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Taylor Snow

Earning our Most Improved Player award in back-to-back seasons is a remarkable feat.

Winning it three times in a span of four years is just straight-up absurd.

But for a man who lives by the motto of “Faith Consistency Hard Work Pays Off,” such an accomplishment is almost to be expected, as the act of improving is what Jaylen Brown is all about.

Brown won his first Celtics MIP after his sophomore season in 2017-18, during which he saw his scoring average more than double from 6.6 points per game as a role-player rookie to 14.5 PPG as a full-time starter.

He then won it again last season after taking on a more significant offensive role, which allowed him to post career-highs of 20.3 points, 6.4 rebounds, and 2.1 assists per game.

This past season, he transitioned into stardom, logging 24.7 PPG, 3.4 APG, 6.0 RPG, and 1.2 steals per game, while shooting 48.4 percent from the field, 39.7 percent from 3-point range, and 76.4 percent from the free-throw line. Every one of those numbers, except for the one in the rebounding department, represented a new career-high for Brown, who earned his first All-Star appearance alongside Jayson Tatum.

Unfortunately, Brown’s season was cut short just ahead of the playoffs after tearing a ligament in his left wrist which required surgery. But up to that point, he had been consistently rising in just about every aspect of his game.

First, let’s take a dive into Brown’s scoring spike. Prior to this season, he had never scored more than 34 points in a game. He reached or surpassed that total six times during the 2020-21 campaign, including three efforts of 40 or more points.

Brown became a far more aggressive and confident offensive player this season, as he saw jumps in his drives per game (from 8.5 to 10.5), catch-and-shoot attempts per game (from 4.3 to a team-high 4.9), and pull-up attempts per game (from 4.1 to 6.4).

Yet, the most interesting part about Brown’s increased scoring was that his total number of field-goal attempts actually decreased. He was simply far more efficient in his shot-making across the board.

Aside from his scoring, Brown’s most impressive improvement came on the playmaking front. He logged seven of his top nine career assisting efforts throughout the season, including a career-high 10-assist performance on Feb. 11 against Toronto. The points he created off assists jumped from 5.2 to 8.7 per game, and that was largely due to his enhanced court vision, a more controlled handle, and the improved ability to make the right pass at the right time.

Veteran floor general Marcus Smart lauded Brown’s decision-making a month into the season after noticing significant improvement in that area.

“His rookie year and Year 2, that Jaylen Brown would just put his head down and go and not understand where he was going,” Smart said on Jan. 23. “But he worked hard, you’ve gotta give him credit. And it shows. That’s why he’s one of the best young players in this game and doing what he’s doing, and doing what he’s doing for this team. So I’m just very, very proud of the way that he approaches every game, and you can see it’s working out for him.”

It's working out for Brown because he approaches every game with an “FCHWPO” mentality. His consistent work ethic and determination to get better every day led him to place sixth on this year’s NBA Most Improved Player ballot, and it led him to earn our team MIP for the third time in four seasons.

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2021 Awards Series Most Improved Player: Jaylen Brown

Marc D'Amico

It’s that time of the year again: Awards Season at Celtics.com! As we do every offseason, we’re handing out six virtual trophies as we roll through this year’s Celtics.com Awards Series. There are no acceptance speeches, and the voting committee is made up of only two of your favorite beat writers, but we do have some top-flight Celtics performances to outline. So here we go...

There are great games, and then there are instant classics. Boston’s miraculous come-from-behind victory over the San Antonio Spurs back on April 30th unquestionably falls into the latter category.

The Celtics stormed back from as many as 32 points down during the first half and by 29 points at halftime to log not only the win of the year, but the win of the decade. To put into context just how extraordinary this victory was, it marked the second-largest halftime deficit overcome in NBA history, and teams had previously lost 1,014 consecutive NBA games after trailing by 32 or more points – until Boston pulled off this 143-140 win in overtime in front of a raucous crowd at TD Garden.

