Gordon Hayward

[ThunderBolt]

Thanks, Nostradamus.

Just gave his opinion. Kind of thought that was the point of these forums.

No, he told everyone we all have to face the reality of his prediction of something that hasn't happened yet, a la Nostradamus.

Troll above said "more mediocrity for $30M" and I didn't say anything about that because it's an opinion. This guy is saying he knows the reality of the future and everyone has to accept it. Different thing.

The point of the thread is to predict what to expect this season. Therefore prophetic-like statements are encouraged.

[drosereturn]

More mediocrity for $30+ million

Serious answers please. Looking at how PG bounced back, I'm really curious to what Gordon will look like this season.

Gordon looks washed up. Cant see him avging more than 20 pts.
Also PG produced right after his injury season with a solid 23/7/4. Can you confidently say the same abt GH?

[JAYZGOAT]

So there's a crowd that thinks he'll remain a role player and some that believe that he'll return near form. I think that he'll surprise some people this year, as will Boston. He's kind of going under the radar. Thanks for the replies Y'all.

[jazzfan1971]

I expect pretty similar production as last year.

[Ugly0598]

Who?

Gordon Haywood.



I expect 15/4/4 this season.

[robbie84]

16,4,4 shooting alot of threes at a decent clip. 30 mins per game.
If he can be a better version of last years Marcus Morris then he'll help the team.
Otherwise he's just taking shots from Brown, Tatum and Kemba.
Fingers crossed indeed.
Luckily there's only 2 more years left on his deal if he does continue to struggle post injury. There's just no way to know how he is psychologically which is the most important part.

[macNcheese3]

Really loved him in Utah. Especially seeing him grow as a player. Snyder is a really good coach and he had the perfect system tailored around him.

When he signed with Boston I thought he was going to fit like a glove especially with the Stevens connection. The injury was really unfortunate and scary. Sadly, I think he’s going to be a shadow of his old self moving forward. Still productive just not the same player.

[lonzo_pelota]

he'll have every opportunity to show and prove this upcoming season with kyrie and horford gone. if he does return to form paul george won't be the only unicorn

[Fencer reregistered]

In general, I don't like the fit of the current Celtics. You have three guys who are more comfortable doing iso scoring (Walker, Taytum, Brown) and you have a center who is not a facilitator either (Kanter). So basically, Hayward is the de facto the best facilitator on the Celtics and he isn't that great of one either in the grand scheme of things. So I think what will inevitably happen is that Hayward will take a back seat and try to facilitate more and more, but this will essentially lead to him getting ignored in the Celtics systems with everyone trying to get his numbers. This Celtics team really needed a facilitating PG (like in the mold of Nash, Kidd mode) and not a scoring point guard. I just don't see how Hayward will be put in a good position to succeed even if he recovers 100% from his injury.

I'd categorize Brown more with Kanter -- natural catch-and-score guy. Walker and Tatum are the guys who SHOULD have a lot more assists than they do, but mainly because their scoring talent opens up juicy passing opportunities. Smart is a true distributor by now.

[mattao313]

18-5-4 this guy is a good player he came off an injury he is gonna bounce back this season.

[Calamity_Cometh]

I think he'll bounce back. Either a volume scorer around 21 ppg or an efficient 18 per game. Will depend on how many shots Walker and Tatum warrant.

[Pelly24]

More mediocrity for $30+ million

Serious answers please. Looking at how PG bounced back, I'm really curious to what Gordon will look like this season.

Optimistically i expect 16/5/5 on 56 TS% and solid defense. But there's a good chance he falls well short of that.

Hayward looked like an All-NBA third team type of guy his last year in Utah, but he's not actually some transcendent talent that can definitely overcome this injury setback. He doesn't seem like he's a great shooter and he's not really creative with his dribble. He was very athletic his last healthy yea and it looks like his game relied more on that than people thought. If he was a dominant skilled player, I'd think he would've done better last year.

