Jazz Extend Qualifying Offer To Hayward

10:58pm: The Jazz announced their move in a team release (H/T Adi Joseph of USA Today).

10:35pm: The Jazz have extended a qualifying offer to Gordon Hayward, making him a restricted free agent, tweets Tony Jones of The Salt Lake Tribune. The move was expected, and gives Utah the ability to match any offers for the small forward. The team has maintained their confidence in bringing back the former No. 9 pick, and still intend to re-sign Hayward per a tweet from Jody Genessy of Deseret News.

There is mutual interest for Hayward to stay in Utah for the long run, as we detailed in his free agent stock watch post. The Priority Sports & Entertainment client came in sixth in our most recent free agent power rankings, and is sure to generate plenty of interest on the open market. Hayward averaged a career high 16.2 PPG, 5.1 RPG, and 5.2 APG this season, but it came in a year that he experienced by far the most losing as a pro, as the Jazz went just 25-57.

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