Not only did the Celtics make history as a team, but star wing Jayson Tatum made history individually. He dropped a career-high 60 points to tie Larry Bird for the highest individual scoring output in franchise history. Boston wouldn’t have had a chance at the win had Tatum not displayed true greatness.

“He did exactly what a great player is supposed to do,” teammate Jaylen Brown said of Tatum after the game. “He was efficient, led us, hit timely shots, big baskets. Real big-boy basketball.”

Boston played big-boy basketball as a team over the final 18 minutes of regulation and five minutes of overtime, which makes the comeback even more remarkable.

San Antonio still led by 28 points after Lonnie Walker IV drained a 3-pointer at the 6:41 mark of the third period. It was not until Rob Williams dropped in a layup off a pass from Marcus Smart seven seconds later that the Celtics began to build their unstoppable momentum.

Starting with that layup from Williams, Boston outscored the Spurs 25-10 to close out the third quarter, and it did so as a team. Six different Celtics scored during that run, including six points from Jaylen Brown and five apiece from Evan Fournier and Aaron Nesmith.

At that point, the C’s and their faithful inside TD Garden felt like a miracle was on its way. All they needed was someone to carry them home to the Promised Land, and that person was Tatum.

The dynamic, fourth-year wing went off during the fourth quarter, scoring 21 points to go along with two assists. He scored or assisted on 26 total points during the frame, which is one more than San Antonio’s entire team scored during the fourth.

Boston finally erased its deficit completely when Marcus Smart canned a triple with 5:36 left in regulation to make it a 116-116 game. Neither team led by more than two points for the remainder of regulation before they headed to overtime for an extra five minutes.

Tatum continued to take it to the Spurs during overtime, attacking over and over while pouring in another 10 points. He got to the line for six free-throw attempts during the extra session and canned all of them, including four during the final 11.3 seconds to seal Boston’s win and to push him into a tie with Bird atop the franchise’s single-game scoring list.

“That is… it’s hard to – I don’t know,” Tatum said after being notified that he and Bird would be tied together forever. “Obviously anytime you’re mentioned with a top-10 player of all time in any stat, obviously that is a good thing. It’s something I never think I would have imagined at this age.”

In the same vein, the Celtics and their fans could have never imagined that their team would storm back for a win after trailing by 32 points during the first half.

It’s incredibly rare for a team to pull off a 32-point comeback in the NBA. It’s also rare to have a player score 60 points, as is evidenced by the fact that only Tatum and Bird have done so in a Celtics uniform. On this late-April night, both happened in the same building, for the same team.

That’s why this game will forever be remembered, and why it has been stamped as our Game of the Year.

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2021 Awards Series Game of the Year: April 30 vs. San Antonio

Since we began handing out these awards nine years ago, not once have we encountered a tie.

This season’s Defensive Player of the Year was such a toss-up that we have declared co-winners in Marcus Smart and Robert Williams.

Both players impacted the team’s defense in their own unique way, as Williams stuffed the box score nightly with absurd defensive statistics, while Smart continued to impact the team like he has year-in and year-out with his relentless hustle and gritty, winning plays.

We’ll start off by explaining why Williams deserves a share in this award, which marks his second in our Series after already being named Sixth Man of the Year.

After displaying flashes of raw, defensive potential throughout his first NBA two seasons, Williams, this year, began living up to the hype. By earning a more consistent role with increased playing time, the 23-year-old center saw both his confidence and his discipline improve, leading to a breakout season.

Williams proved to be a terror on the defensive end, combining his elite athleticism with his 7-foot-6 wingspan to turn into a shot-blocking machine. He tied for the sixth-most blocks per game (1.8) in the NBA, despite playing only 18.9 minutes per game. That means that he averaged 3.3 blocks per 36 minutes, which placed him second behind this year’s blocks champion, Myles Turner (3.9), among players who saw at least 900 minutes of court time.

Williams also posted the highest block percentage in the league among players who averaged at least 15 minutes per game, finishing with a rate of 75.8 percent per NBA Stats. That mark placed him just above three-time Defensive Player of the Year Rudy Gobert (74.8 percent) and the block champ, Turner (74.6 percent).

