To say that Killian Hayes has gotten off to a poor start for the Detroit Pistons would be an understatement, as he currently might be the worst player in the NBA.
After last night’s zero point, four turnover performance, Killian Hayes is now averaging 2.3 points per game and shooting an unbelievable 12 percent from the field.
Even his staunchest supporters started to jump ship today, as it gets difficult to continue to defend a guy who has yet to make much progress in his 2+ seasons in the NBA.
We are all hoping for the best for the 21-year-old point guard, but you can see his confidence deflating with every miss and he is currently playing like he has the weight of the world on his shoulders.
There have already been some calls for coach Dwane Casey to shake up his rotation by dropping Hayes from it, but that doesn’t seem to be the way to build the young point guard up, as his confidence is currently at zero, and it’s not like there are better options on the bench anyway.
Coach Casey knows that the only way he’s ever going to get out of this is by playing, and this is the time to do it.
Detroit Pistons: Like it or not, this is another developmental year for Killian Hayes
While I agree that Killian has not played well, making him the scapegoat for a team that is just flat-out bad right now is pretty unfair.
The entire bench not named Jalen Duren has been awful. So has Saddiq Bey. So has Isaiah Livers. But I don’t see them getting called out after every missed shot.
Also, we seem to forget that this is still a very young team that needs to play together more to develop chemistry and grow. Am I happy with the way Killian is playing? Of course not, but there have also been some positives that are overlooked, and I am not willing to make him the reason this team sucks right now, because there is plenty of blame to go around.
Coach Casey still believes in his young guard, and tried to remind fans that the only way players can get better is by actually playing:
Casey on Killian: "He's not playing at the level he did in exhibition. We have to find out why. He's putting pressure on himself. He doesn't need to. This is time to grow."
— James L. Edwards III (@JLEdwardsIII) October 26, 2022
I’ve made my share of jokes (it’s the only way through these types of stretches) but some of the animosity I’ve seen towards Hayes has been ridiculous.
It’s not like Hayes is the reason the Detroit Pistons are bad right now, and until we see him play with actual NBA players (no offense Hamidou), it’s hard to judge his progress this season.
Patience is a tough sell when we see some of his peers playing at a high level, but patience is all we have at the moment, as there aren’t any better alternatives walking through that door anytime soon.
Dwane Casey has no choice but to keep running Hayes out there and hope he eventually figures it out, and hopefully getting some players back will help. This is definitely Killian’s “time to grow” but the clock is ticking and that time won’t last forever.