I think Hayward & Terry are two very different beasts.
Hayward’s contract fits perfectly with LaMelo’s contract timeline, as pointed out by @Dav, but what will the opportunity cost be to us if he’s not moved before his contract expires?
Miles can be signed, that’s ok. Cody, probably can, but there’s little chance we’d be able to retain PJ.
His contract also precludes us from potentially advantageous trades where we take on a contract to facilitate a deal.
All the while he plays the same position as Miles. And if you move Miles to the #4 then PJ goes to the bench. All of this while he’s only able to play 2/3rds of the games and is broken by the time the playin/playoffs come around.
Hayward is a very good player, one I like a lot, but he was never the right player for us and the opportunity cost of him being here will hold this franchise back.
Terry is a different beast. Agree with @Dav again, he’s a dog (on offence) and gets crucial baskets for us. He is a potential 6th man of the year.
I keep harping back to the 6th man thing, because it’s important we get some balance in our starting unit. Where is the D in the back court? You get little of it from LaMelo and little of it from Terry, which pisses me off because Terry can defend reasonably well when he wants to. It’s why I wanted Moody in the last draft. 1. Ball, 2. Moody & 6. Terry works. Moody compliments the other two’s defensive deficiencies, so can play with both. But you’d likely see out games with LaMelo & Terry on the floor. In this scenario, Terry still gets him minutes and we’re a better balanced team. I’m not saying Moody is the be all and end all, he isn’t close to the level of player Terry is and it certainly doesn’t have to be him, but he fits what we need so well and he was available.
Which brings me onto Bouknight. Again @Dav, agree with your assessment of him. To my mind, he’s another potential 6th man, not a starter alongside LaMelo. The only backcourt player he compliments is Cody, and you’re not spending too many floor minutes with those two in your back court. All this to say, one of Terry and Bouknight needs to be moved to bring in a player with a skill set we need.
The advantage of moving Terry is two fold. 1. He’s a good player and should net a good return. 2. Our cap will be lower and more flexible. The disadvantages are 1. We loose a good player and 2. We loose a dog who has stepped up and shown leadership. The only advantage of moving Bouknight is ridding ourselves of a redundant skill set. I can’t see how we get good value as he didn’t get a chance to play last season.
In a perfect world, obviously Hayward is gone. The keeping Terry scenario would see us move Bouknight (and pieces) and bring in a 3&D SG who starts and sees minutes alongside both LaMelo and Terry, while Terry becomes 6th man of the year. That can work very well, as long as his ego doesn’t get bruised (see Ginobili). We’re then looking at a big 3 of LeMelo, Terry & Miles for the next handful of seasons. That works if you have a low cost starting option at SG. So Ball, Moody(eg), Miles, PJ & Bamba(eg); Terry, McDaniels & PG/Thor/Kai is a well balanced roster with no £30m contracts, plus the draft pick(s) to be added.
I’d personally rather a soft reset, wipe the cap slate clean and give Kenny a younger, relatively inexpensive roster to develop his patterns of play with and work out where he wants to add veteran, expensive pieces. That’s my personal preference.
I’m also absolutely fine with keeping Terry, I like the guy a lot but I think doing so would restrict a KA retool a little bit, and would necessitate moving Bouknight at a loss and involve moving Terry to the Ginobili role. If he’s cool with that and his influence in the lock room is strong, let’s go down that path.
The only certainty I have is Bouknight & Terry do not belong on the same roster if you hope to be able to defend in the back court.