Hayward: is he a wing or a swing?

[Jvalin]

Saw this on celticsblog

(...) he (=Hayward) started at the 4 on that fateful night in Cleveland. With Kyrie Irving firmly at the point and Al Horford manning the 5, Hayward is the obvious choice to be the de facto power forward.

https://www.celticsblog.com/2018/7/31/17600120/magic-number-gordon-hayward-at-the-4-boston-celtics-al-horford-jayson-tatum-jaylen-brown-larry-bird


I was under the impression that Hayward had started at the 3 that night with Tatum at the 4. Anyway, that's not the point. What struck me the most was the bolded part: ''Hayward is the obvious choice to be the de facto power forward''.

So what do you guys think on this? Obviously, Hayward's primary position is at the 3. What about his secondary position though? Do you consider him to be a wing, a swing or strictly a SF?

[Jiri Welsch]

I consider him more of a wing. Tatum has more length and height. Hayward is stronger as of now, but hopefully that will change over time.

[SHAQATTACK]

Shhhwinger

[gouki88]

Due to JT still getting bigger and stronger, he may need to play more 4 this year, but in the long run he’s a wing

[BitterJim]

Yes.

[JSD]

Wing that will evolve into a swing in the latter portion of his career.

[saltlover]

Yes.

This is correct.

[RockinRyA]

Hayward is more experienced, and stronger than Tatum so he's probably going to defend 4s more than Tatum. He also played mostly 4s and 3s in his last full season at Utah, moreso in the playoffs. But sommmmmebody will point out that he play a lot of 2s in his career, ignoring that he did it earlier in his career when the game was still different.

[ETNCeltics]

Depends. You're probably going to want to give JT the easier matchup, whether it's a 3 or 4.

[KG Living Legend]

 He's what I call a Win-ing player. That's half wing half swing.

[KungPoweChicken]

There are 1) ball handlers, 2) wings, and 3) bigs. Brad Stevens has said this himself. Hayward is a wing. What is all this talk about "swings"?

[action781]

Gordon Hayward Regular Season Career:
Season    Age    Tm    Pos    G    MP    PG%  SG%  SF%    PF%  C%
2010-11   20   UTA   SF   72   1218            13%   71%   17%   
2011-12   21   UTA   SF   66   2015              5%   92%    3%   
2012-13   22   UTA   SF   72   2104             27%  73%      
2013-14   23   UTA   SF   77   2800              2%   75%   24%   
2014-15   24   UTA   SF   76   2618                      95%     5%   
2015-16   25   UTA   SF   80   2893             12%   86%    3%   
2016-17   26   UTA   SF   73   2516                       71%   30%   


Gordon Hayward Playoff Career:
Season     Age    Tm    Pos     G      MP     PG%  SG%  SF%   PF%   C%
2011-12   21   UTA     SF      4      123              57%  43%      
2016-17   26   UTA    SF     11      411                       38%  62%   

He seems to have solid experience playing any of the SG/SF/PF positions.
(Source: Basketball-reference)

[KGs Knee]

There are 1) ball handlers, 2) wings, and 3) bigs. Brad Stevens has said this himself. Hayward is a wing. What is all this talk about "swings"?

And really, who cares about any of Stevens' monikers either?

The only thing that matters is whether at least one of Hayward or Tatum is capable of defending the opposition's 2nd biggest/tallest player.

[SparzWizard]

There are 1) ball handlers, 2) wings, and 3) bigs. Brad Stevens has said this himself. Hayward is a wing. What is all this talk about "swings"?

And really, who cares about any of Stevens' monikers either?

The only thing that matters is whether at least one of Hayward or Tatum is capable of defending the opposition's 2nd biggest/tallest player.

Yeah it don't matter the ball-handlers/wings/bigs. They'll still start and close with 5 players.

Who is the closing 5 is more important though:

Kyrie/Smart/Tatum/Hayward/Horford
Kyrie/Hayward/Tatum/Theis/Horford

Get guys who could also box-out and rebound.

[GreenEnvy]

He’s a SF who I think at this point is more comfortable sliding over to PF than down to SG.

In 2016-17, he played 70%SF, 30%PF. The season before that though, he logged about 4x as many minutes at SG than PF.

I’m sure Brad will use him at all three positions depending on the matchup he likes.