Apologies to Gordon Hayward

[flintsky21]

I knew how good Hayward was and thought we’d miss him but I did have real objections to how much we should pay him. I also didn’t give enough thought to how much he was unhappy in his role.

Well, at the start of the 2019-20 season, the Jays were coming off a year where they both regressed. So everyone's actually starting from scratch as to who would be the "second" guy after Kemba (who replaced Kyrie). Hayward had every chance to prove he can be that guy. The Jays simply outperformed him.

[FlatearthZorro]

Hayward is a very skilled b-ball player. He's really good, I've always liked him, the only thing that prevented him from being good on our team for longer was injuries. That's about it, sadly the injuries didn't allow him to contribute in the playoffs in his 3 year stint in Boston.

[djFan71]

Hayward, I was running the trade machine all last summer and you just couldn't find a deal that made us better by losing him. So, losing him for nothing obviously didn't. Great player, just crap health/timing with us.

My ideal world was not sign Kemba, give the keys to Marcus, Jays and have Hayward take up the playmaking slack. Basically what we're doing this year... but with Gordon instead of Kemba, and a year earlier. Shrug.

I will pre-emptively apologize to Semi, though. I don't think he's any good.

[Wes-J]

If it weren't for the Kemba blunder Hayward would still be here.

[MrGreenRunsDeep]

Na I ain’t gonna apologize to Hayward! He was waste of time in Boston ... staaap and move on...

[MrGreenRunsDeep]

Na I ain’t gonna apologize to Hayward! He was waste of time in Boston ... staaap and move on...

[GrandTheftRondo]

He was doomed the moment his ankle went sideways. Basically wrote off two seasons and by the time he was back to himself Jaylen and Jayson were established and it was hard for Gordon to consistently show he was a max player.

The hate towards him from some of the fans was despicable. The exact same BS with Kemba. Some Boston fans clearly don’t like affording players recovering from major injuries any leeway. It was blatantly obvious Hayward made the team a lot better and brought a skill set the team desperately needed.

Can’t really blame him for wanting to spend his remaining prime years elsewhere with more touches. He already lost two prime years essentially.

[jfs1000d]

He was doomed the moment his ankle went sideways. Basically wrote off two seasons and by the time he was back to himself Jaylen and Jayson were established and it was hard for Gordon to consistently show he was a max player.

The hate towards him from some of the fans was despicable. The exact same BS with Kemba. Some Boston fans clearly don’t like affording players recovering from major injuries any leeway. It was blatantly obvious Hayward made the team a lot better and brought a skill set the team desperately needed.

Can’t really blame him for wanting to spend his remaining prime years elsewhere with more touches. He already lost two prime years essentially.

Y’all act like he wasn’t terrific last year as a willing 4th option.

Also, not making Hayward a priority and trying to get him to resign is also a mistake by Ainge. You can’t get players like Hayward easily. We took his talent for granted.

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[GrandTheftRondo]

He was doomed the moment his ankle went sideways. Basically wrote off two seasons and by the time he was back to himself Jaylen and Jayson were established and it was hard for Gordon to consistently show he was a max player.

The hate towards him from some of the fans was despicable. The exact same BS with Kemba. Some Boston fans clearly don’t like affording players recovering from major injuries any leeway. It was blatantly obvious Hayward made the team a lot better and brought a skill set the team desperately needed.

Can’t really blame him for wanting to spend his remaining prime years elsewhere with more touches. He already lost two prime years essentially.

Y’all act like he wasn’t terrific last year as a willing 4th option.

Also, not making Hayward a priority and trying to get him to resign is also a mistake by Ainge. You can’t get players like Hayward easily. We took his talent for granted.

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Yes he was good but I think it was quite clear he wanted to be more than that.

[darylbe]

Screw gordon. The issue is every star we bring in puts on green and has some debilitating injury. Terrible luck. Kemba gets 34 mil a season and is currently playing half the games like Cinderella. Being healthy for playoffs won't mean **** if we don't make the playoffs.

And the reason we suck- tatum is still messed up from covid, kemba has bum knees, smart blew out his calf. This team has been healthy for like 5 games out of 33, get this crap outta here

[jfs1000d]

He was doomed the moment his ankle went sideways. Basically wrote off two seasons and by the time he was back to himself Jaylen and Jayson were established and it was hard for Gordon to consistently show he was a max player.

