The silver lining to a 2017-18 campaign which saw the Boston Celtics on the brink of reaching the NBA Finals is that the team should be exponentially better next season. Kyrie Irving is expected to be ready to go after undergoing a “minimally invasive procedure” on his left knee. However, the road to recovery for Gordon Hayward has been a different story.
Since fracturing his left ankle in October, Hayward has been slowly but surely making his way back to the court. There have been bumps along the way, but on Monday, Celtics general manager and president of basketball relations Danny Ainge provided an encouraging update on Hayward’s progress. "Gordon is progressing well," Ainge said. "He’s on the court now, finally doing a little bit of competition, like just 1-on-1. And he’ll progress along that line slowly. We think that he’ll be playing basketball in the next couple months." According to Chris Mannix of Yahoo Sports, there is still no firm timetable on Hayward's return.
In addition to the difficulty of predicting when we should expect to see the 2017 NBA All-Star ready to compete at a high level, there's the uncertainty of foreseeing when Gordon will be mentally prepared to confidently push his body like he did prior to the injury. Back in December, Hayward admitted on The Dan Patrick Show that dealing with mental depression has been more difficult than the actual physical pain.
If Hayward can successfully get back to playing like his former self next season, the Celtics will almost assuredly be the favorites to represent the Eastern Conference in the NBA Finals. After all, Boston was only one win away from making that happen this year.
