Boston Celtics: 3 Players that disappointed this season
The hopes on Kyrie Irving and his squad were sky-high even before the 2018-19 season tipped off. The Boston Celtics had dragged LeBron James all the way down to a Game 7 in the East Finals the year prior, despite having Kyrie and Hayward cheering from the sidelines and inactive.
What transpired along the Celtics' 2018-19 campaign on and off the court, resembled a roller coaster like none other. From Uncle Drew's flawed leadership to Boston's underperforming uber-talented core, this was a year that posed more questions that it answered. The return of Kyrie and Hayward didn't bear success the way everyone projected.
Finishing 4th in the East with a 49-33 (0.598) win-loss record, the Cs matched up against the Pacers in the first round of the postseason. Now that we have the playoff results at out disposal, beating Indiana without their best player and winning a game against the East's best Bucks doesn't really cut it for the team which was expected to make the Eastern Conference Finals at the very least. Safe to say, the 2018-19 version of the team couldn't accomplish much as we head into the offseason with a plethora of doubts and expectation.
It can be strongly suggested that the Boston Celtics were clearly lesser than the sum of their individual parts. Therefore, let's take a look at the three most disappointing players who couldn't really help the Celtics' drowning cause.
#1 Gordon Hayward
After missing the entire previous season due to a gruesome leg injury, many thought it would be a tall task for Hayward to be his true self this year around.
As the numbers suggest, Gordon indeed was nowhere close to the Utah Jazz All-Star that the Celtics acquired to boost their offense along with Kyrie. Across the 72 games that he played for Boston this season (18 of which he started), the 28-year-old swingman averaged an underwhelming 11.5 points, 4.5 rebounds and 3.4 assists in over 25 minutes of playtime per contest.
Carrying a four-year fully guaranteed $127 million dollar contract, Hayward shot 46% from the field (in around 8.8 shots per game) and 33% from beyond the arc, taking a huge step down from the numbers he's used to producing.
Considering how catastrophic his injury was, him being able to shoot and dunk smoothly is a major plus for the Celtics franchise. His improvement is apparent, however, it can be stated with statistical proof that he's not the offensive beast anymore that he once was.