The Gordon Hayward Era In Boston Was.......Complicated
Maddie Meyer. Getty Images.While we wait to see how the situation with the Hornets shakes out and if there will be any form of a S&T or if Hayward will truly walk for nothing, I've spent some time reflecting on the Celtics tenure of Gordon Hayward. It was certainly one of the most frustrating yet complicated tenures in recent memory, there's no denying that.
Hayward is certainly not the first big money free agent signing in the city of Boston that did not work out. But his situation was always different because his entire Celtics tenure will be defined by something that was unequivically not his fault. In most cases, that might sound like an excuse, but when it comes to Gordon Hayward, it's the reality. To fully understand Hayward's situation and tenure, you have to start at the beginning.
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For my entire life and for the majority of the lives of Celtics fans, we had never seen them land big free agents. A washed up Dominique Wilkins was probably the best free agent siging for the majority of my life. Then they landed Al Horford. Who aside from KD was one of the best free agents of that 2016 class. Together he helped Isaiah have one of the best offensive seasons in Celtics history. With Hayward hitting the market that next season, every single Celtics fan wanted him. Why wouldn't you? He was coming off an All Star season, he had the Brad connection, and his skillset was exactly what this team needed to go with Isaiah/Horford while the two Jays developed. Remember, in 2017-18 we did not know what this team truly had in those two, so landed Hayward was a huge domino.
On July 4th, 2017 the Celtics gave Gordon Hayward the largest contract in the history of the franchise up until that point. It actually happened that in back to back seasons Danny Ainge landed guys who were at the top of the free agent market. Hayward had talked about playing with Isaiah was one of the main reasons why he decided to come to Boston. It was everything we wanted to hear as Celtics fans. Well, then we know what happened about a month later. Isaiah was traded for Kyrie, and we got this
No matter what you thought their expectations may have been around an Isaiah/Hayward/Horford trio, when they made the move for Kyrie it was pretty simple. The expectation was to make the Finals and possibly win it. They seemed loaded. For the first time in his career, Hayward was going to be part of a centerpiece on a championship contending team.
Then his Celtics tenure changed forever, just 5 minutes into his first game. I'm not going to show the video, you know what happened. From that moment on, things were never the same. He suffered one of the most gruesome injury in league history, which in no way shape or form was his fault. Shit just happens. So right off the bat, Year 1 is a bust. The result of that injury combined with Kyrie getting hurt before the playoffs forced the two Jays to develop way faster than any of us thought. That didn't just impact Hayward, but Kyrie as well. Suddenly the direction and timeline of this team kind of changed. The initial plan was to ride these veterans and bring the Jays along slowly. Now, they were on the rise to becoming your best players.
Which brings us to Year 2. Hayward is back…..kind of. It's not the same Hayward we saw in Utah. Nowhere close. A certain game here and there he would show flashes, but he wasn't confident. He didn't attack the rim, his shot was off, again, it's not really his fault after not playing basketball for a year. Brad and Ainge did a bad job of managing the roster and playing time and that's where the resentment started to come. You couldn't blame the Jays after they just carried you to the ECF, they weren't exactly expecting to take a step back, and once Hayward still didn't look right but was given his old role, shit went south. That's not really his fault either. That disaster of a season ended with Kyrie quitting against the Bucks and both Hayward and Tatum having a really bad series as well.
Then Kyrie left and the team inserted Kemba. A player that Hayward wanted to play with back in 2014 when he signed an offer sheet to go to Charlotte the first time. Now fully healthy, Gordon looked INCREDIBLE to start the season. Like, best player on the team good. He finally looked like the player we all thought we were getting when he first signed on the dotted line. He was putting up ridiculous efficiency, he was scoring over 20 a game, he was complimenting the Jays perfectly along with Kemba, it was all fitting just like we hoped. Then LaMarcus Aldridge set a sneaky fucked up screen and Hayward broke his hand. Again, not his fault. His finger got caught in a jersey, it was a freak accident.
Boom. Hayward's out the month of November and into December. When he comes back, he went right back to being really good. He put up 13/5/5 in 7 games in December on 50/38% shooting. Then 17/6/3 on 50/39% in January and 16/7/5 in on 47/38% splits in February. It looks like the good Hayward was back. But here was the thing. Despite those good numbers, there were still bad outings against the really good teams. That's what drove fans crazy. We all wanted to see how he would do in the playoffs when things truly mattered.
Then the pandemic hit. When we got back to the bubble, Hayward put up 19/7/3 on 49/36%. It looked like finally he was going to be that missing piece in a playoff series. In Game 1 against the Sixers, he landed on a foot and that was that. Another big time injury. Another one that wasn't his fault. How could it be? By this time, fans were done. It didn't matter. By the time he came back against the Heat he wasn't 100%, he didn't make a difference in the ECF, missed some brutal layups, and that was that. Now he's out the door to the tune of $120M, and I mean who could blame him. You don't turn that type of money down after the 3 year run Hayward just had.
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To me, if you're talking about "what if" scenarios, Hayward's Celtics tenure is one of the biggest "what ifs" in NBA history. If his injury never happens, who knows what this team looks like. Does he live up to his contract and role as a main piece? Does Kyrie stay if they win? What do the Jays look like? Does Horford leave or do the Celtics end up overpaying for him too?
I won't deny it, I am a fan of the way Gordon Hayward plays basketball. I think his skillset when healthy is exactly what this roster needs. We just saw that this past season. But there's also no way you can spin that the Gordon Hayward experiment was a success. What makes it tricky though is it was mostly due to things that were out of his control. This was a player who never got hurt before coming to Boston, yet once he was here he couldn't not get hurt. It was bizarre.
Now that he's moving on and we can take a step back and look at the entire picture, it was a failure. No two ways about it. The same way the Kyrie trade was a failure. But something tells me their Celtics tenures will be looked at differently. Kyrie talked a big game and then quit. Hayward always said the right thing, eventually accepted coming off the bench, but kept getting derailed by freak injuries. If anything, I have more frustration when I think about his time in Boston than anger. All I wanted to see was a healthy run for this team with a healthy Hayward. We did not get that in any of his three seasons in Boston. One of the biggest free agent signings in franchise history and every year he was snake bit. That is some insanely bad injury luck, but is also reality. In the end they did not get what they needed from Hayward, even if none of it was his fault. Brutal injuries and the rise of the Jays were out of his control.
When I look back on his tenure, I don't see a Carl Crawford situation or anything like that. I see a player that was the perfect fit that got hurt and was never truly the same. By the time he was close, this team was in a different place than when he first got to town. So as you can see…..it's complicated. Objectively, his signing did not live up to expectations, but not because of his talent level, but rather because he was plagued by injuries.
That sucks, but that's life.