Gordon Hayward on max deal with Jazz: 'Don't think I have to live up to anything now'

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If you were expecting Gordon Hayward to be nervous or feel the heat now that he's officially a maximum contract player for the Utah Jazz, you don't know Gordon Hayward.

Speaking from Las Vegas at USA Basketball camp this week, Hayward indicated he would prefer to be measured by the team's success moving forward now that his contract is what it is.

Here's Hayward, via the Salt Lake Tribune:

For me, I don’t think I have to live up to anything now. They paid me what they wanted to pay me, and let’s go from there.
...
No pressure now. The pressure is trying to win. That’s the pressure.

We suppose the validity of his statement is in how you look at it. On the one hand, there's no pressure in the sense that he's financially secure now, but on the other, he's being paid like the franchise guy, and that's a performance level he's yet to reach through four seasons.

What's more, in a loaded Western Conference the upstart Jazz look set for another down season, so those wins Hayward references may not be an immediately attainable objective. But hey, no pressure, right?

[Dap PBT]