3 gifts that the Detroit Pistons gave us for the holidays
Killian Hayes
In the months leading up to the 2020 NBA Draft, fans had more time to think about who they wanted with the seventh pick than they’d have in any “normal” year. The pandemic set things back quite a bit, and even delayed the draft on two separate occasions.
Because of this, it was easy for us to overthink every single option. Every single day there was a new player who was the best fit, and one who was the worst.
The one constant however, was Killian Hayes.
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No matter what happened, people didn’t seem to deviate from the idea that Hayes would end up being an ideal fit for this Pistons team. It was always just a matter of whether or not he’d still be around for us to actually take.
Sure enough, he was.
Fans rejoiced and it was really the first time in recent memory that Detroit drafted the player that as a general consensus the fanbase actually wanted. It wasn’t a divisive pick, it wasn’t a safe pick, it was the right pick.
Hayes will be tasked with being the first building block of this rebuild. While he’s currently off to a bit of slow start, it’s still incredibly early and he’s only 19 years old.
It’s fair to admit that some expectations went a bit beyond reason, but it just goes to show where the level of excitement is at.
Much like the team as a whole, patience is going to be incredibly important with Hayes. If he ends up being the playmaking aficionado that we all hope he can be, then we can expect Detroit to be in contention within the next decade.