Killian Hayes, the former 7th overall pick from the 2020 draft class, started his fourth season of his NBA career with the following stats in his first two games:
Loss vs MIA:
- 10pts, 1reb, 3ast, 4-12 fg, 0-6 3pts, +1 in 31 minutes
Win vs CHA:
- 6pts, 3rebs, 3asts, 2-10 fg, 1-3 3pts, 29mins, -7 in 29 minutes
Averages: 30mpg, 8ppg, 2rpg, 3apg, with 27/11/60 splits
Edit: I messed up the title. Should be exactly 8 ppg instead of 8.4.
Can a pistons fan tell me why he starts
He actually shot well in the preseason, so that might be part of the rationale.
I wanted the bulls to draft him so bad lol
Kevin O’Killian
From a Pistons fan who has seen most of Hayes’ games over the last two years:
Hayes is weird because he’s simultaneously both better than his stats, but also much worse than his stats.
He’s better in that he’s a very solid defender and a good passer, and generally doesn’t LOOK like a weak link minute by minute. He doesn’t bleed points on defense, turn it over, make stupid decisions that grab your attention, etc. You can go a long time without noticing him for better or for worse.
But where he’s much worse than his stats is in everything he can’t do, and doesn’t even try to do.
He can’t drive to his right. At all. He literally cannot take two consecutive dribbles with his right hand on a drive - he always has to come back left. Any feint he makes to the right is only to set up his left. And forget about finishing with his right hand - I literally haven’t seen him do it in two years.
And this limits him tremendously. It basically takes away half of the court in any given play - he’s absolutely no threat to do anything going right.
And so he’s basically no threat to drive into traffic. He can’t finish in traffic in the half court - despite being big and fairly athletic. And so he can’t even initiate anything meaningful going to the basket - there’s no creative potential, no uncertainty in his intentions, when he does anything. The defense knows they just have to take away his very simple one option - a left hand layup - and there’s nothing else he can do. The only possible outcomes are a pull-up jumper or a pass.
So where he’s worse than his stats is in all that he can’t do. When he’s out there, you’re conceding that one of your guards has no ability to attack the basket or create for bigs in the half court.
So your offense suffers and everyone else has to do more, because he can’t do those basics. But you don’t notice it’s because of Hayes right away.
Hes been one of the worst offensive players in the league since he’s been in the league, his sheer lack of development on the offensive end is staggering, he’s just got such a lack of skill at every level except for defense that he just doesn’t have anything to build on top of, he’s got to be out of the league soon.