Not many shot-blockers in Celtics history have had more success than Williams did this past season. The only members who have averaged more BPG in a season since the NBA began tracking blocks in 1973 were Kevin McHale, Robert Parish, and Kendrick Perkins. On top of that, Williams’ mark of 3.33 blocks per 36 minutes ranks second all-time behind Parish’s mark of 3.35 in 1980-81, per Statmuse.

As impressive as his numbers were in the regular season, he was even more imposing during Boston’s short postseason run. He averaged a league-best 3.0 BPG in the postseason while averaging just 15.2 minutes per contest. That was largely thanks to a franchise-record nine-block effort against the Brooklyn Nets in Game 1 of the first round.

Williams was also one of Boston’s best rebounders this past season. He led its main rotation players in offensive rebound percentage (14.9 percent), defensive rebound percentage (25.6 percent), and total rebound percentage (20.2 percent), all according to Basketball-Reference. He also posted 6.9 RPG, which equaled out to 13.1 rebounds per-36 minutes.

To fully grasp how impactful Williams was defensively, look no further than his team-leading defensive box plus/minus
 mark of 3.1. The only Celtics player on record who has logged a better DBPM during a single season was Kevin Garnett, who recorded a 3.5 during Boston’s 2007-08 championship season when he earned the only Defensive Player of the Year nod in franchise history.

Williams’ statistical accomplishments alone made him worthy of our Defensive Player of the Year, but not every area of the game can be covered in a box score. That’s where Smart’s worthiness comes into play.

Smart may not put up the crazy defensive numbers that Williams does on a nightly basis, but he is unequivocally regarded as the team’s vocal leader and defensive anchor. Such as been the case for the last several years, and that likely won’t change anytime soon.

Smart continued to be Boston’s most tenacious defender in a year when defense wasn’t its strongest suit, as he helped them keep the ship afloat on several occasions by producing a variety of his trademark winning plays.

Smart led the team in many hustle categories including steals (1.5 per game), deflections (3.3 per game), defensive loose balls recovered (0.6 per game), and contested 3-point shots (3.1 per game). Unsurprisingly, he earned the team’s inaugural Tommy Award, which recognizes the Celtic who “best embodies attributes of hustle, effort, and pride throughout the season.”

Despite the Celtics finishing 13th in defensive rating, Smart still nearly found his way onto his third consecutive All-Defensive Team. He finished sixth among all NBA guards in the voting, earning one First Team vote and 20 Second Team votes. The only other vote-getter from the C’s was Jaylen Brown, who earned one First Team vote, as well.

Throughout the 2020-21 season, Smart maintained his reputation as one of the most respected defenders in the NBA, while Williams began building a reputation of his own, becoming one of the league’s most feared shot-blockers.

As a result, we have our first-ever set of Awards Series co-winners in our two deserving Defensive Players of the Year.

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2021 Awards Series Defensive Players of the Year: Marcus Smart & Robert Williams

Rookies often go through an adjustment period as they transition from the college 3-point line to that of the NBA. However, such was not the case for Payton Pritchard during his first season with the Boston Celtics.

Boston had high hopes for its 26th overall draft pick, but no one could have expected Pritchard to be so efficient throughout his first professional campaign, as he led the team in 3-point percentage, finished second behind Kemba Walker in free-throw accuracy, and overall, had one of the best shooting seasons by a rookie in franchise history.

That is why Pritchard is our Sharpshooter of the Year.

After emerging from a four-year college career at the University of Oregon, where he had established himself as one of the most prolific 3-point shooters in Pac-12 history, Pritchard entered the NBA and did not skip a beat. He made a tremendous impression among his peers right off the bat during Day 1 of Training Camp, as both Marcus Smart and Brad Stevens praised his hardworking habits. For them, it was only a taste of what was yet to come.

