Swarm and Sting
Fansided

Charlotte Hornets’ Gordon Hayward: The good and bad–his season recap

By W.B. Whitted

Oct 12, 2022; Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, USA; Charlotte Hornets forward Gordon Hayward (20) and Philadelphia 76ers forward P.J. Tucker (17) in action during the first quarter at Wells Fargo Center. Mandatory Credit: Bill Streicher-USA TODAY Sports
Oct 12, 2022; Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, USA; Charlotte Hornets forward Gordon Hayward (20) and Philadelphia 76ers forward P.J. Tucker (17) in action during the first quarter at Wells Fargo Center. Mandatory Credit: Bill Streicher-USA TODAY Sports /
facebooktwitterreddit
Prev
2 of 3
Next
Gordon Hayward of the Charlotte Hornets (Photo by Jacob Kupferman/Getty Images)
Gordon Hayward of the Charlotte Hornets (Photo by Jacob Kupferman/Getty Images) /

The Bad

It’s good that this past season wasn’t the one where he would be entering unrestricted free agency. To put it bluntly, it was one of the least productive of his career. Removing his 2017-18 season which ended five minutes into game one, he had the lowest win shares of his career. He also had the lowest Value Above Replacement Player metric since his rookie year. And his 14.7 points per game is the lowest at any point in his career where he’s averaged at least 31 minutes per game.

His distance shooting was a huge issue. He shot 32.5% from behind the arc on 3.7 attempts per game. To his credit, his percentage of three-point field goals attempted (27.5) was the lowest in his career since he was 23 and in Utah. That shooting slump led to more difficult midrange shots, which (combined with the poor three-point shooting) led to his lowest effective field goal percentage since joining the Hornets.

In short, he was forced to take more contested shots and did so less efficiently. And with his injury history, he was unable to finish at the rim like he could in his prime. He had 16 dunks this season. For perspective, he had 79 dunk attempts in his sole All-Star selection year.