Meet
For whom “Bell” could REALLY toll: Gordon Hayward.
Posted by: KelJewkes on July 27th, 2010
The author's views are entirely his or her own and may not reflect the views of the Utah Jazz.When the Jazz selected Gordon Hayward with the 9th pick in the draft, he was booed by almost all in attendance at the Jazz Draft Party in ESA. Booed. Wow.
He was selected largely, we are told, because of his amazing basketball I.Q…. What does that mean? Is he a natural born leader? Is he a guy that can play above his abilities? It certainly doesn’t mean he’s just a well of raw talent that needs to be molded ( our 2nd round pick, Evens?). So If basketball skills have a sliding scale, with basketball intelligence on one end and raw talent on the other end, we are being told that Gordon is just a few strokes away from being an NBA head coach right now. OK, What now? Now you bring in Raja Bell.
Raja is a prime example of a limited raw talent guy with a library full of basketball I.Q. Raja is who he is because he learned, stretched, and studied. In a sense, he is the product of hard work + a high basketball I.Q. Does that sound familiar? It should. If Kevin O’Conner knows what he’s doing, he might have just created a taller, more athletic Raja Bell in Gordon Hayward. He did this by drafting a young, pretty athletic, hungry player in Hayward; and giving him a snap shot of what he could become in Bell.
I repeat, Gordon Hayward could become a longer, slightly more athletic Raja Bell.
I’ll take that any day of the week, and twice on Sundays.
Raja Bell is at the sunset of his career. He has picked up tricks, sneaks, meanness, and a desire to win along the way. It really should be a beautiful sunset!
But when the Jazz front office pulled the strings on Bell, I think there was another motive besides watching a great sunset, I think they picked up someone who they had previous experience with, that knows the system, is everything the Jazz want in a 2/3 guy, hates the Lakers (yea this was important), and can teach everything he has learned over his unique career to a young, eager “basketball head” in G. Hayward. In other words, the Jazz just picked up the best possible one on one coach for Hayward they could have gotten.
It might be a little early but KOC, you might have just created an ALL STAR.
Am I crazy for saying so? No. Think about it this way;
Would you say Raja is one of the wiliest and nasty guys in the NBA? Sure you would!
Now, what if you could add 4 inches to him and younger legs… would you have an all star? I think you could. I think you would.
Final thought:
G. Hayward will have a long NBA career as long as he stays healthy. No matter what.
If he and Raja can work together and he can draw from Raja’s HUGE well of tricks, schemes, hustle, toughness, and basketball I.Q., It could be a long CELEBRATED NBA career.
KOC, here is to one hell of an off season!
Replies: 12
Views: 2018
12 Responses
it has been a great off season for the jazz but, barron or any other big that will contribute to the team will make it even better. And no fes won’t help us out at all
that picture is a classic. I really hope Hayword pans out.
I too am excited about Hayward. I think he really has the potential to be a starter in this league.
I wouldn’t mind us bringing in Barron, but I think we’ll end up signing Fes. That being the case, we really need to bring in a past all-star center to coach Fes, much like the Magic did with Dwight Howard and Patrick Ewing. Maybe we could hire The Admiral or The Dream?
Specialty/position coaches are long over due in the NBA. The NFL has been using them for years. I would love to see “The dream” work with our bigs, but I think he is actually working with Houston! He worked with H. Whiteside prior to him being drafted as well.
What people are missing is, yes, as of now, Hayward doesn’t have a lot of “basketball” talent, but he is very athletically talented. He was more into tennis than basketball, even though he liked basketball more. He didn’t really get into basketball with all his heart until mid-high school. Think about what he did in that short time. You are talking about talented men being in basketball all their life, and he was just in it for a few years? Of course he has a crazy sports IQ, but you can’t get that far so quickly without having talent.
Here is his wiki page: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gordon_Hayward
Now the thing he, he went through all that in so little time, and rose to the occation when he had to. I understand that going from college ball to the NBA can be a jump for some people. But I don’t like it that many on these boards are saying that they don’t think that Hayward is quite ready to be a major impact on this team, when first off they haven’t really done their homework, and secondly, more than half the people on this board misspell his name.
I understand some people are just being a realist. Being a realist may sometimes make you sound like a pessimist, but half the time being a realist can sound like an optimist.
PS, I hate this site for not having an edit option when you see you made a mistake in spelling. Or if it does, then I can’t find it. (I mention that before someone tries to be a big shot and attempts to “miserably so” busts my balls.)
I wanted barron from the day we signed bell but few people seem to care about getting a big who can actually play, and play very well at that, to replace the nearly useless Fes. Give Barron what he wants, even if it hurts us significantly in the luxury tax. He’s what we need to push us over the edge and win big. But if you want to be sitting back and watching next spring as our starters come out and the Lakers bigs make Fes look even more helpless than he already is and send our hopes down the drain, then you’re doing the right thing. Bell and Hayward are nice, but let’s not be complacent.
@dignan…I like your thinking on this. Hopefully Bell can turn Hayward into a man. If Gordon is going to develop that mean streak, I think Raja needs to take him out to the woods and make him live among the wolves for a time.
@Gerald…unfortunately, I am one of those people you mentioned who believes it will take Hayward some time to develop. If I’m wrong and he can make a significant contribution this year, I will happily eat my words.
@dignan…by the way, I checked out sportscavelive. Nice work!
@James, yes. You had said that about Hayward. That is true. I don’t wholly agree with what you say sometimes, but you are intelligent in your posts, and have something constructive to say, so I have to give you that credit.
James, thanks for checkin’ out the site! I went back over you stuff (3 questions, 3 years) and really like your take! It’s fun to see a successful “internet” writer who isn’t a pessimist or a rose colored glasses guy. I’ll be reading your stuff!
@dignan. This was a great post, and I have to admit that this gave me a perspective that I hadn’t even thought of. I really like the idea of having Bell being the personal mentor for Hayward. With all the talent he already has plus what he can learn from Bell, Hayward could really turn out to be a very special player. I’m glad that someone brought this up.