Pritchard stepped into the rotation right away, helping to fill in for Walker who was rehabbing from offseason knee surgery. He didn’t shy away from the opportunity, making five of his first seven 3-point attempts, and erupting for a 23-point, eight-assist effort against Toronto on Jan. 4 in what was just the eighth game of his career.

Through his first 18 contests, Pritchard averaged 8.4 points per game while shooting 49.5 percent from the field, 46.9 percent from 3-point range, and 91.7 percent from the free-throw line, which put him on pace to potentially become the first rookie in NBA history to achieve a 50/40/90 season.

Pritchard hit a bit of a wall midway through the season, like many rookies do, but he recovered with a strong finish. In his last 17 regular-season games, he averaged 10.6 PPG while shooting 43.0 percent from deep. He had 10 double-digit scoring efforts during that stretch, including a career-best 28 points against Oklahoma City on April 27.

Pritchard finished the season with averages of 7.7 points, 2.4 rebounds, and 1.8 assists per game, along with shooting clips of 44.0 percent from the field, 41.1 percent from 3-point range, and 88.9 percent from the charity stripe, while playing 19.2 minutes per game.

The only players who achieved higher 3-point clips were midseason departure Jeff Teague (46.4 percent) and midseason acquisition Evan Fournier (46.3 percent), making Pritchard the most efficient 3-point shooter among Boston’s full-time players. Equally as impressive was his efficiency from the free-throw line, where he only trailed Walker’s mark of 89.9 percent.

From a historic perspective, Pritchard had one of the best all-around shooting seasons ever by a Celtics rookie.

With 102 makes from beyond the arc, Pritchard finished just three 3-pointers shy of Tatum’s rookie record. However, he would have smashed Tatum’s mark of 105 had this not been a shortened regular season. He also became just the fifth rookie in franchise history to shoot at least 40 percent from 3-point range while attempting at least 100 such shots, joining Jayson Tatum (43.4 percent), Allan Ray (41.4 percent), Paul Pierce (41.2 percent) and Larry Bird (40.6 percent).

From a league-wide standpoint, he had the second-highest 3-point percentage among NBA rookies who played at least 15 minutes per game, trailing only Memphis’ Desmond Bane (43.2 percent). He was also one of two rookies who shot at least 40 percent from 3 and 85 percent from the free-throw line, along with Tyrese Haliburton. And he finished second in free-throw percentage among rookies who attempted more than 25 such shots on the season.

One other aspect of Pritchard’s shooting to note is that he was efficient from all areas beyond the arc. He shot 47.1 percent from the right corner, 45.5 percent from the left corner, and 40.5 percent from above the break, so he essentially had no cold zones.

It’s unusual to see a rookie shoot so accurately all across the court, but Pritchard’s seamless transition from college into the pros made that possible. He stepped up right away in Boston, posting team-leading shooting marks while also reaching historic rookie milestones, which led to his well-deserved earning of our Sharpshooter of the Year award.

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2021 Awards Series Sharpshooter of the Year: Payton Pritchard

Thursday’s unveiling of our team MVP in Jayson Tatum should not have come as a surprise to anyone, and neither should today’s announcement of the recipient of our second-unit MVP.

Our 2020-21 Sixth Man of the Year award, without a doubt, belongs to Robert Williams.

After playing a limited role with the Celtics throughout his first two injury-plagued NBA campaigns, Williams declared ahead of his third season that he was about to make a giant leap.

The determined center kept his word, as he put forth on a record-setting season while emerging as a rising star, mostly from a reserve role.

Williams played in 52 regular-season contests, including 39 appearances off the bench, and produced an average of 8.0 points, 6.9 rebounds, 1.8 assists, and 1.8 blocks, while playing 18.9 minutes per game.

He also led Boston’s regulars in a variety of statistical categories including field-goal percentage (72.1 percent), blocks per game, rebounding percentage (20.2 percent), block percentage (8.6 percent), and player efficiency rating (25.7).

In fact, his PER ranked eighth in the NBA behind superstar talents Nikola Jokic (30.36), Joel Embiid (30.32), Giannis Antetokounmpo (29.24), Zion Williamson (27.17), Jimmy Butler (26.57), Stephen Curry (26.37), and Kawhi Leonard (26.09).

