The Jazz saw Gordon Hayward walk away after the 2016/17 campaign but he wasn’t the only star the team had an eye on that offseason. Utah spoke with Kyle Lowry‘s representatives during the summer of 2017 and the organization felt confident that it could sign Lowry, sources tell Andy Larsen and Eric Walden of The Salt Lake Tribune.
The front office decided to pull out of the Lowry sweepstakes because signing the point guard would have required the team to use the cap space it had planned to use for Hayward. Lowry ended up re-signing with Toronto on a three-year pact.
Here’s more from the Western Conference:
- The Jazz also had interest in Otto Porter and Danilo Gallinari during the 2017 offseason, Larsen and Walden detail in the same piece. Both players signed with other teams while Utah was waiting on Hayward’s decision.
- One league executive tells Marc Stein of The New York Times that he expects Robert Covington and Dario Saric to mesh well with Karl-Anthony Towns and Andrew Wiggins. Stein adds that the Timberwolves would have likely been better off long-term with the Josh Richardson offer from Miami.
- With Carmelo Anthony‘s future in Houston up in the air, Kelly Iko of The Athletic revisits the decision to sign him in the first place, citing sources who say that there were players and members of the Rockets organization who were “wary of what his arrival would bring.”
Stein says Miami’s offer was better. It doesn’t matter because that offer was pulled, but, an HR poll might clear up the merits of the what-ifs!
Wow, Hayward did really screw the Jazz, he must have hate them a lot, the way he left so they couldn’t get anything for him, not telling them so they couldn’t really push for Lowry, Gallo or OPJ… man my opinion of this guy has definitely changed, don’t think he is a very nice guy… anyway if I was a Utah fan, I would have been there wooing him, as he sooo much deserves, not playing nice Gordon.
Hayward got booed. So did George, Kyrie, LeBron the first time, Kawhi will be too. I agree with what Kyrie, Kawhi, Bledsoe, and Jimmy did. They were looking out for the city, team, and themselves. Like Kevin Pritchard says “I’ll take a bunch of $12mm guys over a $30mm guy any day. When the $30mm guys leave, they set you back 3 or more years.”
When LeBron left this time they took down a mural of him on the side of the building, and replaced it with a mural of LeBron with his back turned, showing he stabbed everyone in the back. At one time I thought he was staying in Cleveland. Like the Cleveland Plain Dealer reported when he left, that he had told everyone 4 times he was staying, and displayed the quotes.
No one wants to go to places like Utah to play that’s just the bottom line , add them to a group of LeBronless Cavs , Sacramento ,Charlotte & Seattle
Oh that’s right they lost their team ..
Lol you’re cool with all those guys changing teams except LeBron of course.
Yeah no doubt that was a wack move. He was talking all that trash about how he loved Utah n stuff too if I remember correctly. Ring chasing in all the wrong ways. He had a cool run with Butler that one year but I’ve never been a fan.
Like you know Gordon lmao
I’ve always thought Heyward was a punk , guess this confirms that.
that’s racist.
Haha I’m a 26 yr old white male from British Columbia, Canada but ok bro
You dont know jack.
Why is Heyward a punk for taking his time to make his FA decision. It’s not as though he told the Jazz he was 100% resigning, and then left. If the Jazz had opportunities to sign other quality players and held back hoping that Heyward would stay, that’s on them.
It’s no different then when Bosh left Toronto to head to Miami. Going into the trade deadline before his free agency, he told the Raptors he wouldn’t commit to signing, but also said that he may stay, and would prefer not to be dealt. The Raps hoped he would stay, but knew there was a real possibility that he would leave. They held on to him and lost him for nothing. If they deal him at the deadline and get assets for him, they protect their franchise. Utah could have done the same.
Danny Ainge could also wake up this morning and decide, though Gordon has made a long term commitment to the C’s, he wants to have him dealt by day’s end. On the 5PM ESPN news we could hear that Heyward has been dealt to Sacramento for WCS, Bogs, salary filler and picks. C’s wouldn’t feel like they need to let GH play out his deal just because they signed him to it.
Heyward did nothing wrong, fans need to suck it up and learn to live with these things.
Wow that’s a great trade idea. The Celtics need some size and I know Danny would re-sign Cauley-Stein immediately, plus Bogdanovic? Dude that’s a major steal for the Celtics. No disrespect to Hayward who I think is still really good, he just isn’t fitting in with the Celtics for whatever reason. Maybe a fresh start with the Kings would help elevate his game, he would slot in perfectly at the 3 since the Kings have no legit small-forward also.
I mentioned before with Hayward is not about not meshing, he isn’t at 100%. After his injury it will take him until about April time to get back on top shape, so he will be great for the playoffs, but not so good for the RS, it usually it takes about half the time of the severe injury to recover totally, if you ever do. He was out 1 year, it will take him six months from October to get on top of his game (if he ever does)
Hayward is well within his rights to look out for himself, even if it hurts his former team. However, the fans are also within their rights to hold a grudge.
You’d think that a guy who spent years working at a job would have the decency to make up his mind as quickly as possible, if for no other reason than respect. But I guess that’s not how it’s supposed to work?
I agree that it’s no different from Bosh… except that both situations were bad.
I’m glad players get to do what they want, and at least some of the blame needs to rest with ownership and GMs as well, but fans were wronged by how Bosh and Hayward handled things.
While Jimmy Butler’s trade request saga was more than a gong show, at least he was upfront with management (and fans) and gave them a chance to improve their team before he left.
A lotttttt different than Bosh’s situation , the raps were going nowhere and knew he wanted to leave and go win, no raptors fan was mad he left. They certainly didn’t have offers on the table for multiple guys, weren’t left in limbo while he “made his decision”
I honestly do not know any Raptors fans that weren’t mad when Bosh left. Zero.
I see you’re from BC, so maybe it played out differently on the west coast than it did in Toronto. But the BC fans I know were also unhappy about things.
Bosh left the Raptors high and dry after inferring that he was going to resign (and then refusing to play with a face mask going into free agency).
He was billed as the next Vince, the franchise changing guy, which he wasn’t. And he clearly didn’t want to be there anymore. Maybe it’s just me, but I wasn’t mad.
He was solid! Don’t get me wrong! I thought he was better suited as the 3rd option on that original big 3 anyways. I kinda just rolled my eyes and went “whatever” when that stuff was going on and his departure was imminent and inevitable