Utah Jazz’s Gordon Hayward working on being all-around player
By Bryan Rose
When the Utah Jazz tip off their season, they’ll have Gordon Hayward leading the troops after they matched his lucrative offer sheet from the Charlotte Hornets this offseason.
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Needing to live up to his big contract billing and frustrated with another losing season, the talented small forward says he’s focusing on becoming a better all-around basketball player.
A talented scorer, Gordon Hayward’s knock was that he couldn’t do much more than put the ball in the bucket. That of course isn’t a bad thing, though Hayward has decided to add additional weight this offseason and has trained a variety of skills in effort to become more balanced.
"I put forth a conscious effort this summer to bulk up a bit. It’s not like I’m trying to get huge. I still want to be a basketball player. But I’ve been eating a lot better…The other things I’ve been working on are ball handling, shooting and defense. I think you can always improve in ball handling, and what I’ve done this summer is going to be huge for me. I’ve also continued to work on my jump shot, and all types of shots, for that matter. I didn’t shoot the ball nearly as well as I wanted to last year."
The Utah Jazz forward went on to suggest that while he wasn’t exactly losing his balance when he drove into the lane, he wants to inflict some damage of his own which is part of the reason as to why he’s decided to add more muscle.
Certainly sounds like the Jazz have themselves a winner.