http://nesn.com/2017/03/nba-rumors-pacers-star-paul-george-wants-to-play-with-gordon-hayward/Paul George, back in March, made it known that he'd LOVE to play with Gordon Hayward. You can read more into it in the article above.
Paul George and Gordon Hayward were both also snubbed from All-NBA teams.
Paul George, in the All-Star Game, when asked what player he was most looking forward to seeing during the "festivities",
responded: "Isaiah" Paul George has also, in the last BOS-IND game, admired the Celtics chemistry, and even felt a little jealous about how great it was, and how much in-sync the C's were in that game.
Now you look at today, and the C's drafted Tatum with pick #3. One thing to note is that, even with the cap dropping 2M (from 101M to 99M), going from #1 to #3 actually saved the C's an extra 1.4M in cap space I believe, plus Hayward's projected max went down from 30.3M to 29.7M (correct me if I'm wrong).
The Celtics now have the cap room to acquire Hayward in FA, and you have to think, AFTER July 1, the Celtics could try and go after Paul George. If PG13 really does love the idea of playing with Hayward, and would love to team up with him and much of this core (IT, Horford, Hayward, Brown, Tatum, Bradley/Smart?), we could have a chance, especially with his price not being absurdly big, as it seems.
Even though talks have stalled, I'm sure they'll revisit after July 1, and if the Celtics sign Hayward in FA, I think that could help our chances of not only acquiring George, but convincing him to stay long term. Again, this is the ONLY LOGICAL chance we have at George + convincing him to stay.
Otherwise, it's still a risk, but this way, it's a bit of a smaller risk, and could work out well for us in the long run. It's our best chance, in a sense.
Thoughts?