Reunited for good
Stevens, Hayward will find new looks
LAS VEGAS — Brad Stevens and Gordon Hayward are converging with each other for the second time in their careers, and what each is going to find is a refined version of what they once knew.
Ron Nored was there the first time, as point guard on the Butler team that came within a desperation Hayward heave of beating Duke for the 2010 NCAA championship. He joined Stevens’ first Celtics staff in 2013-14, working with the Maine Red Claws.
Nored understands the change in both men as well as anyone.
“He’s really expanded his game,” Nored said of Hayward. “He’s always been a guy with great feel, and always been a guy who could really pass it. Shot-maker, he’s had those qualities. But he’s more physical. That’s the difference that shows the most is his body and his physicality. He’s gone to a new level. He’s able to play in the post, and that’s something he didn’t do when we were with him, definitely.
“Defensively, he’s also been pretty good, but his physicality has taken it to a new level as well.”
The Celtics remain one of the lightest rebounding teams in the league. They need all the added physicality they can get.
However, Hayward will find differences in Stevens, too. Or, more precisely, a Stevens who has built on his remarkable base of organization and the ability to forge relationships with players.
Nored thought back to that first season in 2013-14 when the Celtics won only 25 games and had a rotating roster of certain players who knew they were simply passing through, some who couldn’t buy into Stevens’ plan and the occasional diamond in the rough, like Jordan Crawford.
Mention of Crawford, who blossomed once Stevens handed him the ball and showed trust in the guard, brought a smile to Nored’s face. He’s seen that dynamic play out time after time between Stevens and new players.
“It was a good year, challenging year for all of us. Brad’s first year in the NBA and it really helped him grow,” said Nored, now coach of the Long Island Nets, Brooklyn’s G-League team. “I experienced a 17- win season in the D-League this year, and it helps you grow a lot. I’m sure Brad had that experience year two and was ready to be better, and we were better year two — won 40 games instead of 25. It was tough having so many guys come through, but Brad handles every situation so well. He handles it intelligently, he has a plan, he’s really organized, he handles it well.”
And, from what Nored can tell, Stevens might be even better at it now, with NBA stars including the LeBron James vocal in their admiration of his system and style.
Nored paused about where he most notices the growth in Stevens.
“Man, kind of like Gordon, he was always pretty good,” he said. “The thing about going from college to the NBA, you know the relationship building would be different because it was a different environment. But Brad didn’t change. That’s what’s made him good at this level is that he’s still good at building those unique relationships.”
That influence started with the 2009-10 season, and ended with Hayward’s last-second running, leaning launch from halfcourt that hit the backboard and off the front of the rim against Duke. Butler lost the national title game, 6159, and returned without Hayward the next year for a sound 53-41 beating by UConn in the final.
“I did think it was good. I knew it was going in,” Nored said of Hayward’s miss. “Everything had happened to us in every situation, and we hadn’t lost a game yet. I didn’t think that would be any different.
“I thought that run, overall, we had experienced adversity throughout the year. We didn’t start that year very well, and then things really gelled in a lot of ways as the year went on. You get a couple more weeks of the season when you go to the national championship game, and just being able to spend that extra time together really brought us even closer together.
“We were all close in age, all friends off the court, and that started with the way Brad and the coaches created the environment and recruited. It’s done a lot for us to this day. Yeah, still, we hadn’t lost a game in three months, and at that point we never thought we were going to lose.
“So yeah, that was a bond between those guys and everyone else who was a part of it.”
And yet Nored never considered it inevitable, unlike many, that Hayward and Stevens would work together again.
“Not really. In my conversations with Gordon, Utah was great for him, I think he enjoyed living in Utah, so not really,” he said. “But I wasn’t necessarily surprised. The Celtics will probably do a lot for Gordon, he liked what was there.”