Gordon Hayward's return to the court was anything but a quick process. Disaster struck for the wing mere minutes into his Boston Celtics career last season. After sustaining a particularly gruesome leg injury, Hayward was lost for the year.

While this put a damper on Hayward's first season with the Celtics, he plans to return to Boston for training camp.

This is excellent news for Celtics fans, and frankly for all basketball fans. No one wants to see a player go down with such an unfortunate injury, especially an All-Star like Hayward.

But looking forward, Hayward is joining a team that exceeded expectations last season. Brad Stevens led his squad to Game 7 of the Eastern Conference Finals despite losing Hayward in game one of the season. Not to mention, Kyrie Irving's knee problems ended his season prematurely as well.

The Celtics are one of the early favorites in a thin Eastern Conference. With the returns of Irving and Hayward to a team that overachieved all of last season, it's easy to see why.

Boston will have to compete with the Philadelphia 76ers and Toronto Raptors, but they still may have the slight edge if they can avoid the injury bug next season. The Celtics calmly dispatched of the Sixers in five games without Hayward and Irving and who knows how the new-look Raptors will gel after acquiring Kawhi Leonard.

Regardless, NBA fans will finally have the opportunity to watch a full-strength Celtics lineup and love them or hate them, it's good for the game of basketball.