WALTHAM — The Celtics’ pursuit of Paul George remains essentially as described in Sunday’s Herald, with the club hoping to parlay some of its assets into a trade for the Indiana All-Star while hoping to first reach agreement with free agent Gordon Hayward to make it all fit under the salary cap.
According to multiple sources, the Celts are willing to deal players and draft picks to the Pacers, while retaining the right to the most critical pieces of their future draft arsenal. George can be a free agent at the end of the 2017-18 season, and with Indiana having given no permission to explore whether he’d be amenable to staying beyond that, there is clearly risk involved that would have to be reflected in any trade offer.
While the Celtics can likely provide Indiana with the best return for its rebuilding in George’s absence, Kevin Pritchard, who replaced Larry Bird as head of basketball ops, could choose not to wait for the Celts to get an answer from Hayward and could take another deal. With George having stated through his agent his plan to leave the club after this season, it is imperative the Pacers get something of reasonable (under the circumstances) value for their best player.
The Celtics can begin negotiating with free agents — and reaching verbal agreements — at midnight Friday. Free agents cannot be signed until the moratorium ends on July 6.
The Celts would like to at that point be able to announce the signing of Hayward to what would most likely be a deal with a player option after three years to allow him to sever and step up to a higher level maximum contract.
As for Hayward’s worth, Marcus Smart certainly offered a large endorsement on the first day of his youth camp at Brandeis.
“He’s an awesome player,” the Celtics guard said of Hayward, who averaged 21.9 points for Utah this past season.
“The dude, he understands the game very well, and, you know,” he added with a laugh, “I think it’s ’cause he had Brad (Stevens) as a coach (at Butler).
“But, no, I’m kidding. No, the dude, he’s incredible. He’s a great player. He’s a great guy. I think I speak for a lot of guys in this league when I say that.”
Smart had strong words for George, too.
“You’re talking about a guy that’s an All-Star,” he said. “So, I mean, that guy, just to see the work he’s put in and everything like that, it’s incredible to see what he can do.”
In both the Hayward and George cases, the Celtics will have to sell their club and Boston as a destination.
Smart didn’t hesitate when asked how he’d handle the pitch.
“First off, this fan base is incredible,” he said. “The energy that they give off every night, night in and night out, is remarkable.
“And then playing under Brad, you know, who’s an upcoming coach. He’s understanding the game more and more, and he’s learning, and he’s becoming one of the greatest coaches in this league at this moment right now. You’ve just got to love the things that he’s doing, and I think everybody around the league understands it and that appreciate the work that he puts in, and they see everything that he’s been doing and accomplished.”
For his part, Smart claims he hasn’t been following the rumors and reports of potential moves.
“Actually, no, I really don’t,” he said. “I’ve been working on these camps and really just working on my game, so I’ve really haven’t been paying too much attention to those things, and it’s really out of my control. I leave that to the guys in the front office. Danny (Ainge) and those guys, they’ve been doing this for a lot of years and they understand and they know what they’re doing, so I just leave it to those guys.”
Smart did, however, take full note of Ainge trading the No. 1 overall pick for No. 3 and a future pick and selecting Duke forward Jayson Tatum last Thursday.
“I like it,” he said. “Like I said, Danny’s a magician when it comes to things like this. He’s real good at thinking this one way and then going another way. But he understands and he knows what he wants, and he knows what this team needs. He does a really good job at that, so we just leave those things to Danny.”
When Ainge is finished with his summer work, the Celtics roster is destined to look significantly different than it did last season when the club finished with the first seed in the Eastern Conference and made it to the conference finals before losing to Cleveland, 4-1. Smart knows changes are coming.
“I mean, that’s the uniqueness of the NBA,” he said. “Every year it’s a possibility the guys to your left and right might not be there. So you just know you’ve got to cherish those moments and really never take those moments for granted.”
