Should vet with ties to Brad Stevens get bought out, Boston Celtics must pursue

The Charlotte Hornets seem to be heading into a rebuilding mode — and with that, the possibility for veteran and former All-Star Gordon Hayward to be bought out of his contract is on the table, should the franchise not find a new home for the 2017 Boston Celtics offseason splash.

Hayward has been a fine hand for the Hornets this season, but it’s unclear if teams would be willing to part within the ballpark of $31.5 million in salary to land him.

That makes him a very attractive option on the buyout market.

If Hayward were to become available, it would make perfect sense for Brad Stevens and the Celtics front office to pick him up at a major discount. If Boston were to able to steal a player like Hayward at clearance value, it’d put them over the top in the Eastern Conference; particularly given what we’ve seen from the potentially historically great starting five.

No. 20 can be the key leader of the second unit for the Cs, and if they can gain a second unit spark while Jayson Tatum and Jaylen Brown need a break they’ll become virtually unstoppable.

Right now the Celtics are very much in the mix to win the NBA Championship. If they can shore up their second unit, that just increases their odds even more. As of right now, Boston needs to make sure that if Hayward does end up on the buyout market, they do everything in their power to bring him back for a second stint; this time in a more appropriate role and with more reasonable expectations.

It’ll be up to Stevens to get his former Butler commit and Celtics starter/sixth man from 2017-2020 to sign up for a third go-around with his team.