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What do you expect from Gordon Hayward?

I would really like to see Hayward do more when he has the ball. I know the offense doesn't allow for a lot of improvisation, but with his ball handling skills it would be nice to see him do more than stand out on the wing waiting around and then passing it as soon as ge gets it. I suppose if he starts hitting open shots it will force the defense to guard him out there and provide more off the dribble for him, but many times he appears to just stand around on offense.

His passing is really good though and I believe he is a much better shooter than he has displayed. His confidence seems shot right now. How can a guy shoot 96% from the line during the pre-season and can't seem to buy a bucket anywhere else?
 
twentytwo said:
I see Hayward playing between 10 and 20 minutes a night depending on how he is doing. I think he will play in most, if not all games unless he ends up in Coach's doghouse somehow (which I highly doubt will happen).

On a different note, I think that as the season goes on we need to realize that Gordon was drafted into a good situation, something that cannot be said about any other top-10 pick. Most of these guys are going to be forced into being a top-3 guy on their team, where Gordon will probably be our 8th or 9th man this year. Because of this, he won't have the stats (or minutes) of these other guys. This is just something he will need to deal with, and we as fans will need to understand.

I wouldn't be surprised to see his line at the end of the year as something like:

78 games played; 16 MPG
8.0 PPG on 43%, 35% from 3
3 RPG, 3 APG, 1 TO, 0.8 BLK
Click to expand...

3 apg in 16 minutes...about that...
 
Just finished a post on the same subject. I looked at what past #9 picks had done in their rookie seasons...how much they played, how they scored, etc.

Short version: I put Hayward at 15-20 minutes per game, 5-7 ppg. I didn't bother to project shooting percentage, but I don't think it will be great at first. I do think he has a chance to improve, but probably just to the low 40s for the time being. He needs to get stronger to get any higher than that, and that won't happen overnight.
 
Kenwood said:
Just finished a post on the same subject. I looked at what past #9 picks had done in their rookie seasons...how much they played, how they scored, etc.

Short version: I put Hayward at 15-20 minutes per game, 5-7 ppg. I didn't bother to project shooting percentage, but I don't think it will be great at first. I do think he has a chance to improve, but probably just to the low 40s for the time being. He needs to get stronger to get any higher than that, and that won't happen overnight.
Click to expand...

Luckily, he doesn't need to do any more than that for our team to be good!
 
Continuous improvement throughout the year. He may struggle at times, but the kid is a gamer; he'll just keep getting better and better before our eyes.
 
oldtimer said:
If Hayward averages 43%, 35% from 3, 3 RPG, 3 APG, 1 TO, 0.8 BLK he will get a lot more than just 16 minutes a game. He wont sniff 35% from 3 or 43% from the field. Remember he shot 29% from college 3 last year. It is my hope that Hayward gets less than 5 minutes a game because he will be taking time away from AK, CJ and/or Bell. However, if he does shot this well, you got to play the rookie.
Click to expand...
But he shot a lot better from the 3 his previous year. My guess is that he had a lot of pressure to step up and be "the man' his 2nd year and probably took a lot of shots he shouldn't have.

In the pre-season games, his shot often looks like he's pushing it and it comes off flat. I think that's a result of him trying to get it off too quickly. He'll settle down as he gets more comfortable in his role. I think 10-15 mins/per is about right, especially since AK probably doesn't need to play PF. Elson and Fes look very capable of splitting the 25-30 combined mins that will be available behind Millsap and Jefferson.

If you figure AK gets 30 mins, and maybe CJ and Bell each get 28, that only leaves 10 mins. available at the 2/3.
 
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