It's only three games, sure, but when they are so different from what we had seen from him, it bears looking deeper into what transpired. Hayward played with tremendous hustle at Butler, but early on in his NBA career, all I saw was a casualness that suggested he thought he was a can't-miss prospect. Now, after a disastrous first seven-plus weeks, it appears Hayward began to understand that anything less than an all-out effort was going to doom him to comparisons to Adam Morrison.
So Hayward began attacking the rim, going after loose balls, making hustle plays everywhere and even earning some terrific dunks. He made some shots, too, which always helps, but my guess is he did so because he was feeling better about his overall game. It's a pretty common occurrence: players finding their shooting stroke only after improving other parts of their game.
