Yes, Stevens started Hayward before he was ready. But it seems strange that we are focusing on that right now. That was so long ago and Stevens corrected that mistake. The team had months to get over that. We had every chance to right the ship by playoff time. Starting Hayward was a factor in the team's psyche early on, but it was so long ago that it seems kind of irrelevant now. It's old news. Hayward was coming off the bench and looked healthy at the end of the season and the team still played like crap.
Yeah, tp. People need to get over the 'Brad started Hayward too early' argument. Sure, it may be true, but lots of teams have at least one starter who isn't worthy of starting and they play just fine. Kyrie, Horford, Tatum, and Brown
should have been able to make up for it and it's not like we didn't have [what we thought were] quality subs able to come in and make a difference.
While Brad isn't completely free of blame, I feel much of this year was beyond his control and believe he will learn from this. I think all of us are looking forward to major changes this offseason.