Will Gordon Hayward Play Like the All-Star He Is?
Gordon Hayward made his first All-Star appearance this season and there’s absolutely no denying that it was well deserved. With a career-high 21.9 points per game on a solid 47.1 percent shooting from the field and 39.8 percent from deep, while shouldering the load for the Jazz offensively as well as being a team leader, Hayward was phenomenal this year and an enormous reason why his team is in the postseason today.
And to be completely honest, one of the most reassuring parts of Hayward’s game is that by and large he remained consistent all season long. Sure, there were a couple bad stints here and there, but his improvements and overall reliability have been evident in nearly every way. Almost every time Hayward had a bad game, he was able to bounce back in the following contest.
However, two of his worst stints of the season just so happened to come against the Los Angeles Clippers. In Utah’s two losses against LA in which Gordon played, he averaged a measly 10 points on 29.2 percent shooting from the field and 27.3 percent from deep. He posted a plus/minus of -11 between those two contests and overall looked ineffective.
.@GordonHayward // Shootaround 4.15.17#UTAatLAC https://t.co/vG8KCXm0wY
— Utah Jazz (@utahjazz) April 15, 2017
Give credit for some of the Clippers’ success against Hayward to Luc Mbah a Moute who is an excellent defender and certainly did an impressive job of covering him in those two bouts. However, beyond that Hayward simply had off-games both of those nights as he was unable to find the bottom of the net.
Mbah a Moute and the Clippers were one of the few squads that was able to hold Hayward to more than one poor shooting game and I have a hard time believing that doing it two-thirds of the time is a realistic and plausible expectation.
Still, this will be Hayward’s first time in a major role in the playoffs and Utah can’t afford for him to be timid, inefficient or under-confident. Hayward’s made it clear that he has wanted the Jazz to surround him with talent so that he can be on a formidable team that can win at the highest level. The Jazz organization has certainly done their part, now it’s time for Hayward to prove that he’s capable of stepping up as well.