After missing the entire season last year recovering from a fractured left ankle, it's taking Boston Celtics small forward Gordon Hayward some time to get back to his old form and that was to be expected.
Entering Friday, Gordon Hayward is averaging 10.9 points, 5.2 rebounds and 3.6 assists per game while shooting 41.4 percent from the field, 34.3 percent from beyond the arc and 89.5 percent from the free-throw line. The swingman was struggling to play with the starters, so Hayward has been coming off the bench since Nov. 19.
Gordon Hayward feels like his shot-making and play making abilities are slowly coming back, but there's one area in which he is still not confident in and that is finishing at the rim and dunking on people.
“There’s still some things I lack confidence on,” Gordon Hayward told A. Sherrod Blakely of NBC Sports Boston. “I think my leg is probably strong enough to do it. It’s just something that I have to go out there and experience it.
“Feeling like I’m able and capable of attacking the rim and dunk on people and all the stuff I used to do. I think right now, I’m just hesitant. In this league, if you hesitate for half a second in the moment it’s over. So, that’s something I’m going to keep doing. I think I just have to go to the rim and if I get blocked I get blocked. That’ll only help me on the next one.”
You can't blame Gordon Hayward for not being fully confident in attacking the rim with full force. The injury he suffered last season came on a play where Hayward was trying to catch an alley-oop and slam it home. Mentally, Hayward is just not ready for it, and that's fine.
The injury Gordon Hayward suffered was very traumatic. The fact that he's playing basketball at the highest level just a year later is an accomplishment in itself.
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