BRIGHTON – If there’s one thing Gordon Hayward has plenty of experience with, is patience.
He’ll need more of it at the start of the season.
Because as eager as he is to get back on the court after nearly a year off, his minutes will be limited early on.
“We will probably have to manage that, just because he has been out for so long,” said coach Brad Stevens.
And it’s not like the competition early on will help ease Hayward’s transition back on to the court.
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On Tuesday, the Celtics open the season against a Philadelphia team that’s widely seen as Boston’s stiffest competition in the Eastern Conference.
Boston Celtics
Boston then travels to Toronto for a Friday night tilt against the Raptors led by two-time Defensive Player of the Year Kawhi Leonard followed by a road game against the New York Knicks on Saturday.
Hayward acknowledged that he and the Celtics medical staff have had talks about limiting his minutes early on, but no concrete decisions have yet to be made.
“It’s something that we need to look into, managing (minutes),” Hayward said. “We’re trying to play until June, not just the beginning of the season.”
With training camp nearing an end, Hayward has been eager to return to the all-star form he displayed prior to suffering a left ankle and leg injury just five minutes into the season opener at Cleveland last year.
“As a competitor, I want to do everything,” Hayward said. “As I’ve already found out, sometimes that’s just not the case.”
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Hayward missed Boston’s preseason finale at Cleveland on Oct. 6 due to soreness in his lower back. He has since been receiving treatments for it with no indications that it’ll be a short or long-term issue.
However, the soreness he experienced in his lower back was a reminder of how finding that balance between working his way back from the injury to not doing too much, is thin.
That’s why he and the Celtics medical and coaching staff will be overly cautious in their regimen during the early stages of his return to playing.
“That’s part of the patience, part of the things that can get frustrating when you go through an injury like that,” Hayward said. “There’s still more you have to go through. It’s not just like, last year’s over."
Hayward added, “It’s a process and I want to be playing my best basketball at the end of the year.”