Boston Celtics: Pros and cons of Gordon Hayward as sixth man

Con: Could stagnate development of Jaylen Brown

While Gordon Hayward may be the biggest deal sitting at the start of Boston Celtics games, he is not the only high profile player riding the pine. Early this season, Jaylen Brown lost his starting role to Marcus Smart and has not been able to win it back.

Much like Hayward, it is incredibly important for Brown to find significant success against bench players. Still just 22 years old, he has tons of room to grow and develop into more of a complete player. Playing against second unit competition, Brown needs to take advantage of less talented players and practice his all-around game.

To do that, the offense should revolve squarely around him. However, that won’t happen if he has to share both the floor, and the keys to the offense, with Hayward. It’s not that their games can’t complement each other’s; they do perfectly, in theory. Hayward can function on or off-ball, and Brown can play off him as a spot-up shooter and lane attacker.

However, while Hayward’s game is pretty much completely fleshed out, Brown’s is not. It could hurt his development if he’s not allowed to experiment with aspects of the game he would otherwise not be tasked with if he were playing with the team’s premier playmakers, forcing him into a niche role where he could expand his game to become a potential star in this league.