When the Utah Jazz made a move in the offseason to sign their star forward Gordon Hayward to a max deal, it made a lot of teams scratch their heads.
It seems like Hayward and his former coach at Butler University, Brad Stevens, both believe that Hayward isn’t underrated and deserved the money he got.
From Jody Genessy of Deseret News.
Hayward on being underrated: "I see myself as one of the elite players in the league. Whether you’re popular or not, to me, doesn’t matter."
— Jody Genessy (@DJJazzyJody) January 27, 2015
Hayward's Butler coach Brad Stevens was asked if Gordon is overrated. "It’s hard to say with the money he earns that he’s underrated."
— Jody Genessy (@DJJazzyJody) January 27, 2015
Hayward is averaging 19 points per game, 4 assists and 4 rebounds per game for the Jazz this year.
When you think ‘elite’ you think top 10 players. Where do Hayward’s points per game, Player efficiency rating and rank in the NBA this season?
He’s 20th in points per game, 44th in PER, tied for 37th in usage rate, 19th in value added, all according to ESPN.com’s John Hollinger’s stats.
Not exactly Elite and besides, his teams record isn’t that good either, the Jazz stand at 16-29 good for 13th in the Western Conference.
He’s not there yet, but he might be on his way.
