http://sports.yahoo.com/news/haywards-h ... ymuV68vLYF
Yahoo wrote:''Hayward is starting to really feel his oats as far as playing with confidence and feeling comfortable,'' San Antonio coach Gregg Popovich said April 9 when the Spurs visited Salt Lake City. ''He's really a great player, moving without the basketball, constant motion, aggressive all the time, thinking the game.''
That night, the 6-foot-8 Hayward scored 16 points and added six rebounds and two blocks in the Jazz win. Two days later, he scored 29 in Houston.
In the last five games he has averaged 20.2 points, 4.4. assists, 3.4 rebounds, 1.2 steals and is shooting 64 percent (14 of 22) from 3-point range.
Suns coach Alvin Gentry has called Hayward ''one of the bright young stars in the league.''
''He's the whole package,'' Gentry added. ''He can put it down. He can shoot it from the perimeter. He is a slasher-and-cutter, and on top of all of that, he is a really good defender.''
He also has a physical style that can irritate opponents, perhaps because they don't see past the boyish looks.
Consider his own little block party in Boston on March 28, when he rejected two shots in the span of five seconds by Keyon Dooling and Avery Bradley.
By then, Golden State Warriors coach Mark Jackson already was a believer.
''You can make the case that he's the most valuable player for them against us,'' Jackson said.