Gordon Hayward Is Hurt Again, This Time Fracturing A Finger On His Shooting Hand
Brock Williams-Smith. Getty Images.
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God dammit. I won't pretend to be a doctor or anything like that, but that sure doesn't sound ideal. Who knows if this is something that needs surgery or is no big deal, but man this sucks. I know I'm supposed to be salty about Hayward leaving for the Hornets but I can't be. His time in Boston was complicated for sure, but nobody should have to deal with the type of injury luck Hayward has had to go through these last few years. This was a guy who pretty much NEVER got hurt while he was in Utah, and now he can't stay healthy to save his life. His broken finger/hand last year was a freak accident after it got stuck in a jersey, and now this. Especially when he looked pretty good for the Hornets in their preseason games
Obviously, this is not exactly what you want to see immediately after giving a guy $120M. The thing that sucks is that this is his shooting hand. Again, not a doctor, but I feel like it's usually better when you don't break fingers on your shooting hand. Who knows how this will impact how aggressive Hayward will be at attacking the basket once he's back. He did have some hesitation once he came back from his ankle injury.
I know there was all this talk about how Hayward was willing to take a discount this offseason, but I'm calling bullshit on that once CHA made their offer. You don't turn down $120M, especially when you have an injury history. You take that bag precisely for reasons like this. You just never know.
I just really feel for the guy. Part of me is sad it never worked out in Boston, but I was really hoping that a fresh start in a new team where he would be the #1 or #2 option would get him back to being that player we saw in Utah. That dude was awesome. To now suffer an injury like this before the season even starts? That fucking sucks.
Hopefully, this isn't something that will force him to miss a bunch of time. A quick Google search tells me that depending on the injury it can take up to 8 weeks or more for the fracture to heal. We're already in a 72 game season. Missing two months could be like half the year. Man does that stink.