I laugh at all of you who never expected our players to struggle. A bunch of crazies if you ask me. Every single one of them is playing the game in a different way, none more so than Hayward. Rome wasn't built in a day. The fact that Hayward's struggles(and successes!) have come in a contract year are not his fault, they are the FO's for timing the development of the core 4 this way. I expected lumps and bruises this year, and I saw lumps and bruises. Next year I expect healing for some of our players mixed with soreness, and more lumps and bruises for others.
People want to trade Kanter, and let Hayward walk because they're not all-stars at this point. Despite their struggles, they are both above average players at their position, and better than anyone available in the free agent market that we could get. No one is trading a top 5 pick this year, and anyone outside of that range doesn't match up value wise to either one of our players. They are only going to get better as they grow into their new surroundings with a new coach after going through the baptism of fire that was this year. Getting rid of either when we don't have to is a very bad idea.
This is a rebuild folks, and this is what it looks like. Expect more pain next year, and the year after that. We will be lucky if we make the playoffs in 2015-16, and I am ok with that. I see 2017-18 as our first year of serious contention. When we finally get there, we will stay there for a while. Maybe Hayward and Kanter will be a part of it, and maybe they won't. But, at this specific juncture the right move is to keep both. Kanter because of how few minutes he has played and how young he still is bodes well for the incredible amount of untapped potential he still has; and Hayward because there is no realistic replacement that is better, and if March is any indicator, he has taken big strides in his game towards figuring out how to be effective.
The prevalent principal for developing and accessing one's greatness/potential is from Malcolm Gladwell's book "Outliers," which says putting in 10,000 hours will make you an expert, and during that time big progression can take place. In Kanter's case, he is nowhere near that number. Kanter started playing late as a teen, and didn't play at all at Kentucky, and since he's been in the league he's only clocked 3900 minutes of in game action. He is still very much in his development and learning phase. You don't put up with the pain to trade him away and watch him be one of the league's best in a couple years time.
