely a top 3-5 pick (could easily be #1), in a loaded draft.

Let's look at our future with that deal...
2017- Rudy is a free agent. They could easily sign him to the max, no issues.
The player selected with Brooklyn's pick would be under contract until 2021.
Decisions will need to be made on George Hill, Shelvin Mack, Boris Diaw, Joe Ingles and Tibor Pleiss. They will have room to keep any if they want too.

2018- Favors, Exum, Hood and Joe Johnson will all be free agents. If we kept Hayward, we would be in cap hell at this point. Weighing our options between likely going over the luxury tax or maybe letting one or two of these guys walk. But with that money available we have options. It's possible Favors, Hood and Exum could all be kept. Especially if we have found our star by then (whether that star be someone on the team already who broke out, the Brooklyn pick, or someone acquired via free agency or trade)

2019- Lyles and Burks will be free agents. It becomes hard to speculate what the team will look like at this point. But this path is much stronger than the one re-signing Hayward would be. It opens the door to keeping the bulk of our core. Gobert, Hood, Exum and Favors and/or Lyles could all be kept. Assets are maintained. Roster flexibility is kept. Financial flexibility is kept. We stay a solid team. And the organization buys itself precious time (2-3 years) to see if any of these young guys Hood, Exum, Lyles, Gobert or maybe the Brooklyn pick breaks out and carries us to another level. Time is everything. THIS is a possible championship path.

So you're happy to just wait 3 more years to see if a star is born ..

 

[green]

You can't trade Hayward for anything even coming close to his value. He's been playing out of position for years now. He's better than we give him credit for, which is incredibly ironic, because we over-rate every other Jazz player. Gobert, Hood, Burks...all worse than we give them credit for. Yet, we treat Hayward like he is some role player.

Ha ha.

You don't trade away players who average an eyelash under 20 points and have no issues with Utah. That's crazy talk. You do everything you can to make him happy.

 

[SCS]

So you're happy to just wait 3 more years to see if a star is born ..

If it means a chance at a championship, YES. Hayward on a max deal does NOT help us get any closer to a title. At all.

 

[Game6Conley]

Lindsey's all in on Exum. We won't go for any type of starting level PG. It's why they traded for Hill over Teague.

I refuse to believe that. I'd have to say that'd be negligent and it's just posturing.

This figures to be the most legendary PG draft ever seen, no way Lindsey is turning a blind eye to other options just because of Exum.

 

[Game6Conley]

If Haywards walks, then you blow it up and start over again...sort of.

You trade Favors for the best you can get. You build around Exum and Gobert and maybe Hood. UNLESS Exum blows up. Then Exum steps into Hayward's role.

BUT, if Exum blew up, Hayward wouldn't leave.

If we end up 4 or 5, Hayward isn't going anywhere. Especially if Exum shows glimpses of an all star future.

Does this scenario involve firing Lindsey? He's just going to be here snowballing young assets and missing the playoffs?

 

[Game6Conley]

They shouldn't let it get to that point. And the crippling move would be to pay him the max. He's a 3rd or 4th best option on a championship contender and we have NONE of our core locked up long term. Re-signing him would probably cost us multiple other pieces of our core and/or kill all financial/roster flexibility that could be used in obtaining the player(s) that can put the bulk of this core into championship contention. Re-signing Hayward is not a championship winning path. Which is why I've been advocating a Hayward trade all off-season. DL has done a great job in the asset acquisition portion of this rebuild. The foundation of certain key pieces going forward is there. Now the key is to keep flexibility and as many of the assets as possible until the opportunity arises to get that star player to carry those key pieces to a championship level. Moving Hayward for good assets allows you to do that. Let's say they move him to Boston for example which I think would be a perfect trading partner because they have great assets and are dying for a player like Hayward right now. The best piece they could get back would be Brooklyn's 2017 1st rounder, likely a top 3-5 pick (could easily be #1), in a loaded draft.

Let's look at our future with that deal...
2017- Rudy is a free agent. They could easily sign him to the max, no issues.
The player selected with Brooklyn's pick would be under contract until 2021.
Decisions will need to be made on George Hill, Shelvin Mack, Boris Diaw, Joe Ingles and Tibor Pleiss. They will have room to keep any if they want too.

2018- Favors, Exum, Hood and Joe Johnson will all be free agents. If we kept Hayward, we would be in cap hell at this point. Weighing our options between likely going over the luxury tax or maybe letting one or two of these guys walk. But with that money available we have options. It's possible Favors, Hood and Exum could all be kept. Especially if we have found our star by then (whether that star be someone on the team already who broke out, the Brooklyn pick, or someone acquired via free agency or trade)

2019- Lyles and Burks will be free agents. It becomes hard to speculate what the team will look like at this point. But this path is much stronger than the one re-signing Hayward would be. It opens the door to keeping the bulk of our core. Gobert, Hood, Exum and Favors and/or Lyles could all be kept. Assets are maintained. Roster flexibility is kept. Financial flexibility is kept. We stay a solid team. And the organization buys itself precious time (2-3 years) to see if any of these young guys Hood, Exum, Lyles, Gobert or maybe the Brooklyn pick breaks out and carries us to another level. Time is everything. THIS is a possible championship path.

Appreciate the response but you must have not read the OP! This isn't about trading Hayward, this is about what to do if he walks!! Also I said to presume Rudy signs an extension after the Olympics.