Charlotte Hornets trade Gordon Hayward to Thunder

Charlotte Hornets trade Gordon Hayward to Thunder

The Charlotte Hornets are trading veteran forward Gordon Hayward to the Oklahoma City Thunder in exchange for guard Tre Mann and Davis Bertans, NBA insider Shams Charania of The Athletic was among the first to report ahead of Thursday’s NBA Trade Deadline.

This could be a good low-risk, high-reward acquisition for Oklahoma City, who entered Thursday tied with the Minnesota Timberwolves and Los Angeles Clippers for the top seed in the Western Conference.

Hayward, 33, has been oft-injured since unfortunately suffering a compound fracture in his left ankle in the 2017-18 season opener with the Boston Celtics. He’s been limited to just 25 games this season and has not played since Dec. 26 with a strained calf. He’s averaging 14.5 points, 4.7 rebounds and 4.6 assists on 46.8/36.1/76.5 shooting splits.

He’ll be a vet in a locker room without many true “vets”, which is a positive. He also won’t demand touches or try to do too much offensively alongside Shai Gilgeous-Alexander, Jalen Williams and Chet Holmgren, the three biggest cogs in the Thunder offense. Hayward’s a good shooter and good playmaker who can take the pressure off Gilgeous-Alexander and Williams.

Neither Bertans nor Mann, who just turned 23-years-old, had a clear role in Oklahoma City’s offense. Hayward will. Thus, the value proposition works in OKC’s favor. Perhaps the former finds some runway with a Charlotte team looking for any production. He’s averaging just 3.3 points (in 9.2 minutes) this season after combining to average 9.0 points in 20.1 minutes over his first two seasons.

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This is a breaking news story. Stay tuned for updates.

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