Gordon Hayward entered the room, exchanged a few quick pleasantries while waiting for a few technical difficulties to be ironed out and took a seat behind the podium.
It wasn’t long before the Charlotte Hornets’ forward subtly mentioned the increased expectations surrounding the team leading into the preseason. With the reigning rookie of the year back at the helm, a revamped roster and national television appearances dotting their schedule, there’s no hiding. The Hornets are supposed to be on the rise and Hayward knows it as well as anybody.
“I think we’ve got a great vibe with our team, you could say,” Hayward said Monday during media day. “We all understand it’s time. Last year’s goal, I think we were right on track there and faltered at the end. Some of it due to injury, some of it due to us being young and other teams kind of taking that next jump towards the end of the season that we are going to have to take.”
The Hornets’ disappointing tailspin followed in the immediate aftermath of Hayward sustaining a right foot sprain in Indiana on April 2. It cost him the final 25 games of the season and the Hornets were never quite the same.
Outside of LaMelo Ball’s broken wrist, no injury derailed the Hornets’ express mid-season like Hayward’s. After tabulating a 24-20 mark with him, watching him hit game-winners and add another playmaking dimension to their offense, they went 9-19 without their $120-million man, slid down from fourth to 10th in the Eastern Conference standings and got bounced by Indiana in the play-in tournament.
Hayward’s injury history is well-chronicled and he’s had his season end prematurely in two of the last four years. In order to do their best to preserve his services, the Hornets may collectively implement a plan that could result in Hayward sitting out games even if he’s technically perfectly healthy enough to be on the court. There’s also the potential of resting him on one end of a back-to-back, ensuring he doesn’t see the three-games-in-four-nights scenarios.
“He knows his body better than anybody,” coach James Borrego said. “I’m going to manage him as best as I can. And that really comes through communication and trust. We had dialogue consistently about how he was feeling throughout the summer. He looks great, feels great. His body is in great shape. Physically, he is ready to go. We need a little bit of luck to go our way, health to go our way.
“But I feel good about where he is at and we will have to manage his body. Will he play 82 games? I don’t know. We will have to figure that out as we go.”
Hayward is accepting of it, albeit slightly reluctantly due to his competitiveness. He’s not actively requesting to sit out.
“I think it’s just the nature of being an older player in the league and trying to figure out how I can be playing my best basketball at the end of the year,” Hayward said. “I trust the training staff, and a lot of it is going to be leaning heavily on them. As a basketball player, it’s something that you don’t ever want to do. But it’s certainly something that I understand. I think it will be a constant communication with J.B., with the training staff. I’m just trying to figure out how we can best maximize me and my minutes, and I can be playing my best basketball at the end of the year.”
That includes more treatment in between games.
“For me, where I’m at right now. I can still do all the things I used to be able to do,” Hayward said. “It’s just I need to be in the training room for 45 minutes before practice. I need to do stuff after practice. Whereas before, you show up, you practice, you go home. There was really nothing else that I had to do. And now you do some stretching, you do some activation, recovery, all that good stuff. So I’ve done a lot of that this summer and we will continue to do it again throughout the course of the season.”
At least now, if the Hornets have to be without the services of Hayward — or anyone else for that matter — for a length of time, they can better handle the blow. Addressing their depth was one of the offseason’s priorities given how things fell apart in the latter weeks because they couldn’t overcome the rash of injuries.
Kelly Oubre is one of those additions and he’s salivating his new opportunity.
“I’m here,” he said. “I’m on this team to go out each and every day and give my all, my 100% effort. So whatever is entailed in me, I’ll do.
“I’m very versatile on the court,” he added. “I can play ‘2,’ ‘3,’ ‘4’ … It don’t matter. I’ll play some ‘1’ if you ask me to. I’m just out there to win. I’m out there to be a two-way player, play offense and defense and take pride in guarding the best offensive players on the other team, and also going for mine on the offensive end. So whatever (position) Coach puts me in on the court, I’m ready to attack that position with 100-percent effort.”
Still, having a healthy Hayward is imperative toward their success.
“Me and ‘G’ are (in) the same draft class,” Ish Smith said. “It’s crazy. When we were in Miami (working out recently), we were talking. It’s crazy how when you start on this journey, it’s funny at the end, you want to see who continues to push on. And ‘G’ is a special talent. I tell guys now that I’m on this team, thank God. But in the past when we played against him when I was in D.C. and he was in Boston … even last year I would always tell guys, like, ‘Yo, he’s bigger than you think, he’s more physical than you think, he’s more athletic than you think. I don’t want you to get this perception of like, ‘Oh, he’s just …’
“No, he can play. So ‘G’ is a guy that you can give the ball, and get you a bucket. He can post up smaller guys. He knows how to play the game. He shoots the ball at a high level. It’s not really a fault that he has out there on the floor. He can do it all out there on the floor. So, I’m glad he’s on our side … and I’m praying for health throughout the whole year because he’s really a special talent.”
