Poll: Has Hayward already had his best season as a Pro

[Walker Wiggle]

That 2016-17 season for Hayward was absolutely filthy. Scored 22ppg on fewer than 16 shots (!), for the slowest-paced offensive team in the league... along with 5.4 rbs and 3.5 ast.

With that said, I agree with the other posters when it comes to distinguishing between best individual season and best season, period. I don't think he'll ever score 22 ppg again, but he can be an excellent contributor to a championship team. The point is to win, after all.

It was a really good season, but it should be noted he was playing on a team where the next best isolation scorer was perhaps Joe Johnson.

The second and third leading scorers on that Utah team were George Hill and Rudy Gobert.

...and the team got to the 2nd round of the playoffs in an absolutely loaded Western Conference.

[mmmmm]

Statistically, he may have put up the best PPG for his career in one season, but "best" season doesn't mean highest PPG. There are many, many other ways to determine abest year as a pro.

KG is a perfect example. I think 2008 was his best year as a pro, even if statistically it wasn't. I would guess KG would say the exact same thing.

Hayward can have his best year still in him without scoring 20 PPG, especially if his excellent play leads to deep post season success.

I also think it's important to realize that Hayward's career won't end after this season.

Even if he doesn't get back to his Utah All-Star level of production with THIS season, Hayward still will likely have 2-4 more seasons in his prime.   He could very easily post a similar or better year than his 2016-17 season down the road.

[mmmmm]

That 2016-17 season for Hayward was absolutely filthy. Scored 22ppg on fewer than 16 shots (!), for the slowest-paced offensive team in the league... along with 5.4 rbs and 3.5 ast.

With that said, I agree with the other posters when it comes to distinguishing between best individual season and best season, period. I don't think he'll ever score 22 ppg again, but he can be an excellent contributor to a championship team. The point is to win, after all.

It was a really good season, but it should be noted he was playing on a team where the next best isolation scorer was perhaps Joe Johnson.

The second and third leading scorers on that Utah team were George Hill and Rudy Gobert.

Well, it should also be noted that he was playing on a team that posted the dead-last slowest pace rating in the NBA that year.  They played at a rate of just 91.6 possessions per game.

For comparison, the Celtics last year played at a rate of 99.6 per game -- which was right at the median for the league.

What that means is that for every minute on the floor, those Jazz players were playing about 8-9 percent fewer possessions than the average NBA player was this season.   That means you need to scale up most counting stats up by that much.   

Gordon averaged just 18.4 true scoring attempts in 34.5 minutes on that Utah team.  If they played at the higher pace that Boston did this last year, that would map up to 19.9 scoring attempts per game at the same USG rate.

And despite being the 'number one option' on that team, his USG rate of 27.6% wasn't really all that high for a number one scoring option.    The Jazz distributed shots around to a lot of players.   On most teams the primary scoring option is closer to 30% or above.

If playing at a higher pace, he could very get the same number scoring attempts now with a lower USG rate.  If the C's played at the same league-average rate as last year, Hayward could post a USG rate of just over 25% and end up with the same scoring attempts per minute as he did in his last year in Utah.

Some of that will depend on the way the team plays -- how many touches he gets.   Some of it will depend on his own aggression level -- how many shots he takes per touch.   The latter number was where he was most timid to start last year.  He gradually increased that as the year progressed, but was not quite back to the same level as he was before.   Hopefully he will be to start this season off.

[dannyboy35]

He won't get the touches necessary this year in Boston to be the number one or two option. Not with Brown in a contract year, Tatum trying to show everyone last year's performance was a fluke, and Kemba taking his normal volume of shots.

Part of Haywards job this year is to be a facilitator similar to Big Al on the offensive end.

   I think this will be the case. It SHOULD NOT be. But I think Tatum thinking he should be #2 will be a problem. I have SOME hope Brown will be team first.

[PhoSita]

That 2016-17 season for Hayward was absolutely filthy. Scored 22ppg on fewer than 16 shots (!), for the slowest-paced offensive team in the league... along with 5.4 rbs and 3.5 ast.

With that said, I agree with the other posters when it comes to distinguishing between best individual season and best season, period. I don't think he'll ever score 22 ppg again, but he can be an excellent contributor to a championship team. The point is to win, after all.

It was a really good season, but it should be noted he was playing on a team where the next best isolation scorer was perhaps Joe Johnson.

The second and third leading scorers on that Utah team were George Hill and Rudy Gobert.

...and the team got to the 2nd round of the playoffs in an absolutely loaded Western Conference.

Yeah.  Hayward had an excellent year.  My only reason for bringing up his teammates is that he was in a situation where there were not very many people to compete with him for shots.  So his usage rate / scoring frequency are probably higher than you'll ever see again so long as Hayward is on a team with a decent balance of scoring options.

[SHAQATTACK]

never say never, but

unless he changes his attitude on court and becomes an aggressive player calling for the ball and stepping up i seriously doubt it.

[Csfan1984]

Hard to say. I believe as others have written, there are just too many guys to put up better numbers.