His block percentage mark was also tops in the league among all players who played at least 500 minutes, ranking well above three-time Defensive Player of the Year Rudy Gobert (7.0 percent), who finished in second place.

Williams penned his name into the franchise record book numerous times throughout the season, and fittingly, for the Timelord, many of his historical feats were minutes-based.

On Jan. 4 against the Toronto Raptors, he became the first Celtics player since Wayne Embry in 1967 to corral at least 15 rebounds in a game while playing fewer than 20 minutes.

On March 14 against the Houston Rockets, he became just the 10th player in NBA history to log at least 16 points and 13 rebounds in a game while playing fewer than 20 minutes. In the process, he also became the second Celtics player to produce at least that many points and rebounds while shooting 100 percent from the field, joining Ed Pinckney.

Twelve days later against the soon-to-be Eastern Conference champion Milwaukee Bucks, he became the first Celtics player in the previous 25 seasons to log at least five assists and four blocks in a single half, and just the third NBA player in the last three seasons to accomplish such a feat, joining All-League big men Anthony Davis and Nikola Jokic.

Though, Williams saved his most impressive feat for the playoffs: during Game 1 of the first round against Brooklyn, he logged a near-triple double of 11 points, nine rebounds and a postseason franchise record nine blocks, all in less than 23 minutes of action off the bench.

Williams was able to pack in so much to his limited playing, that he finished second on the team in win shares (5.3) behind Tatum (6.5), despite finishing ninth on the team in total minutes (985). That translated into .258 win shares per-48 minutes, which was nearly double that of Tatum’s second-place mark of .137. Just a reminder: Tatum was this team's MVP, and was an Eastern Conference All-Star starter.

Due to his high impact as a reserve, Williams eventually elevated himself into a starting role toward the end of the season. After coming off the bench for his first 37 appearances, the 6-foot-8 center earned starts in 13 of his last 15 games.

If Williams’ transition from the bench into the starting lineup holds true into next season, then this may be both his first and last time winning our Sixth Man of the Year award, which, of course, is a testament to his ascendence.

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2021 Awards Series Sixth Man of the Year: Robert Williams

There is no debating this award. Clear-cut. No question. Etch it in stone.

Jayson Tatum was Boston’s MVP in 2020-21, and for the second season in a row.

Tatum wasn’t just good this past season. He wasn’t even just great. He was elite, all while earning his second consecutive All-Star appearance, his first All-Star start, and an audacious All-NBA snub.

Boston’s prized wing appeared in 64 of the team’s 72 games, which ranked second behind Payton Pritchard, despite the fact that Tatum was diagnosed with COVID-19 in January and felt lingering aftereffects the rest of the season. While starting all of those games and playing through the side effects, Tatum managed to lead the team in a long list of categories, including made field goals (605), made 3-pointers (187), made free throws (295), total rebounds (472), total assists (276), and total steals (75).

Through all of those made shots, Tatum put up the second-highest scoring average by a Celtic in the last 15 seasons with an average of 26.4 points per game. That number also ranked 11th in the league overall and fifth among forwards.

There were a few players who did it better than him when it came to scoring average, but there were none who did it better than him when it came to notching 50-point games. Tatum, at 23 years old, racked up four of them this season – two during the regular season, and two during postseason play – to lead the entire NBA in that category. He also added in three more games of at least 40 points, and 17 more games of at least 30 points on the season.

Amid all of those electric scoring performances, there is one that stands above the rest, and that is his April 30 performance against the San Antonio Spurs. That performance was one for the ages – and we don’t take that statement lightly.

Tatum burned the Spurs with 60 points to not only set a new career high in scoring, but to also tie Larry Bird for the highest single-game scoring output in Celtics franchise history. Think about all of the incredible performances that have taken place in Celtics history. None have surpassed Tatum’s effort in the scoring column that late-April night.

