Miami Will Get The First Meeting With NBA Free Agency’s Biggest Prize

Gordon Hayward will be the top free agent on the market when NBA free agency begins in earnest at 12:01 a.m. ET on Saturday, July 1. The Jazz swingman will be highly coveted as the best wing player available to be signed as the NBA arms race to try and keep up with the Warriors ramps up.

There are three teams at the top of Hayward’s free agency list, and all three will get their chance to pitch the Utah star on why his future should be with them. Those three teams are the Boston Celtics, Miami Heat, and Utah Jazz. The Jazz’s meeting with Hayward will be on Monday, as the home team will look to remind Hayward why staying in Utah is his best course of action — and show him the piles of cash he can make there.

The Heat and Celtics will also get their chance to make an impression on him, with Miami as the destination location with a team on the brink of playoff contention and the Celtics being home to Hayward’s former college coach and a team coming off of a 60-win season a year ago.

According to ESPN’s Marc Stein, the order of business for Hayward this weekend will be: Miami, Boston, Utah.

I can’t decide if Miami or Utah has the edge here, but the Celtics being sandwiched in between probably isn’t the ideal situation. Miami will hope that the weather is great on Saturday and that they can convince Hayward that the sandy beaches and lack of income tax are more valuable than returning to or joining a team with a better chance of competing in the immediate future. Utah, meanwhile, gets the home team advantage of getting the last meeting and having the last word in person with Hayward, at least of the initial meetings, to try and convince him to stay home.

For Brad Stevens and the Celtics, being in the middle will be a task to overcome, but they can sell winning now and the possibility of creating their own mini-super team if Hayward and Paul George join together this summer.