[aefgogreen]

Even if he's fully recovered, there are only so many shots to go around.  I just can't see a situation where he averages 20.  He can give us significant support and maybe there's an all defensive team in his future.

[chambers]

Yes, he's already had his best season as a pro.
Unless he somehow becomes the #2 ahead of Tatum or even the #1 ahead of Walker, then he's had his best year.
This is what amazes me when people scoff at the idea of trading Hayward for a legit big man if we could somehow do it.
Just homers bein' homers I guess.
We just don't need Hayward with Brown, Tatum and Kemba already on the roster- too much of our cap room is being spent on the wing position, especially if we re-up Jaylen.
He's just taking shots away from Kemba, Jaylen and Tatum, and we really wanna see what Jaylen and Jayson have this year.

[nickagneta]

Yes, he's already had his best season as a pro.
Unless he somehow becomes the #2 ahead of Tatum or even the #1 ahead of Walker, then he's had his best year.
This is what amazes me when people scoff at the idea of trading Hayward for a legit big man if we could somehow do it.
Just homers bein' homers I guess.
We just don't need Hayward with Brown, Tatum and Kemba already on the roster- too much of our cap room is being spent on the wing position, especially if we re-up Jaylen.
He's just taking shots away from Kemba, Jaylen and Tatum, and we really wanna see what Jaylen and Jayson have this year.

I would have zero problem trading Hayward, I don't think most people would. I think, most, like me, would prefer to do it after Hayward re-established his value.

Coming off last year, Hayward's value might only be slightly higher than when he was injured, which was, he had no value. There is no guarantee Hayward isn't exactly like last year and that is how other teams view it and why his value is so low. Most likely, if traded this off season, Danny would have needed to include draft picks to get rid of Hayward and the big you were getting would have not been very good.

Let Hayward re-establish his value. If his improved play is helping the team be great, you keep him. If Hayward's play is great but the team is still stuck in meh mode because of a lack of good bigs, then you move him for someone good because his value will be so much higher.

[Somebody]

Yes, he's already had his best season as a pro.
Unless he somehow becomes the #2 ahead of Tatum or even the #1 ahead of Walker, then he's had his best year.
This is what amazes me when people scoff at the idea of trading Hayward for a legit big man if we could somehow do it.
Just homers bein' homers I guess.
We just don't need Hayward with Brown, Tatum and Kemba already on the roster- too much of our cap room is being spent on the wing position, especially if we re-up Jaylen.
He's just taking shots away from Kemba, Jaylen and Tatum, and we really wanna see what Jaylen and Jayson have this year.

I would have zero problem trading Hayward, I don't think most people would. I think, most, like me, would prefer to do it after Hayward re-established his value.

Coming off last year, Hayward's value might only be slightly higher than when he was injured, which was, he had no value. There is no guarantee Hayward isn't exactly like last year and that is how other teams view it and why his value is so low. Most likely, if traded this off season, Danny would have needed to include draft picks to get rid of Hayward and the big you were getting would have not been very good.

Let Hayward re-establish his value. If his improved play is helping the team be great, you keep him. If Hayward's play is great but the team is still stuck in meh mode because of a lack of good bigs, then you move him for someone good because his value will be so much higher.

^this. TP Nick.

[gouki88]

In terms of stats you'd have to think so. However, I think if he put up 17-6-5 on a championship team (not this upcoming season, but maybe the year after!) it would probably be in some regards his best season.

[Somebody]

In terms of stats you'd have to think so. However, I think if he put up 17-6-5 on a championship team (not this upcoming season, but maybe the year after!) it would probably be in some regards his best season.

I mean those stats are just counting stats in the box score, I'd be much more concerned about his impact metrics. I think he can churn out his best season yet this upcoming season in terms of such stats since his peak according to them was borderline All-NBA level.

[ozgod]

Yes, he's already had his best season as a pro.
Unless he somehow becomes the #2 ahead of Tatum or even the #1 ahead of Walker, then he's had his best year.
This is what amazes me when people scoff at the idea of trading Hayward for a legit big man if we could somehow do it.
Just homers bein' homers I guess.
We just don't need Hayward with Brown, Tatum and Kemba already on the roster- too much of our cap room is being spent on the wing position, especially if we re-up Jaylen.
He's just taking shots away from Kemba, Jaylen and Tatum, and we really wanna see what Jaylen and Jayson have this year.

I would have zero problem trading Hayward, I don't think most people would. I think, most, like me, would prefer to do it after Hayward re-established his value.

Coming off last year, Hayward's value might only be slightly higher than when he was injured, which was, he had no value. There is no guarantee Hayward isn't exactly like last year and that is how other teams view it and why his value is so low. Most likely, if traded this off season, Danny would have needed to include draft picks to get rid of Hayward and the big you were getting would have not been very good.

Let Hayward re-establish his value. If his improved play is helping the team be great, you keep him. If Hayward's play is great but the team is still stuck in meh mode because of a lack of good bigs, then you move him for someone good because his value will be so much higher.

TP. Sometimes you have to think strategically when it comes to the financial management of the roster, and trading a potential high value asset when their value is lowest makes little sense.