Boston Celtics center Enes Kanter believes teammate Gordon Hayward is going to redeem himself in the upcoming NBA season.

Hayward joined the Celtics as a free agent in 2017. Unfortunately, his first two seasons with the franchise have been severely underwhelming. He suffered a leg injury, which caused him to miss effectively the team's entire 2017-18 campaign, and he struggled to regain his All-Star form and was severely inconsistent last season.

Still, Kanter believes Hayward will play a crucial role for the Celtics next season. In an interview with The Athletic's Jared Weiss, the Turkish big man said he's impressed with what he's seeing from his new teammate during their practice sessions:

“…I played with (Hayward) in two-on-two action and I feel like he’s gained more confidence. When he played, he wasn’t scared of anything. It was me, Gordon, Jaylen Brown and Tacko (Fall). I was guarding Tacko. He’s good, man, and I love him. His personality is amazing, real good character. He’s a hard worker. I’m definitely really excited to play with him.”

The Celtics are considered one of the top teams in the Eastern Conference this season despite the fact that they lost Kyrie Irving to the Brooklyn Nets and Al Horford to the Philadelphia 76ers in free agency. Boston was able to replace them with Kanter and Kemba Walker, two underrated players at their respective positions.

If Gordon Hayward can play the way he did in 2016-17, the Celtics will be an even better team, and Enes Kanter believes he can do just that.