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00:00 So off to a unquestionably hot start to the season right now.
00:05 Up until Lamello had, his struggles had subsided a couple days ago,
00:10 Gordon Hayward was the best player on this team.
00:13 I said it in our last podcast.
00:15 He's still performing very well.
00:16 He's probably been the second best player to Lamello over the last week or so.
00:20 I mean, through nine games so far, his season averages for the '23-'24 season
00:25 in assists, steals, and blocks would all be career highs on an entire season.
00:31 He is by far, I think, the second best offensive player as a whole,
00:35 but easily like scorer and playmaker on the roster right now, apart from Lamello,
00:39 obviously because Terry Rozier is out.
00:41 That sways the argument a little bit in his favor,
00:44 probably a little bit easier to slot him in that role.
00:46 But he is like one of the only lifelines for Steve Clifford
00:50 when Lamello sits or gives the ball up right now,
00:53 one of the only players that can get to their spot consistently
00:56 and is a relatively efficient shooter from all three levels of the floor
00:59 and is willing to take shots but is equally willing to create them
01:04 for their teammates and isn't scared to take risks
01:07 and make creative plays or something like that.
01:10 I think he's always been a better fit as a secondary or tertiary playmaker,
01:13 but he has handled that increased responsibility very well.
01:17 Do you want to know probably the most interesting stat that I found
01:20 while I was looking up Hayward's numbers for this, James?
01:23 Probably what?
01:24 So right now he is averaging 11.7 two-point attempts per game,
01:28 which would also be a career high for a season.
01:31 Yeah, I believe that.
01:32 Yeah, exactly. I know you would.
01:34 And he's only taking 2.6 threes per game while shooting 39% on those threes.
01:39 That is like the one thing, the one part of his game
01:42 that I really would like to see change so far.
01:45 That number needs to go up.
01:46 Like he needs to be much more willing to let it fly from three.
01:49 There was a transition three against the Knicks from the right wing
01:53 in that first quarter where they actually didn't really play all that bad.
01:56 The Emmanuel Quickly buzzer beater made it seem a little bit worse
01:59 than it was at the end of the first.
02:00 But he caught that right wing three in transition off the catch,
02:03 just like stepped right into it in rhythm.
02:06 It was that absolute water.
02:08 Like it was good as soon as it left his hands.
02:11 He needs to do that more often.
02:12 I saw you post a tweet actually of a play that he pump faked out of
02:16 and took the really contested mid range, which he is good at those mid range shots.
02:20 I don't necessarily blame him for wanting to take them.
02:22 But when those open threes present themselves,
02:24 he has to let it fly with how good of a shooter that he's been right now.
02:28 His true shooting percentage right now is only 53.7%,
02:31 despite being a 17 point game per game score
02:34 and really not being inefficient at all from any level in particular.
02:38 But the lack of volume from three just kind of drains that a little bit.
02:42 But what has impressed me the most, the two way impact.
02:45 The defensive field goal percentage stat was going around a couple of weeks ago
02:48 or earlier this week, I think is 39.5%.
02:52 Defensive field goal percentage is 15th among all players who have defended.
02:55 That's been contesting, right? Just for people.
02:57 Yes.
02:58 Players being guarded by Gordon Hayward are shooting.
03:01 What is it? 30?
03:02 39.5% is 15th among anybody who has defended or contested
03:07 an equal or greater number of shots than Hayward, which is 81.
03:11 There's only a few percentage points higher than players that are regarded
03:15 as the best on-ball perimeter defenders in the league,
03:18 like Herb Jones, Drew Holiday, Emmanuel Quickly.
03:21 Hayward is in the range with all of those players like that right now.
03:25 Even some bigs that are mostly blocking shots and defending shots at the rim
03:29 and using their length and stuff.
03:31 It's been one of the most consistent high motor players on the team,
03:35 guards multiple positions defensively.
03:38 His screen navigation is still excellent like it was last year.
03:41 Rarely gets caught up or caught in the wrong spot or anything.
03:44 Generating the stocks at a high rate as well,
03:47 at a career high rate with blocks and steals.
03:50 Very positive start to the year from Gordon Hayward for me.
03:53 Honestly, I think I might have underestimated how much having a healthy summer
03:56 to work on his game and get his legs under him actually affected
03:59 his confidence levels and aggressiveness on the court.
04:03 It seems like he's really attacking in a way that wasn't necessarily there.
04:07 As often, I should say, in the previous two years with Charlotte.
04:11 Well, I think he has to because of the injury situation
04:14 and the role he's finding himself in the team at the minute.
04:16 He's having to take charge a little bit more,
04:19 have the offense play really through him at times.
04:22 I've noticed he's really seemed to have mastered more so this year,
04:26 this tippy toe shot fake.
04:28 I don't know if we need to come up with a name for this.
04:30 Where he keeps that one foot on the ground, but his entire body is going up.
