The NBA playoffs are underway, and just today the Timberwolves lost to the Nuggets at home, and the Timberwolves suffered two consecutive defeats at home, and the big score came to a 2-2 draw. On the other side of the West, the Thunder and Mavericks also came to a big score of 1-2, and the qualifying situation is precarious. For the young Thunder, they need help not only with experience, but also with veterans on the team to give them better immediacy, obviously there is such a veteran on the team, but he has been very poor throughout the playoffs, and he is the former All-Star forward Hayward.
The 2010 NBA draft pick, who grew up with the Jazz but fell with the Celtics. In 2010, the Jazz selected the white forward, and Hayward in his peak had 21.9 points + 5.4 rebounds + 3.5 assists in a single season, and was selected as an NBA All-Star bench in the 2016-2017 season, but the transfer to the Celtics suffered the biggest low point of his career, he suffered a serious leg injury in his first game with the Celtics, and this leg injury became a turning point in his career. During his years with the Celtics, he was completely abandoned by the team with the rise of the double tanhua.
He then signed a four-year, $120 million contract with the Hornets, and Hayward averaged 19.6 points per game in his first season with the Hornets and 15 points per game over the next two years, but apparently that form was not a reason for the team to keep him. After being traded to the Thunder this season, Hayward, who had high hopes from the Thunder, performed extremely poorly in the playoffs. Not only did they fail to provide enough help to the younger members of the team on the defensive end, but they also failed to help the team achieve results on the offensive end.
In the first round of the playoffs against the Pelicans, Hayward did not score in four games in the entire series, and hung 0 in the game. And in the three games against the Mavericks in the second round, he didn't score even one point in the entire series, and he has scored 0 points in seven consecutive playoff games. On the one hand, it is true that Hayward has no right to play in the Thunder's system, on the other hand, his form has indeed declined seriously, and he has been abandoned by the head coach but there is nothing he can do, but you must know that Hayward is the second highest salary on the team this season.
His annual salary is $31 million this season, second only to Alexander's $33 million in the team's first year. If Hayward can't continue to break through his scoring drought in the next few key games, for the 34-year-old, his annual salary of $31 million this season will be the last big contract of his career, and he is very likely to sign a veteran base salary contract next season, or disappear from the NBA completely.