Paul George on Gordon Hayward's recovery: 'He can't be too hard on himself'

The Celtics' offense looked nearly unstoppable in Sunday's 134-129 win over the Oklahoma City Thunder. Eight of Boston's nine active players scored in double figures, while the team shot a season-best 59 percent from the field in the midst of a fourth straight win.

Yet, amid the impressive performance against one of the league's two best defenses, a familiar name found itself as the low man in the scoring column: Gordon Hayward.

The swingman finished with just two points on 1-of-6 shooting. While he had useful contributions in other facets of the game (three rebounds, two assists and a steal that led to a breakaway) the lackluster offensive output has become commonplace even as Hayward moves into the second half of the season.

It's evident, especially around the basket, that Hayward is still having trouble with his aggressiveness and confidence in the midst of his first full season of recovery following a pair of major surgeries on his ankle. One player who can relate to the experience that Hayward is battling through is Thunder All-Star Paul George, who was probably the best player on the floor on Sunday (37 points) in the midst of an MVP-level campaign for the small forward.

George suffered a career-altering leg injury during a Team USA scrimmage in the summer of 2014 that sidelined him for nearly the entire 2014-15 season. Five years later, George is playing the best of basketball of his career, but it's been a long battle for him to get there, something that he advises Hayward and Celtics fans to keep in mind while trying to judge his play.   

“When I got hurt, the doctors told me it would be two to three years before I feel the way I feel now,” George said. “Despite them saying I would make a full recovery, sit the next season out, make a full recovery and I would be back to myself, but it won’t be two or three years before I notice everything coming back. So it’s a long marathon for him. But he will be all right.”

That marathon has been full of hills and valleys over the first few months of the 2018-19 season. Most fans expected some kind of linear progression but Hayward's consistency hasn't improved much as the year has gone on. In January, his turnovers were up and his 3-point shooting was down while averaging 11.5 points per game. Brad Stevens has started to trim his minutes a bit as the rest of the bench has improved their play, but it's clear there is a commitment here to the long haul with Hayward. The only way he's going to keep improving is with reps, even though they might not come on the timeline he and fans are hoping for.

In response to that, George had some advice for Hayward's fight to regain the old version of himself.

“Just honestly, don’t be so hard on yourself,” George responded when asked about giving advice to Hayward. “I was fortunate. Again, when I got hurt, the following season I got to play six games and that kind of helped me into the transition. The fact of the matter is, everybody’s expecting Gordon to be Gordon from Utah. But he’s not. He’s gotta take strides, take steps along the way. Fans can’t be too hard on him. He can’t be too hard on himself. The game is different. You get hurt and sit out a year and try to come back, the game is totally different (than) the way you left it. He’s got to adapt, find his game, find his rhythm, block out the noise that people are expecting him to be himself right away. It takes time.”

That philosophy has paid dividends for George as he returned to All-Star form in 2015-16, nearly two full years after he recovered from his devastating leg injury. It's been a slow rise for him since then to his prime NBA form at age 28 but his success provides perhaps some light for Hayward at the end of a long tunnel.