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

[akirac73]

My personal damage control plan should Hayward leave:
1. Facepalm
2. Go to Jazzfanz and watch the epic meltdown
3. Eat a Snickers
4. Continue being a Jazz fan

 

[Lakers_Slapper]

The jazz roster was just recently ranked with the #5 best starting line-up in the league and the #1 bench in the league.
DL must be doing something right. He earned the respect of the national media at least.

Earning respect of the national media? How many championships does that earn you? Its very easy to rank a team before they play a single game in their 82 game long season. I don't care who is ranked 1st or 2nd. You obviously buy into media hyperbole. I buy into results. That's the difference between a young kid and a grown man. Look at Golden State all season long. Everyone buying in to the media Hype, and they not only fell short. They blew a 3-1 series lead! Buy into all the hype you want little boy. When your basketballs drop you will then be able to think with a straight mind.

 

[fishonjazz]

Earning respect of the national media? How many championships does that earn you? Its very easy to rank a team before they play a single game in their 82 game long season. I don't care who is ranked 1st or 2nd. You obviously buy into media hyperbole. I buy into results. That's the difference between a young kid and a grown man. Look at Golden State all season long. Everyone buying in to the media Hype, and they not only fell short. They blew a 3-1 series lead! Buy into all the hype you want little boy. When your basketballs drop you will then be able to think with a straight mind.

Ya golden state ended up sucking last year. Let's hope the jazz don't suck as bad as they did.
Dummy

 

[MTS]

Hayward is the type of player that is never in a million years going to turn down a 5 year max.

Basically the list of guys you can get in free agency if their team wants to keep them is a handful. No one is turning down a 5 year max and no agent is ever going to advise it.

 

[Stifle Tower]

Hayward ain't leaving guys... Just ain't happening. We can offer him the most money...

We won't be able to keep the whole crew together for more than a year or two but likely other parts are moved... Not Hayward.

This is the crux of my argument. Just because we CAN doesn't mean we should. Keeping Hayward at $30m will mean 1-2 of the other "core" players will need to be moved. And/or our depth gets shot to hell. Hayward just isn't a franchise player. Take that $30m and invest in 2-3 very good players and use Jazz' plethora of draft picks on wings. Will any be as good as Gordon? No, not initially. But is the team better if by paying Gordon, Utah has to lose Favors and Hood, for example.

 

[Jazz4ever]

This is the crux of my argument. Just because we CAN doesn't mean we should. Keeping Hayward at $30m will mean 1-2 of the other "core" players will need to be moved. And/or our depth gets shot to hell. Hayward just isn't a franchise player. Take that $30m and invest in 2-3 very good players and use Jazz' plethora of draft picks on wings. Will any be as good as Gordon? No, not initially. But is the team better if by paying Gordon, Utah has to lose Favors and Hood, for example.

They revised the cap down next year. I think that dispels any chance the Jazz will not offer him a 5 year max. The new CBA also will hit in 2017-2018 and will probably boost future max contracts as well, people tend to forget about that. The players union certainly aren't opting out for a worse deal, so having Hayward, Gobert, and Favors locked down prior to that could be big.

 

[SCS]

They revised the cap down next year. I think that dispels any chance the Jazz will not offer him a 5 year max. The new CBA also will hit in 2017-2018 and will probably boost future max contracts as well, people tend to forget about that. The players union certainly aren't opting out for a worse deal, so having Hayward, Gobert, and Favors locked down prior to that could be big.

I think everyone is aware that the Jazz will almost certainly offer Hayward the max. The argument [MENTION=345]Stifle Tower[/MENTION] has, and the argument I have as well, is SHOULD they. I don't think they should. Hayward is not a franchise player. Keeping him at the cost of losing other young pieces of our core AND losing financial flexibility long-term gets us nowhere.

 

[Miggs]

If we traded him to Boston for their Nets pick this season (don't think Boston would do this though), we could draft the stud 3 going to Duke. Kid is gonna be so good.

 

[silesian]

Earning respect of the national media? How many championships does that earn you? Its very easy to rank a team before they play a single game in their 82 game long season. I don't care who is ranked 1st or 2nd. You obviously buy into media hyperbole. I buy into results. That's the difference between a young kid and a grown man. Look at Golden State all season long. Everyone buying in to the media Hype, and they not only fell short. They blew a 3-1 series lead! Buy into all the hype you want little boy. When your basketballs drop you will then be able to think with a straight mind.

Worst. post. ever.

You blame the media for being excited about the best regular season record of all time. LOL.

 

[silesian]

I think everyone is aware that the Jazz will almost certainly offer Hayward the max. The argument [MENTION=345]Stifle Tower[/MENTION] has, and the argument I have as well, is SHOULD they. I don't think they should. Hayward is not a franchise player. Keeping him at the cost of losing other young pieces of our core AND losing financial flexibility long-term gets us nowhere.

teams will have 2-3 max contracts. You don't think Hayward is one of the top 60 players in the league? Come on, get serious. He will get a max and deserves one. For goodness sake, you can't sit around saving your max money hoping for Lebron or Durant to come knocking.

 

[SCS]

teams will have 2-3 max contracts. You don't think Hayward is one of the top 60 players in the league? Come on, get serious. He will get a max and deserves one. For goodness sake, you can't sit around saving your max money hoping for Lebron or Durant to come knocking.

Everything comes down to situation. If the Jazz were just starting a rebuild and had little talent on their team, I would pay Hayward the max. His contract wouldn't hurt the long-term plans and he would ease the rebuild because he's a young veteran with talent. If the Jazz had one or two established stars on long-term deals, were in title contention, and had little cap space, I would again pay Hayward the max. BUT, in the current situation I would NOT pay him the max. We are at a point in building this team that if we want to win a championship we need to hold as many assets and as much financial flexibility as possible until a trade/FA signing presents itself that can take most of this young team to the next level. We can't do that if we sign Hayward to the max. What do we do after Hayward signs? Let Hood (a player who has the same potential ability as Hayward) and Favors walk? We need to pay Gobert as well, likely the max. So where does a team of Gobert, Hayward, and couple of other guys get you? First or second round every year? Or do we exercise bird rights on the guys we can and go over the tax to keep most of this team together? Can this current group ever become a championship team? See the problem? If you sign Hayward now you lose assets, financial flexibility, or both. Hayward is a good player but does he move the needle so much that you risk everything on keeping him?

If Hayward were moved for good assets there is a possibility the Jazz can keep all of their other young assets without financial strain. You keep assets, you keep flexibility, and you are still a damn good team. Hood can become a similar player to Hayward, he's shown that.

 

[Kyoto]

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.

Losing Hayward at the end of next season would be a blow to the team, no doubt about it. I on the other hand don't consider him a leader or even our most valuable player. If the Jazz FO has a hint that he may leave at the end of the season, then they should consider options like a trade before the end of the season. Trey Lyles isn't a perfect fit for being a small forward, but the extra playing time would give him significant growth if he were to step in starting. My view is that he is a good player, that's a given, but if keeping him and paying him a ton of money makes us lose Rudy, then I would cut ties with him.