I see Hayward playing between 10 and 20 minutes a night depending on how he is doing. I think he will play in most, if not all games unless he ends up in Coach's doghouse somehow (which I highly doubt will happen).
On a different note, I think that as the season goes on we need to realize that Gordon was drafted into a good situation, something that cannot be said about any other top-10 pick. Most of these guys are going to be forced into being a top-3 guy on their team, where Gordon will probably be our 8th or 9th man this year. Because of this, he won't have the stats (or minutes) of these other guys. This is just something he will need to deal with, and we as fans will need to understand.
I wouldn't be surprised to see his line at the end of the year as something like:
78 games played; 16 MPG
8.0 PPG on 43%, 35% from 3
3 RPG, 3 APG, 1 TO, 0.8 BLK
Just finished a post on the same subject. I looked at what past #9 picks had done in their rookie seasons...how much they played, how they scored, etc.
Short version: I put Hayward at 15-20 minutes per game, 5-7 ppg. I didn't bother to project shooting percentage, but I don't think it will be great at first. I do think he has a chance to improve, but probably just to the low 40s for the time being. He needs to get stronger to get any higher than that, and that won't happen overnight.
But he shot a lot better from the 3 his previous year. My guess is that he had a lot of pressure to step up and be "the man' his 2nd year and probably took a lot of shots he shouldn't have.If Hayward averages 43%, 35% from 3, 3 RPG, 3 APG, 1 TO, 0.8 BLK he will get a lot more than just 16 minutes a game. He wont sniff 35% from 3 or 43% from the field. Remember he shot 29% from college 3 last year. It is my hope that Hayward gets less than 5 minutes a game because he will be taking time away from AK, CJ and/or Bell. However, if he does shot this well, you got to play the rookie.
I would really like to see Hayward do more when he has the ball. I know the offense doesn't allow for a lot of improvisation, but with his ball handling skills it would be nice to see him do more than stand out on the wing waiting around......