It was five o'clock Tuesday afternoon.

Now it's three o'clock Thursday afternoon.

What is going on behind the scenes right now?

Well, I think Step one is pretty obvious, right?

A player option means Gordon Hayward has to opt in if he does nothing.

If that deadline just passes with nothing, no notification to the union, he just becomes a free agent.

And the Celtics, extending that deadline in cooperation with Gordon Hayward and his representatives, suggest to you that Gordon Hayward's preferred outcome is not just the opt in for one year at $34 million to stay with the Celtics.

That doesn't necessarily mean he wants to leave the Celtics.

It just means maybe if he's going to stay, he wants more long term money and every option from whatever today is on the table here and opt in and trade and opt in and trade, and he gets an extension to sign and trade.

I think there's a team or two with cap room who?

He could just walk Thio.

And that's the leverage.

Maybe that he needs to get Boston to cooperate with him.

So I think everything is on the table.

Boston would love to have him back.

I think they would have liked to have him back for just one year.

But I think there's a lot of machinations going on to try and find a long term solution to this, either in Boston or elsewhere.

And there are few teams I think to keep an eye on.

What did the teams you think to keep a nigh on for a possible trade?

Well, for a possible trade, I think I would keep my eye in Indiana.

There was about the Pacers in Gordon Hayward for yeah, there's been buzz about the pace was in Gordon Hayward for a while now and for free agency.

I mean, Atlanta's been rumored.

I'm not sure if that's a stalking horse.

I'd keep my eye on Charlotte, who's got a lot of balls in the air and would like a talent upgrade for next year, particularly on the wing like Gordon Hayward place.

So I think there's a number of teams, and there's certainly gonna be wild card teams.

People kind of forgot because of all the injuries.

Gordon Hayward had a really good season last year.

He's a really good player.

He's still in his prime.

I think there'll be a lot of interest, but those are the main teams I'm looking at.

Excellent sacked.

Thank you so much for dropping by.

We will see you Friday for our free agency special.

That's going to be three hours of fun.

But of course, the draft first tonight.

Alright, guys.

So, Matt, how would you play your cards right now If you were Gordon Hayward?

The fact that he has the decision to either opt in or opt out gives him some leverage in these trade discussions or whether Boston keeps him.

I think Gordon is doing something from a standpoint, and they gave him a lot of money due to a lot of things that was out of his control, mostly injuries.

He wasn't really able to live up to the old golden hey when they thought they were getting so I think he's been a little flexible with them and understanding that Hey, that's a lot of money.

I need some kind of kind of security coming off this injuries.

So but particularly I don't necessarily think Boston is the best fits considering their core.

Their core shoots a lot.

They got a lot of balls up.

So I don't know if there's enough for Gordon Hayward.

And like Zack said, I think that, uh, every year after this injury gonna continue to see Gordon get back to the form he was before, and I really think he'll be able to spread his wings somewhere else.

So, like I said, I think he's working with the team.

But at the end of the day, you know he wants to be able to secure his future and his money as well.

Uh, and I agree with with you with you met on, you know, for the fact of you know, that money is there.

I think if you're gonna opt out of it, you gotta make sure you're gonna get it somewhere else.

And I know there's some teams like Atlanta who has a lot of a lot of money in cap space who could throw the money, who will throw money at him and maybe throw some more money to take him or keep him away from other teams.

So you know, it's it's it's a slippery slope.

I know with the season in the turnaround time, Uh, it's it's very short, particularly for someone like him, who, you know, have time Thio rest and then build his body up to get ready for the season.

I think that's very important on that's something to look at as well.

Yeah, well, he definitely was not 100%.

He got injured in the bubble, missed some time, came back and it seemed pretty clear watching him go up and down the court that he was not his full complete self in that playoff series.

But they needed him to play.

And he did.

Unfortunately for about fans didn't win that one, and we'll see.

Yeah, I don't wanna walk away from $34 million especially after being injured.

For sure.

I mean, look, no one on this panel has said they're gonna walk away from $103 million from $34 million.

I guess these just thes air good problems to have if you're in NBA player.

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