4/6 vs. Chicago. Ease him in a bit against a bad Bulls team to start.
I think even if he returns in April, he'll only be coming off the bench, but that's not a bad thing one bit. I mean, can you imagine a potential 2nd unit with Hayward/Morris/Smart/Rozier/DPE. DPE hopefully being a depth scorer.
And maybe have Hayward play 15-18 minutes/game, but while having him off the bench, ALSO let him maybe play the final 2-3 minutes of games with the "closing lineup"
Could be huge for us in the playoffs as the "secret weapon" off the bench.
And I'm just going off by the most recent reports, which seem optimistic, and the fact that Ainge hasn't entirely ruled Hayward out for the season at least shows there's a window of hope, even if small. I mean, if it was clear there was no chance he was going to come back, they would have officially ruled him out. All Brad Stevens has said is "they don't anticipate it", but not "it's a given". Again, it's a small chance, but I'm going to be optimistic and say he's back, mostly healthy, by early-mid April.