Blake Griffin and Gordon Hayward are easily the two biggest names in the 2017 free agency class with potential for movement. Griffin has spent his entire career with the Clippers where he's seen success but also been faced with constant underachievement. Hayward, on the other hand, has grown with the Jazz and is finally getting his first taste of the playoffs. This will also be his first real chance to explore free agency.
If either of them have an interest in leaving their current teams then the Celtics are right there waiting for them. According to Adrian Wojnarowski of The Vertical, both players are Boston's top targets entering free agency.
"Blake Griffin, and I think the Clippers may think this too, and certainly some other teams, Boston is really the danger for Blake Griffin," Wojnarowski said. "I think Boston's two primary free-agent targets right now are Gordon Hayward and Blake Griffin. Now they're not going to get both of them, but they're both players who would potentially have interest there, and who Boston I think looks at in different ways with their future.
It's worth noting that the rumor here is not that Griffin or Hayward has shown interest in Boston. Wojnarowski is saying that those are the players Boston plans to target in free agency, which should be expected of the Celtics. They were easily defeated by the Cavaliers in the Eastern Conference finals and have to make roster improvements. It makes sense they would target two young forwards that have potential to improve even further.
However, these two may still have some interest in Boston. With the Warriors dominating out West it might be in their best playoff interest to go join a young Celtics group out East and grow with the roster.
