Hayward has been "working out vigorously. Looks stronger, faster, leaner"

[Sophomore]

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.

well last year smart looked skinny and fit as ever. Then he had an amazing year

This year, Marcus shoots 37% from 3 and Gordon 39%. Book it!

[csfansince60s]

I wish I could get excited about this report, but he disappointed so badly for the first two years of his max contract (partly his own fault, and partly not), that I can’t help but feel resentment towards the guy for how badly his contract has crippled this franchise.

And now, entering year 3 we are in a lose/lose, because of his contract. If he has another suck year, then this team will not be a contender, then he’ll probably opt in for year four and then we will be stuck with him, but he’ll at least be an expiring that will have some value.

If he has a great year, he opts out, and we potentially lose him to a rival, getting only one useful year out of 3 from him.

This contractual situation that we are in with him in and of itself is fodder for resentment with some of our fans. Couple this with the perception that he was a net negative last year for us due to perceptions of teammates and fans alike that he was Brad’s son and treated as such to the detriment of his teammates individually AND the team as a whole, as well as the perception that he was being timid and not always giving anywhere near 100%, and you have a whole cauldron of resentment brewing based on arguably reasonable negative perceptions of the guy.

God forbid he leaves he will fare a LOT better than Kyrie Irving on is way out of here - mark my words.

Make no mistake about it I LOVE GORDON HAYWARD and wish him the BEST. But he will NOT get the vitriol that Kyrie is getting.

I hope to God that I won't even have to revisit this comment and he STAYS in BOS - as close to Utah GH as possible.

TP, GF.great points as usual!...

.I know it doesn’t seem like it , but I’m rooting hard for the guy. Utah GH was a sight to behold with explosive athleticism....if we get 80% of that guy back I’ll be thrilled.

And ironically, one of the reasons I was disappointed in the guy last year was because of one of the great games he had and why he had that great game and how that in my mind epitomized his no-confidence season.

In a practice in December, just before one of the Minny games, Marcus basically challenged Hayward and his weak play. It got physical, Smart either punched or elbowed little Gordy in the face and rightfully so, GH was p---ed. Goes out and has a monster game vs Twolves. His teammates said they knew he was going to have a monster game after that altercation.

To me that said it all, and that his uneven, often poor, disappearing performances throughout the season (especially in the playoffs) were mostly in head due to a lack of confidence.

Many have made excuses for him in this regard, but to me, it was on him.

As I said, I’m rooting hard for the guy, and admittedly more for the Cs than for him, so Utah Gordy, c’mon back!

[csfansince60s]

I wish I could get excited about this report, but he disappointed so badly for the first two years of his max contract (partly his own fault, and partly not), that I can’t help but feel resentment towards the guy for how badly his contract has crippled this franchise.

And now, entering year 3 we are in a lose/lose, because of his contract. If he has another suck year, then this team will not be a contender, then he’ll probably opt in for year four and then we will be stuck with him, but he’ll at least be an expiring that will have some value.

If he has a great year, he opts out, and we potentially lose him to a rival, getting only one useful year out of 3 from him.

This contractual situation that we are in with him in and of itself is fodder for resentment with some of our fans. Couple this with the perception that he was a net negative last year for us due to perceptions of teammates and fans alike that he was Brad’s son and treated as such to the detriment of his teammates individually AND the team as a whole, as well as the perception that he was being timid and not always giving anywhere near 100%, and you have a whole cauldron of resentment brewing based on arguably reasonable negative perceptions of the guy.

There are some scenarios in which we do badly - the one you pointed to, where he's bad and opts in seems like the worst. But if he has a great year and opts out we will be able to offer him the max, and I believe a little more than other teams. And Wyc would probably pay that if Gordon had a truly *great* year. If it was only an OK year or a pretty good year, then you might be just as happy to see him opt out and go, especially if you had a chance at a better max player or a chance at a good player for less than his current deal.

Tp for the positive, yet realistic spin.

Hoping for the best...minimize the damage, exposure.

Only one scenario truly benefits us....let’s hope it pops.

[IDreamCeltics]

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.

well last year smart looked skinny and fit as ever. Then he had an amazing year

He scored 9 points a game on .42 Fg%... It would be more accurate to say he didn't have a historically bad year.

[hwangjini_1]

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.

well last year smart looked skinny and fit as ever. Then he had an amazing year

He scored 9 points a game on .42 Fg%... It would be more accurate to say he didn't have a historically bad year.

and you dont find that amazing??!!!??!!   

[chiken Green]

I’m very hopeful for a Gordon Hayward resurgence, but this means absolutely nothing.

what means absolutely nothing? Lets hope Robert Williams and Tatum are working hard too, and not just goofing off in the off season. The players that take their jobs as a year round job rather than 8 month job are generally more successful.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ymsOX-OCf-Y
Been a bunch of reports about Williams being in the training facility all off-season. If I recall correctly Brad or Danny singled he and Hayward out primarily as the guys who he'd seen most around the practice facility.

This, is why i have a problem for Brown's "travel around the world plus workout" attitude

It's all cool and fine as a person to have multiple interest , but as a NBA player it's not desirable, especially when you haven't prove yourself(as a star/perennial starter), he lacks determination

As previous poster said, whether Hayward and Williams will succeed i do not know, but if they fail it won't be due to to lack of effort

[flybono]

Maybe he watched his own game tapes this past season and saw how bad he sucked!

[Muzzy66]

I think he's going to be excellent this year.

