Analysis: Gordon Hayward's hand is healed, could return as early as Monday

Gordon Hayward’s initial return timetable after suffering a broken left-hand last month was six weeks. However, as BSJ first reported earlier today, that return will be coming far sooner than expected in coming days.

The 29-year-old forward went through a light practice with his teammates Sunday at the Auerbach Center and opened the door to returning to the floor just four weeks after his initial surgery against the Cavs on Monday night.

“Tomorrow’s a possibility,” Hayward said. “See how I feel when I wake up, go through shoot-around, see how it goes.”

Hayward had a plate inserted into his hand to help with the healing last month and said the bone has fully recovered following the procedure. The challenge now appears to be getting over the mental aspect of playing through the soreness that will be lingering as he regains full strength and motion.

“The bone is healed. I can’t do anything that’s going to hurt it,” Hayward explained. “I’m going to have to get hit equally as hard, probably more than last time, because I have the metal in my hand now. So the bone is healed. I can’t hurt it worse. It’s almost like playing through the pain, the tissues that I have in my hand, those are a lot slower to recover, so those are going to be sore a little bit. Motion and strength is going to take a little while to get back; it’s whether or not you can play through that and still be effective. That’s kind of what we’re determining, but the bone is healed.”

While the four-week recovery timetable may appear to be well ahead of schedule, it’s actually quite similar when compared to other NBA players that have suffered similar injuries. Aron Baynes returned four weeks after having surgery done to repair a break in his hand last season. The quick recovery did not come as much of a surprise to the swingman.

“I think as it’s steadily improving and can do more and more, you start to think coming back a little bit earlier,” Hayward admitted. “I think you set the timeline a little bit later than what you’re hoping for just so that you guys and everyone else isn’t like, ‘If you’re late like, what’s the deal?’”

The timing could not be much better for the Celtics in regards to Hayward’s return with an inferior opponent in the Cavs looming on Monday to help shake off some of the rust.

“Doesn’t matter how much conditioning we do off the court, there’s nothing like playing a game,” Hayward said. “First stretch of whatever game I play in, for sure I’ll be winded, but after a couple of games I’ll be back to normal.”

The C’s schedule ramps up again later this week with dates against playoff teams in three straight matchups with the Pacers (Wednesday), Sixers (Thursday), and Mavs (next Wednesday).

“I think the biggest thing is that we try to manage that appropriately with the right amount of work today but not too much to get ready to play and play well,” Stevens said. “And then Tuesday we’re going to have to manage appropriately. Gonna have to play hard three nights out of four days and then we have a break after that so we can leave it all out there and see what happens.”

It’s a tough stretch from a volume standpoint for Hayward to jump back into with his level of conditioning but he will be able to ease into things a bit tomorrow night it sounds like if given the thumbs up by the training staff. For a group that is 7-1 with him on the court this year, there is no doubt that he will be welcomed back with open arms in the midst of a three-game winning streak.

“We’ve definitely shown flashes of being really, really good,” Hayward said. “We’ve also shown flashes where we can really improve a lot, too. We have things we can get better at, but I still think we’re playing good basketball here.”

For more analysis on how the C’s will adjust their rotation with Hayward back in the mix, check out today’s NBA Notebook.