Utah Jazz star Gordon Hayward to make season debut against New York Knicks

The Utah Jazz (3-3) have managed a .500 record even though they had a number of injuries to rotation players. Alec Burks has been out the entire time, missing all of the preseason as well. Derrick Favors played one game in the preseason, and missed the first two games of the season. Boris Diaw, his back-up, has had a leg contusion and missed the last few games as well. However, there’s been no bigger player out of the rotation than Gordon Hayward. Gordon broke a finger in practice during the preseason and has been out since then. ESPN’s Tim MacMahon reports that he could be coming back tomorrow, against the New York Knicks (2-3).

Hayward coming back, probably not quite in tip-top shape, probably means a little more depth as one of Rodney Hood or Joe Johnson returns to the bench. But he’s not going to be playing full-time minutes just yet, so we’ll still be seeing guys like Joe Ingles on the court, and point guards Dante Exum and Shelvin Mack taking some time at shooting guard.

Hayward is great and was primed for a huge start to this season. And this team hung in there without him, pulling off the expected win against the Los Angeles Lakers, taking out the Dallas Mavericks, and splitting games against the San Antonio Spurs. Even with G-Time back I think the team would have dropped games to the Portland Trail Blazers and Los Angeles Clippers.

This is going to be a fun road trip for sure!