The hate towards him from some of the fans was despicable. The exact same BS with Kemba. Some Boston fans clearly don’t like affording players recovering from major injuries any leeway. It was blatantly obvious Hayward made the team a lot better and brought a skill set the team desperately needed.

Can’t really blame him for wanting to spend his remaining prime years elsewhere with more touches. He already lost two prime years essentially.

Y’all act like he wasn’t terrific last year as a willing 4th option.

Also, not making Hayward a priority and trying to get him to resign is also a mistake by Ainge. You can’t get players like Hayward easily. We took his talent for granted.

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Yes he was good but I think it was quite clear he wanted to be more than that.

Should have resigned Hayward.


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[Taget]

Hayward did little when he was here and left town when he was capable of doing more. Why are we apologizing again?

[Saint Lazarus]

What kind of apology am I supposed to give? Dude looks good and then suddenly he's out for 3 weeks and when he's back he looks like geriatric Doug McDermott?

Just wait until he pulls a hamstring or something.

[playa-hater]

In a Do-over, I would want him signed. but in year one of his contract he looks great. After year 3 or 4 will you guys still feel the same?

[return2glory]

Great thread and post of the OP.

So true. A lot of fans wanted Hayward and Mook gone because they wanted more shots for the Jays.

The are doing the same with Kemba.

I’m actually happy the Jays are failing this year. Yes fans love their 25 PPG but it’s a big reality check. They are both overrated and they believe in their own hype. They have both regressed IMO. They take bad forced shots and too make many careless turnovers. Their effort on D this season isn’t there.

It’s a lesson to both of them and for Danny.

Kemba and Marcus are the leaders of this team. The Jays need to both shoot less, move the ball around, focus more on defense and rebounding and talk less to the media.

Danny needs to stop babying them and at the same time stop putting too much pressure on them. Danny is way too in love with his picks over the last 3-5 years. We have been waiting for him to add talent to the team for more than a year and a half.

We had a horrible bench last year because Danny sat on his ass and gave up on the season. Despite that, Brad took them to the ECFs and a game away from the Finals. This season our bench is worst than last year. We are 29th in the league in bench scoring.

[return2glory]

Double post.

I will just add this. Danny Ainge is failing this team. We needs to add a legit wing to this team. Grant and Semi aren’t that guy and neither is Nesmith, not yet at least.

Danny and or the owners forced Brad to play Nesmith over the past few weeks. There was no other way this guy went from DNPs to playing over 20 minutes a game. He isn’t ready and hasn’t earned it.

I think that all happened after the Pistons game when S. Bey lit us up and Ainge looked like a fool for passing up on him. Meanwhile Danny’s 14th pick was glued to bench.

[cl2117]

No apologies needed. The guy was hounded by injuries, through no fault of his own, but was never close to earning his contract here. I would have happily taken him back on his player option or a lesser extension, but going beyond that was doubling down on a guy who had already burnt you multiple times.

I'm happy for Gordo. He gets to be the #1 guy, gets paid a boatload and seems to have some guys around him that will help carry him in the later years of that contract where he probably has to fade to 2nd/3rd banana. He's in a great spot.

Don't think he got an unfair due here, just got massively unlucky and ended up in a spot where it was hard to re-invest in him (especially when I don't think anyone saw that MJ offer coming in).

Obviously it would be amazing to have him here right now. He ironically is everything we need, but don't think he needs an apology tour really.

[dans1230]

I agree with those who feel no apology us warranted.
He wanted to be a top 1 or 2 guy on a team and on a payroll, and hes playing like one. Unfortunately for Gordon, He isnt skilled enough to be a top 1 or 2 guy on a contending team, and i guess hes ok with that. No problem there, im not going to judge him for that.
On a contending team he is a 3rd or 4th option which is what he was here and you cant pay that guy 30 mil a year, it eats too much of your cap. Some of his numbers are down from last year ( rebounds/assists) and his minutes and usage is up. Moving forward he will be playing alongside a very skilled ball handler which will take the ball out of his hands. It will be interesting to see how this affects his play further along in his contract.

[TommyPointGawd]

We are a few losses away from a vincent Porier apology thread.

[jfs1000d]

What kind of apology am I supposed to give? Dude looks good and then suddenly he's out for 3 weeks and when he's back he looks like geriatric Doug McDermott?

Just wait until he pulls a hamstring or something.

So he wasn’t good last year?


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