Ah yes the old Veteran in the best shape of his life article. Right on schedule. Roster is just about filled out and now we need to be reminded that hayward will be a factor. It feels like we had like 3 of these last year, remember how he was gonna be a playoff x factor? Maybe he is back, but I'm gonna wait and see.
A reporter asked Morrison and he answered. Hayward developed into an all star after years of putting in hard work in the off season. It is fair to ask and fair to get excited. He didn't get to put in the basketball development work last off season and now he does. I don't understand how fans of the Celtics crap on a guy who chose to come to Boston and had a major injury through no fault of his own. I thought Boston liked hard workers? Guess not.
Do you want to win? Hayward will have the biggest impact on that next season. Would you rather hear that Hayward is sitting around and doing nothing?
I personally don't get it either.
* Hayward signed here after having a 22 / 5 / 3 season in Utah and getting named an All-Star
* Prior to signing in Boston he had three straight seasons of averaging >19 PPG to it's not like his all star season was a fluke
* He voluntarily chose to sign with Boston, and left a Utah team that worshiped him to do it
* He suffered a devastating injury in his first NBA game as a Celtic, the type that any player would have difficulty coming back from
* He spent last year trying to recover from that injury (mentally and physically) and trying to build chemistry with a team he never played with before
* He's always come across as a good guy, a team-first guy, and a hard worker
* He's only 28 years old, so it's not like he's over the hill
I don't see any reason NOT to have some degree of confidence and hope that he will come backs strong this year.
We're talking about a fairly young player who consistently played at a high level for 4 or 5 straight seasons, and yet people are writing him off because of one bad year - one in which he had a more then fair reason for being bad.
I've never even been a big Hayward fan - I'm one of the guys who was hoping and praying for Ainge to go after Paul George or Jimmy Butler instead of Hayward. I'm one of the guys who was anti-Hayward in every Hayward post that ever was made.
But although he may never have been my favorite player, the man deserves some respect. He's always been known as a hard working, high character guy, he's been an All-Star, and he carried a couple of pretty mediocre Utah teams to the playoffs in a stacked Western Conference. I think we should all show a little faith in him - I think he's earned it.
Its just that there's nothing too suggest its merely a matter of putting in work that will return him to his all star form. Many people want to make the Paul George comparison, which is fair, but also different in many ways. Paul George was a better player before his injury and more athletic than Hayward ever was. He suffered his injury younger than Hayward did. The injury was higher up on the leg further away from the problematic ankle area. Hayward is getting to the age where guys generally start see some athleticism decline naturally. And I'm sorry, the guy just looked slow last year at times.
With that in mind I don't blame anybody who wants to role there eyes at this report. It's one of those pieces that gets written every summer about every guy trying to come back from a horrible injury. It doesn't really mean anything, because its not always just a matter of working hard to regain all star form. Sometimes you just can't. That doesn't mean I bear any ill will towards hayward, I am rooting for the guy. I'm sure he is working hard, I'm sure he is in his best shape ever, he seems like that kind of guy. But he to show me something before I pencil him in for an all star season.
Thats not to say he won't be better this year, I have no doubt he will be. My guess is hee never gets back to his all star form, but ends up somewhere in the elite role player range.
Topic: Hayward has been "working out vigorously. Looks stronger, faster, leaner" (Read 12983 times)