04:34 That is so tough.
04:37 How do you guard that consistently?
04:39 When we talk about athleticism, what do you think about?
04:41 Jumping, dunking.
04:43 That is one of the most athletic moves.
04:45 The fact that you can keep grounded while all your momentum
04:49 and body movement is heading up, that just shows you've got
04:52 some unbelievably unique control and core strength,
04:57 which is all part of athleticism.
05:00 Your stop start, your ability to balance.
05:03 He's used that a few times now to get some really funky open shots.
05:07 Again, you do like to see that, but he used one of those exact fakes
05:12 on that clip that I posted where he just had a wide open three
05:15 and then he used the fake into the three to get to the mid-range.
05:19 I sometimes think it's because the coach is preaching paint touches
05:24 and he doesn't want to take a three if the ball hasn't touched the paint.
05:27 But equally, if it's wide open and you're a good enough shooter as you are,
05:31 and especially with the injuries they have at the minute and the level of play,
05:34 the ball might not come back to him.
05:36 If he drives and kicks, it might not always come back to him.
05:39 He has been good.
05:40 I know you convinced me last week on the episode.
05:43 I was surprised that he was-- when you said he'd been the best
05:46 one as a player, then by the end of your point, I got convinced
05:49 and turned back around that I was like, "Yeah, you're right."
05:52 I listened back to that and I almost started leaning back the other way again
05:56 because-- and Gordon Hayward is great in his role,
06:02 but the problem is in Charlotte, they need more from-- for this team
06:08 to be good, they need even more from Gordon Hayward.
06:12 And this is where I just think the role on the team,
06:17 for what you're-- he is your max player, right?
06:21 And he's basically a third option.
06:24 Not anymore, technically.
06:26 I think you would probably give that a candle.
06:28 That's true. That is true.
06:29 Due to injury, but normally he would be like Lamello, Teru Zere,
06:33 and then probably Gordon Hayward.
06:36 And that's where it's like he was going to be the guy to lead this team,
06:41 the veteran to lead this team, the guy who draws doubles, kicks it out.
06:45 And he is playing a role, especially at the time, earlier in the year,
06:48 where he was able to play off people.
06:51 And there's a lot of people I think can play better efficient basketball.
06:54 And he was doing a very good job, but he wasn't just kind of being given
06:58 the ball and told to go do it, like he's having to do more so now.
07:01 And as he struggled a little bit against the Knicks to do.
07:03 So I don't know. I have a fraught relationship with Gordon Hayward.
07:08 I'm oscillating back and forth week to week, it seems.
07:12 But look, I can't argue with some of the numbers that you've put forward there.
07:16 He's had a good start to the season in whatever it is, his age 34 season.
07:23 So the fact that he is playing better.
07:25 I think he was like almost 34.
07:27 I think he's going to be 34 before the season ends.
07:30 So the fact that he's playing better a year or two on,
07:34 in year four of this contract, I don't think probably a lot of people
07:37 thought he'd be playing at this level in year four.
07:40 So you have to keep that in perspective too.
07:42 No, yeah. And that's the biggest thing to me is if that summer
07:45 that he had to work on his game, get into game shape and get his win back
07:50 and get his legs under him before the preseason started,
07:53 rather than doing it during the preseason in camp and as the season opened.
07:57 I feel like now we're kind of seeing what we saw from him that first year
08:02 when he was like 50, 40, 90 at 19, 5 and 5 by January or February
08:08 before it tailed off a little bit. It's kind of like that.
08:10 Because that was the same deal.
08:12 In between that summer from Boston to Charlotte, he was healthy.
08:15 He just worked on his game and he was pretty good.
08:18 And then he got hurt down the stretch.
08:20 So now we just need to hope that that doesn't happen again.
08:23 Did he not have an ankle injury?
08:25 Didn't he have an ankle injury in the bubble? I thought he had that.
08:27 I think he did, but he came back from it and played.
08:31 He sprained his ankle, was in the bubble.
08:34 Came back too early.
08:36 And then came back, yeah, probably too early because Boston,
08:39 he didn't look great.
08:40 He wasn't ruled out again, actually coming back early.
08:42 Or he didn't look himself.
08:43 He may have.
08:44 I don't know if he was fully healthy in between.
08:46 I have a feeling that he was limited in that off season.
08:48 Yeah, you're probably right then.
08:50 So that another year that we'd be tacking on back to like 2017,
08:54 18 was the last time that he wasn't rehabbing an injury.
08:57 So it does make sense that he looks a bit spry in his big age of 34 years
09:03 old, the old man, Gordon Hayward.
09:05 I've loved his game this year that I'm glad you brought up that one-legged
09:09 shot, because I like jumped off of my couch when he got the N1 on that
09:13 against the Wizards.
09:15 I have replayed it like four times.
09:16 That was awesome.