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The Gordon Hayward Experiment...you know the drill

Begone:
AK was an off the charts defender, with so so shooting ability, 6 11 with the ability to defend paint and perimeter, and good rebounder.
Hayward, based on last season, looked like a good outside shooter, with so so defensive and rebounding ability.

First off, AK was not a great man-to-man defender especially on the ball according to Phil Johnson. AK's strength is blocking shots from the weak side. Secondly, AK is 6'9" and couldn't defend the paint and should have been a better rebounder. Hayward can't shoot to save his life, but he is a harder worker than AK and doesn't throw his arms up in the air as his go to move.
 
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You guys should stop comparing apples and oranges. Hayward is just not at the same level talent wise as AK. He will never be as good as AK is.
 
It is weird that something works and they don't go back to it, at least just to try it. Hayward is tall enough to bother Kobe's jumper more. Maybe this is one of the many secret weapons the team is keeping under wraps until we get deep into the playoffs.

Ya I don't understand it either. Hayward played great D on Kobe last year
 
You guys should stop comparing apples and oranges. Hayward is just not at the same level talent wise as AK. He will never be as good as AK is.

Stop comparing apples and oranges then.
 
YOu folk are crazy I didn't not say that he was the mirror player of AK in anyway. My point is if AK was to shoot the ball and miss as much as Hayward does you wouldn't sit around waiting for a single game of double diget points to call AK an Allstar. YOu would have AK be ready to burn AK at the alter.
 
I still would have liked to see Hayward on Kobe, even if just for a few minutes of game time. Maybe he needs a challenge like that, for coach to show some confidence in him, to help him break free. Rather than "hell no, you have sucked lately, you ain't getting anywhere near Kobe" might be better to have "Hayward, we need you to stop Kobe, keep him from scoring, get the ball out of his hands, like you did last time. You can do it." And then let him go at it. He is young, we are not in the running for any championships, so give him the shot, show him you believe in him, and it might be the kind of thing that helps kick him out of this slump. It certainly wouldn't have been the end of the world if we had just tried it for a minute or 2.
 
I still would have liked to see Hayward on Kobe, even if just for a few minutes of game time. Maybe he needs a challenge like that, for coach to show some confidence in him, to help him break free. Rather than "hell no, you have sucked lately, you ain't getting anywhere near Kobe" might be better to have "Hayward, we need you to stop Kobe, keep him from scoring, get the ball out of his hands, like you did last time. You can do it." And then let him go at it. He is young, we are not in the running for any championships, so give him the shot, show him you believe in him, and it might be the kind of thing that helps kick him out of this slump. It certainly wouldn't have been the end of the world if we had just tried it for a minute or 2.

Yeah I do agree here.
Why not play Hayward on Kobe for a couple minutes?
The guy was going off (like he always does with the Jazz, for whatever reason).
Might as well put a longer guy on him, and do what you can.
If Hayward was a failure..... I'd even try Jeremy Evans.
 
If Hayward was moved to the 2, and Raja didn't play, Raja would then reveal the revealing photos of the coaching staff and all hell would break loose.
 
Gordo had a decent game going 4-9, 0-2 from 3, 3rebs, 1 assists, 4 steals, 1 TO and 1 block

Not to mention the two absurd dunks and the posterazation of DuhMar Kardashian. The awesome thing was, when he smashed down that two handed hunk of love, I said out loud, "Wow, that looked just like Tom Chambers!" and was pleased to hear Jet say the same thing on TNT. If God turns out to be half the player Chambers was, I'll be tickled pink.
 
The jazz let Dallas get a lot of open looks on switches and rotations n stuff.
First rule of bball, if you have to choose between guarding somebody open under the basket, and somebody open far away from the basket, you go cover the guy under the basket.
Seemed like Hayward was having to run all over the place to guard the whole Dallas team a lot, not sure that was all his fault that people were open.
 
how about Shawn Marion going off for 22. I know he wasn't on him the whole night but great D brah.

He was not on him the whole night, as you said, so what is the break down of Marions night while Hayward was on him? Was Hayward primarily guilty, partially guily or hardly guilty at all?
 
Gordon put up some bad shots and found himself in no man's land again, but you have to love that he fought through what should've been a bad night for him and ended up having an OK game all things considered.
 
From Locke Today:
Last 4 games Gordon Hayward averaging 10 pts and shooting 45 FG and 43% from three

His shot is coming back around. Gordon plays the team defense the way it is being coached. He switch's a lot and gets to the open guys. I really don't have a problem with a 21 year old playing the way he is right now considering we have a post first offense and a work in progress on Defense
 
From Locke Today:


His shot is coming back around. Gordon plays the team defense the way it is being coached. He switch's a lot and gets to the open guys. I really don't have a problem with a 21 year old playing the way he is right now considering we have a post first offense and a work in progress on Defense

I'm not picking on Hayward, but Locke has a bad habit of putting up stats out of context. If you go back one whole game more to the Lakers, you have to factor in a 1-7 from the field, 0-2 from 3. The 6 game sample is even worse. Or if you went just on his last two games, he's 4/13, 0/3. But by picking the 4 game sample, you get the absolute rosiest picture. At the end of the day, I'm not especially worried about the shooting since I believe he'll shoot better. I'm worried about the lack of aggressiveness, though he did finally get it going in the 4th the other night a little bit.
 
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