Jazz's Gordon Hayward ready for Utah to get back to playoff contention
He has a big task ahead of him currently in Las Vegas, where he's participating in Team USA's minicamp and practices. But for as much as he's looking forward to the possibility of playing for Team USA at the 2016 Olympics in Rio, Utah Jazz wing Gordon Hayward has a more immediate goal in mind. He's sick of not leading his team into the playoffs.
"This is going to be my sixth year in the league, with four of them not making the playoffs and one was a first-round sweep," Hayward told reporters in Las Vegas, according to the Salt Lake Tribune's Aaron Falk. "I'm definitely ready to get this going."
And where some players might see their regular season performance for 2015-16 as a potential building block for the upcoming Olympics, the opposite is true for Hayward.
"My main focus is going to be this next season for us as the Jazz," Hayward said. "If we have really good success with the Jazz then maybe that will set me up for success with [Team USA] as well."
Utah is a trendy pick to surprise people and snag a playoff berth in the rough Western Conference, and the injury to Dante Exum has only slightly tempered that enthusiasm. Of course, even if the Jazz manage to make the postseason, they'd face a staunch opponent in the first round and might be doomed to another of those dreaded first round exits.
But a team has to start somewhere, and the Jazz seem primed to take the next step in their rebuild. Utah's missed the playoffs for three straight years, something it'd done only one other time since 1983-84. It's a trend Hayward will do everything to break.
(h/t Salt Lake Tribune)
Photo Credit: Kyle Terada/USA TODAY Sports