What made this 60-point gem even more special is the fact that it spurred a historic comeback by the Celtics. It was The Miracle on Causeway, sparked by The Jayson Tatum Game.

Boston trailed by as many as 32 points during the first half and by 29 points at halftime, yet Tatum and the C’s stormed back during the second half to grab an astonishing victory by a count of 143-140 in overtime. The win at the time marked the second-largest deficit overcome in NBA history, and teams had lost 1,014 consecutive games after trailing by 32 or more points before Tatum and the Celtics put a stop to that streak.

Following the game, Tatum couldn’t wrap his head around the fact that he and Bird were one in the same atop one of Boston’s all-time record lists.

“That is… it’s hard to – I don’t know,” he said following the game. “Obviously anytime you’re mentioned with a top-10 player of all time in any stat, obviously that is a good thing. It’s something I never I think would have imagined at this age.”

Emphasis on the “at this age.” Remember, Tatum is only 23 years old, yet he’s already making significant NBA history in the scoring column. That’s not all he did, however. His season went well beyond scoring as he put together a case for an All-NBA nod that was overlooked by far too many media members.

One year after being selected to the All-NBA Third Team, Tatum set new career highs in scoring (26.4 PPG), rebounding (7.4 RPG,) in assists (4.3 APG), in free throw attempts per game (5.3), in assist-to-turnover ratio (1.61), in true-shooting percentage (57.6 percent), and in player efficiency rating (21.32). His tendency to get to the free-throw line is what thrust him into the elite threshold of scoring in the league, as he made at least 10 free throws in eight of his 64 appearances. This is after he did so a total of only seven times during his first three seasons. And yet, somehow, he was not selected to an All-NBA team this season.

That was a mistake, and one that may not happen again in the future. Tatum is now Boston’s back-to-back MVP who's a clear-cut superstar in the league, and he’s only going to get better from here.

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2021 Awards Series MVP: Jayson Tatum

BOSTON – All of that chatter you’ve heard about the Celtics being a first-class organization and Boston being a desirable destination for professional athletes is flat-out true.

The 26-year-old Theis joined the Celtics during the summer of 2017 after spending his entire life and professional career in Germany. It was normal to expect a challenging transition to living in another hemisphere and playing in a new league. However, Theis, his wife, Lena, and their then-1-year-old daughter, Laila, were pleasantly surprised to find a seamless transition in New England thanks to two key factors: Boston’s organizational practices, and the charm of the city itself.

“I would say we’re far from home,” Theis recently told Celtics.com, “but it feels like home, from the beginning.”

Boston is now where Theis’ heart is, but he didn’t make his full-time move to New England until Sept. 12 of last year, following Germany’s elimination from the EuroBasket tournament. That left him with less than two weeks to settle into his new city before the Celtics opened up training camp Sept. 25.

Still, the Theis family somehow managed to adapt quickly to their new culture and franchise.

“Everybody around here, around the organization, makes it easy for players, for families coming in, because they try to involve them with stuff off the court,” Theis explained. “And also, just being a player here makes it easy because you only have to focus on basketball.”

That last part truly stood out to Theis during his first season in green and white. He never imagined how much pressure could be taken off of his shoulders on a day-to-day basis simply by the structure and the processes of an organization.

“You come in here and you walk in in the morning and you have breakfast. You walk out of practice, you have lunch. So you can really focus on basketball,” Theis said of the Celtics, who have created a culture that promotes clear minds. “It makes it easy so that when I come home, I don’t have to worry about anything (work-related). It’s just that I took care of basketball, and I can take care of my family when I’m home.”

The Theis family also adjusted quickly off the court, thanks in large part to the friends and the fans who have surrounded them in Boston.

“With basketball, I’m around all these people every day,” he said, “but also for the families – the wives and kids – if they can come together once in a while and hang out and let the kids play and talk a little bit, it makes it easier for everybody around, especially with the Baynes family, the Haywards, it just makes it easier and it feels like home and welcomed.”

And as for the locals? Well, they make up a fan base unlike anything he’s ever seen before.

