The Utah Jazz have underperformed this year and because of it, Gordon Hayward might have to endure a second straight season as an All-Star Game snub.
Can you believe that 2010 was six years ago?
It seems like it was just yesterday when the Butler Bulldogs were one of the elite programs in college basketball. If the only memory you have of Gordon Hayward was watching a lanky 6’8″ shooting guard, with the same haircut as Justin Bieber, take a half-court shot to win the 2010 national championship game against the Duke Blue Devils, then you’ve been missing out.
Hayward has put together a solid career as an NBA player, in fact, most players in the league don’t come close to putting up the raw numbers across the board as he does. It’s fair to say that he’s still one of the most underrated players in the league.
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This year Hayward is on the brink of having his first, and hopefully of many, 20-points-per-game seasons. Hayward’s a shade shy of the goal with his 19.8 points per game average, but there’s much more season left to play.
However, because Utah is a small-market team and they don’t have any nationally televised games, it’s very difficult to get a glimpse of his game. In spite of the lack of attention surrounding this team once again this year, and on Hayward’s game, in particular, he’s starting to finally make people take notice and give them a reason to watch.
Gordon’s Got Game
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Gordon Hayward has the talent to play in the All-Star Game.
Anytime you’re name is mentioned as one of the 30 finalists to make the Olympic team, you’re doing something right. Due to the fact that there are only 12 spots available for the final roster, it’s more difficult to make the Olympic squad than it is making the All-Star Game.
The bad news is right now the odds aren’t in his favor. Outside of the five that were elected by fans to start, that leaves only seven spots available and there is a lot of competition. If you had to pick today, then the finalists for the game would be Anthony Davis, James Harden, DeMarcus Cousins, Klay Thompson, Blake Griffin, Chris Paul and Draymond Green.
Then you’ve got players like LaMarcus Aldridge, Damian Lillard and Andrew Wiggins that each are worthy of All-Star nods.
But Hayward this season has a reasonable chance to make his first appearance as one of the best 12 in the Western Conference. If you look at the complete situation of the Jazz, with all of their injuries this season, it’s a blessing that they still are in the middle of the Western Conference playoff race. A huge part of that goes to Hayward because Utah hasn’t fallen completely off just yet.
However, all Utah needs to do is start to collect more wins. Right now Utah is in ninth place and they aren’t in the Western Conference playoff picture. Recently, Hayward has been playing the best basketball of the season attempting to help change their fortune.
The Final Step
Get buckets.
At the end of the day, basketball is only about two words, getting buckets. It all comes down to scoring. It’s wonderful to have an awesome Player Efficiency Rating, it’s great to think about fantasy stats such as per-48. But when it comes down to wins and losses, it correlates exactly with points per game and Gordon Hayward has to step up offensively.
Not only does he need it because he wants to become an All-Star, but more importantly because Utah needs him to score more points if they want to win.
We’ve seen this year from Paul George, a fellow who was in the same 2010-11 rookie class as Hayward, recently tear up the league by averaging a career-high 23.5 points per game. George is on his way to yet another All-Star Game selection and is gearing up for a big playoff run.
Hayward on the other hand, has a different path than his classmate, but the trajectory for the two doesn’t have to be so insurmountable.
Hayward doesn’t need to think about leading the league in scoring or anything close to it, but he does need to shoot the basketball more than he’s done this season. Hayward who’s ranked as the No. 22 scorer in the league (great accomplishment), could go even higher up the list when he becomes more aggressive.
Out of the top 25 scorers in the league, Hayward’s 14.9 shots per game is second-lowest only to Kawhi Leonard at 14.5.
It’s great and well to make the right basketball play and play fundamentally sound. It’s great to have court vision and pass the ball extremely well. But it’s also great to become the go-to player for your team and lead them by example. It’s going to require demanding the basketball more, shooting more shots and taking bad ones too.
Hayward needs to become the Carmelo Anthony-like player for Utah more than he needs to play like LeBron James.
Utah’s been waiting a long time to have another All-Star caliber player on their roster, and if Hayward steps up his scoring average, it’ll be hard to justify having both Blake Griffin, and Chris Paul on the roster together. Either way, All-Star Game or not, Hayward’s one of the most underrated players in the league and it won’t be long until he finally gets in.
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It just needs to happen sooner than later because Wiggins is coming, too.