As for the PG comparison, this is an interesting narrative that's gained traction over the years. PG played in like 7 games at the end of 2014-2015 and looked bad and then he came back the next year and returned to the level he was right before. He didn't have some extended fall off like Hayward where you wondered how good he'd be again; he just hadn't played enough games to round back into shape. Hayward played an entire year and the playoffs. Its true he had that setback, but even then, he had a lot of time to play through it. It's not the same as the Paul George situation, and PG never truly showed signs of falling off. People will point to this past season as being PG's true resurgence, but it's actually that he flat-out reached a new level. Before this past year, he would have months where he averaged 30 a game, but then he'd have months where he averaged 18 a game. He was very reliant on his jumper and his lack of a first step/aggressiveness kept him off the freethrow line. This year, he shot like a splash brother and somehow got to the line a lot more, hence the jump. Its not recovering from an injury, he just became a legit top 7 or 8 player for the first time.


I hope Hayward gets back to his Utah level, but i doubt it. if he does, Celtics could be a top 2 team in the east this year if Jayson Tatum takes a leap as a shot-creator and scorer. Kemba is a top 20 guy, jaylen brown and Jayson tatum look like very solid tertiary scoring options. They just need a legit No. 2

[Biff]

His best year in Utah was 21/5/5 shooting 47%fg/40%3pt/84%FT. Don't see him getting anywhere near that again but I could see him being a 15/4/4 guy.

Per 36 his numbers that season were 22.9, 5.6 and 3.6. His per 36 numbers last year were 15.9, 6.2 and 4.7. I think with more minutes he's going to get more rebounds and assists than he was getting with Utah because his role will more of a distributor and to focus on defense and rebounding. I don't think he'll ever be quite the scorer he was. Paul George's first year back his numbers all pretty much went up. Couldn't really tell he had suffered a significant injury the year before. However, it was pretty clear last year that Hayward isn't the same player. He might get a little more back this year but I doubt he ever averages more than 15-16 a game again even if he does play 32-33 mpg.

[Ballerhogger]

at his best he will be 46% 3 point shooter scoring 20 ppg.

[mudsak]

According to the team he's been at the practice facility 7 days a week working out and he looks great. I think people don't realize he needed a 2nd surgery, so when last season began he'd only been recovering for a few months, not the whole year he was off. Hard to say what kind of stats he'll put up but I'm rooting for him and looking forward to a big bounce back year.

That doesn't surprise me to hear tbh. Hayward has probably been one of the hardest working guys in the NBA. Not as talented/gifted as most his peers, but at his peak he was right there with PG. His ability to reach that type of impact was a direct result of his drive and hard work. I'd imagine we see a much stronger Hayward this season than the ghost of his former self we saw the year prior. Not sure how the team chemistry is between him, Tatum, and Brown though... I suspect there is some tension between that bunch. Bad vibes won't produce good basketball for anyone on a team.

I'm rooting for him to have a solid bounce back year as well.

[Nate505]

He'll still suck, hopefully.

[CeltsfanSinceBirth]

He'll still suck, hopefully.

I understand your bitterness.

[Nate505]

He'll still suck, hopefully.

I understand your bitterness.

As long as he keeps sucking, it's more elation than bitterness.

[CeltsfanSinceBirth]

He'll still suck, hopefully.

I understand your bitterness.

As long as he keeps sucking, it's more elation than bitterness.

Sure, man. I'm happy for you being elated.

[bisme37]

Just gave his opinion. Kind of thought that was the point of these forums.

No, he told everyone we all have to face the reality of his prediction of something that hasn't happened yet, a la Nostradamus.

Troll above said "more mediocrity for $30M" and I didn't say anything about that because it's an opinion. This guy is saying he knows the reality of the future and everyone has to accept it. Different thing.

The point of the thread is to predict what to expect this season. Therefore prophetic-like statements are encouraged.

Again, it wasn't the prediction that irked me, it was the "everyone needs to face reality" part.

In any case, if dude can see the future with that kind of absolute certainty, he ought to take my Nostradamus line as a compliment.