Gordon Hayward is on the cusp of his second season as a Charlotte Hornet.
On Wednesday, Hayward took to his blog to speak on his offseason and how motivated he is going into the 2021-22 season.
“I’ve spent basically the entire offseason here in Charlotte. That’s been hugely important to getting ready for this upcoming season,” Hayward said. “It’s good when you’re able to have consistency and get everything in at the facility. I’ve had summers like this before, and they’ve always turned out really well going into the season.”
Hayward is coming off a season where he averaged 19.6 points, 5.9 rebounds, and 4.1 assists per game on 41.5% shooting from 3-point range in 44 games.
“I have a lot of motivation coming off the way last season finished,” Hayward said. “It was a strange year, trying to squeeze so many games into a smaller window, and I think it was really taxing on all of our bodies as players.”
LiAngelo Ball has learned from the UCLA incident and kept pushing https://t.co/oOfQbb0ZXx
— Lonzo Wire (@LonzoWire) September 2, 2021
Charlotte ended the season as the No. 10 seed in the East, ultimately losing in the first game of the play-in tournament to the Indiana Pacers. The Hornets were well on their way to securing a playoff spot prior to Hayward and LaMelo Ball missing a number of games due to injury.
“But it definitely was motivating for me—and for all of us—because of the way last season ended,” Hayward said. “You start to realize, as a young team, what it takes to get into the playoffs and be a playoff team, that we can’t falter down the stretch like that, and there’s things we’ve got to clean up.”
We’ll see how the Hornets clean up down the stretch during the 2021-22 season.
