Charlotte Hornets general manager Mitch Kupchak never expected Gordon Hayward to opt out of his contract with the Boston Celtics.
And Kupchak sure didn’t picture that leading Hayward to Charlotte.
“Quite frankly, I never had a great feeling,” Kupchak said of recruiting Hayward, who agreed to a $120 million, four-year contract to be the Hornets’ top player.
Kupchak said repeatedly over the last year he didn’t plan for the Hornets to be big players in the 2020 free agent class. What happened? He went issue-by-issue in a half-hour media session Tuesday.