Ainge, Celts seek silver lining
There is room to won- der how big a factor Gordon Hayward could be if he somehow does manage to find his way back onto the court this season from his fractured tibia and dislocated ankle. But there is at least a ray of Green light in the fact no one is categorically ruling out a possible return.
The Celtics and all concerned are, however, taking a prudent approach.
“I’m not a doctor, and I wasn’t in the surgery, so I don’t really know,” Danny Ainge told the Herald when asked if he was leaving the door open. “And it’s still too early to tell. I mean, he just got out of surgery at midnight (Wednesday) night, and he was resting all day (yesterday) since he got no sleep (Wednesday). I honestly don’t know if anybody knows that.
“But I think it’s just safe to say that we’re not counting on him this year and go from there. Just take the pressure off him and let him heal correctly is the most important thing and not even really talk about when he should return to play. That’ll work itself out over time. Everybody heals differently.”
The Celtics already had an available roster spot, and they could apply to the league for a disabled player exception that would create a slot of more than $8 million to add another player. But it’s likely the club will let this play out a bit before deciding on a course of action.
“We’re looking,” said Ainge. “We’re looking for ways to improve our team, but we’re not in a major rush to do that.”
What is certain is that Hayward’s horrific injury, coming 5:15 into a regular season that is scheduled to contain 3,936 minutes even before overtimes, has dealt a severe blow to expectations for the 2017-18 Celtics. It had changed what is realistic for this club.
“No question,” said Ainge. “I mean, Gordon Hayward is a fantastic player. He plays four positions, he can score and distribute, defend, rebound, pass. I mean, he’s a complete, versatile, creative, scoring player. He’s an All-Star that we were counting very heavily on this year.”
As for what would constitute success now, the president of basketball operations said, “You know what? I never go there. Like, I don’t know. Everybody wants prognostications before the season starts, and five minutes into the season, you see what happens to those prognostications. Right now, I’m just watching for improvement and watching for our team to come together.
“I’m certainly not panicking right now. I feel like we have not played very well, and we’ve had a chance in both of the first two games. So I know that we can play a lot better than we’ve just played. We’ll see if we can just keep improving.”
The Celtics were looking to do that with a more gradual approach for some in the rotation, but the process has been altered.
“Well, I mean, when the season started — when we started training camp — we were hoping to have some young veteran players with NBA playoff experience like Marcus (Smart) and Terry Rozier, you know, guys that were going to be given an opportunity that were ready to take that next step,” said Ainge. “And then we had Jaylen (Brown) and Jayson (Tatum), two young guys that were pretty much unproven that were going to play and develop, but they probably weren’t going to be relied upon a lot. And now those guys are going to have to take a bigger step forward. Without Marcus (Morris) so far and without Gordon, that’s eating up 65 minutes of veteran play that’s going to be replaced more by young players.”
All of this became evident as Ainge watched the fateful play unfold against the Cavaliers from home Tuesday night, but his concerns were more personal.
“I knew right away what most likely had happened, and I just felt sick for Gordon more than anybody,” he said. “I felt sick for all of our team. You know, it’s just a tough thing. Gordon’s the one that has to go out and put in the work now to get himself back right. It’s a tough thing to go through, but I feel like Gordon is a strong kid. He can overcome this.
“I feel bad for Gordon. He’s put a lot of work in to prepare for this year and for this opportunity in his career, and it’s just a major setback. But I think he’ll grow from it.” How so? “I just think that that’s how we grow sometimes, going through adverse situations,” Ainge said.
He believes, as well, that there will be accelerated growth for the Celtics from this.
“I believe there will be a silver lining and we will find it,” said Ainge. “We’ll see what stories are written this year.”
It’s a fair bet they will be less depressing for the Celtics than those penned since Tuesday night in Cleveland.