“The sports aren’t separate,” he said. “It’s not like the Celtics, the Bruins, the Patriots; it’s like it’s a whole, one city. They support whoever is playing.

“And also,” he continued, “when I walk around and people recognize me, they come up nice and friendly. It’s nice when you see kids come up to you and just ask for a picture and just talk to you for a second and how they smile.”

That’s Boston. That’s the Celtics. Which begs the question: Who wouldn’t want to experience that?

Who wouldn’t want to play for an organization that takes care of its players and generates a family atmosphere? Who wouldn’t want to play in front of a city that loves its athletes, no matter what local jersey they wear?

And as icing on the cake, Theis was sure to point out, this place isn’t too shabby once springtime arrives.

“Now I’m happy to see the other side of Boston, when it’s sunny and all of these nice places where you can just sit outside and drink coffee or go to the water and walk our dogs,” he said with a big smile. “It’s just really nice.”

It sure is, and that’s why everyone from All-Star players like Al Horford and Gordon Hayward, to European pros like Theis and Brad Wanamaker, have been willing to drop everything for the opportunity to move to Boston and don the green and white.

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1 Year After Move, Theis Family Feels Right at Home in Boston

BOSTON – Gordon Hayward proclaimed Thursday afternoon that he is “basically 100 percent” healthy and revealed that he has been playing 5-on-5 basketball for the last two weeks.

Hayward, who suffered a season-ending left ankle injury on Opening Night of last season, said that he has not dealt with any mental hurdles on the court while recently participating in four 5-on-5 games at the Celtics' practice facility.

“I haven’t had any fear as far as cutting or jumping, anything like that,” Hayward stated as he spoke to media members for the first time since Dec. 15, when Boston hosted his former team, the Utah Jazz. “I think it’s just working my way back into a groove, finding the different rhythms, the timings of the game.”

The All-Star forward believes that his playing time over the last two weeks, combined with training camp and preseason play, will have him prepared to take the court for Opening Night on Oct. 16.

“Yes,” he said in regard to playing in the first game of the season, “100 percent I expect to be out there.”

Such certainty was not a guarantee after Hayward suffered a setback in May that required a second surgery.

During his rehab, Hayward began to experience irritation on the outside of the injured ankle. It was determined in late-May that the hardware in the ankle – a plate and screws – needed to be removed. Successful surgery was performed May 30.

That moment was just one of many that left Hayward questioning if, rather than when, he would ever return to the court at full strength.

“I’ve told multiple people the hardest part of this whole process has been the mental challenge,” Hayward said. He later added, “Especially when it happens, there are definitely some dark days, days where you just don’t know if you’re going to be the same player. What’s on the horizon? What’s the future look like?”

It was his family, his teammates, his coaches and his fans who helped him to battle through the darkest of times. He said that small gestures from all of those people helped him along the way, including one that stood out from teammate Aron Baynes.

“I can remember Aron Baynes – I’m a big donut guy, I like donuts, that’s like my cheat food,” he admitted with a smile, “and I remember he brought Krispy Kremes back from a road trip and drove them over to the house. Just simple things like that mean a lot to me, means a lot to my family too, that people care.”

Hayward now wants to pay Baynes and everyone else back by helping to push the Celtics back into the NBA Finals.

Such is a lofty goal, but it’s one that is centered in the sights of Hayward and the C’s.

“We’re worried about winning and putting another banner up behind you,” Hayward said in response to a question about the potential of him coming off the bench. “Like I said, we have so much depth, we have so much talent. It doesn’t matter who starts to me. My goal is to help us get that banner.”

Accomplishing that goal would be a heck of a way to continue Hayward’s story, but just like during his rehab, Hayward won’t get caught up in long-term goals.

The last year of his life has been all about short-term goals and step-by-step accomplishments. Nothing will change there.

Within the last two weeks, Hayward was given full clearance to return to 5-on-5 basketball for the first time since Oct. 17. His next goal is to regain his rhythm and carry it into – and through – Opening Night.