Expecting him to be anything close to his old self last year was probably never realistic.  It's hard enough to come back from the mental and physical trauma of an injury like that.  The on top of that you have the rust of having not played for over a year.  Then on top of that you have the challenge of having to build chemistry with guys you've never played with, in a sytem you've never played in.

That is an incredible amount to try and overcome.

Now he's played with these guys for a year.  He's had time to recover from the injury and regain confidence physically and mentally (he did start to show flashes of his old self towards the end of last season).  And he's had a few months off to be able to watch film, rest, and work on his game.

I am pretty confident that he's going to come back strong next year.   Maybe not QUITE to the level of play he was at the year before signing here, but I feel like he's going to come back at maybe 85% of that and then gradually make up the difference as the season progresses.

If Brown and Tatum show the type of improvement that I expect then that, plus the addition of Kemba and Enes, will take a lot of offensive load off Hayward.  They won't really NEED him to be a 22 PPG scorer like he was in Utah. If he can give you 17-18 PPG on efficient shooting numbers while playing quality defense then Boston will be in good shape.

[Muzzy66]

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. 

[RockinRyA]

Doesn't matter what kind of shape he is in, if he doesn't have a Killer Instinct....Soft as tissue in these last playoffs, just no guts. Larry Bird murdered guys, playing with a bad back.

If you think that's Hayward, better watch 2018 playoffs.

[moiso]

Doesn't matter what kind of shape he is in, if he doesn't have a Killer Instinct....Soft as tissue in these last playoffs, just no guts. Larry Bird murdered guys, playing with a bad back.

If you think that's Hayward, better watch 2018 playoffs.

He was soft as tissue in the 2019 playoffs.  Hayward didn't play in the 2018 playoffs.  In the 2017 playoffs he was great.

[RockinRyA]

Doesn't matter what kind of shape he is in, if he doesn't have a Killer Instinct....Soft as tissue in these last playoffs, just no guts. Larry Bird murdered guys, playing with a bad back.

If you think that's Hayward, better watch 2018 playoffs.

He was soft as tissue in the 2019 playoffs.  Hayward didn't play in the 2018 playoffs.  In the 2017 playoffs he was great.

Okay 2017. There were multiple factors why he didn't play well, (heck even Horford was bad in that last game at least) but being soft isn't the reason.

I'm sorry Hayward couldn't be Larry Bird.

[IDreamCeltics]

Doesn't matter what kind of shape he is in, if he doesn't have a Killer Instinct....Soft as tissue in these last playoffs, just no guts. Larry Bird murdered guys, playing with a bad back.

If you think that's Hayward, better watch 2018 playoffs.

… Obviously you meant the 2016-2017 playoffs...

But maybe you should go back and watch them.  The Jazz were down 2-1 in that series when Blake Griffin went down for the remainder of the series with a knee injury... After that the Jazz struggled to beat a hobbled Clippers team starring Deandre Jordan, Chris Paul, and a host of NBA corpses in 7 games.  They then got swept in the second round...

Hayward definitely scored well once Blake went down... but his +/- in both playoff series that year was still negative...

Had Griffin not gotten injured in the third game of that series Hayward is just another guy who's never made it out of the first round, and the legend of Utah Gordon Hayward is likely never born.

[ederson]

Would you also be kind enough to inform us about the utah roster that struggled to beat LAC and about the team that swept Utah?

Let me do it for you.... The useless utah Jazz got swept by the golden state warriors. GSW won the title missing just one game in the postseason.

The might utah jazz that should have killed the clippers as a 5th seed had the following allstar like  roster
21   Joel Bolomboy
10   Alec Burks
33   Boris Diaw
11   Dante Exum
15   Derrick Favors
27   Rudy Gobert
20   Gordon Hayward
3   George Hill
5   Rodney Hood
2   Joe Ingles
6   Joe Johnson
41   Trey Lyles
8   Shelvin Mack
25   Raul Neto
24   Jeff Withey

[saltlover]

Doesn't matter what kind of shape he is in, if he doesn't have a Killer Instinct....Soft as tissue in these last playoffs, just no guts. Larry Bird murdered guys, playing with a bad back.

If you think that's Hayward, better watch 2018 playoffs.

… Obviously you meant the 2016-2017 playoffs...

But maybe you should go back and watch them.  The Jazz were down 2-1 in that series when Blake Griffin went down for the remainder of the series with a knee injury... After that the Jazz struggled to beat a hobbled Clippers team starring Deandre Jordan, Chris Paul, and a host of NBA corpses in 7 games.  They then got swept in the second round...

Hayward definitely scored well once Blake went down... but his +/- in both playoff series that year was still negative...

Had Griffin not gotten injured in the third game of that series Hayward is just another guy who's never made it out of the first round, and the legend of Utah Gordon Hayward is likely never born.

Right...

Hayward averaged 23/7/3 that series, despite playing only 9 minutes in game 4 due to food poisoning.  He scored 40 in game 3, and returned from his food poisoning to go for 28/8/4 on 45% from 3 in the last three games to close out a Clippers team that had homecourt.  He played terrifically that series.

And then his team got swept by the Warriors, because that’s what the Warriors, in the first year of feel-good Kevin Durant, did.

Hayward was an All-Star that season — his rep did not come from that series, but was rather the capstone to what was already the best season of his career.  I don’t think we ever see that Hayward again, or even much that close to it, but that doesn’t mean he wasn’t actually a great player for a season.