Three reasons to be excited about Jaxson Hayes

The Pelicans have been giving Jaxson Hayes more minutes than they likely expected to when the season began. Here are three exciting things about his performance so far.

When the Pelicans selected Jaxson Hayes 8th overall in the 2019 Draft, it was assumed that Hayes would be a bit of a project. He possessed lots of talent and athleticism, but as much as anything else, he was defined by how raw he was. Just 19 years old after a single year at Texas, where he averaged 10 points and 5 rebounds per game, Hayes displayed enough in Austin to be a lottery pick and the Pelicans believed that they would be patient with his development but that, in time, their faith in him would be rewarded.

Things have not exactly worked out that way though. While Hayes started the season by not playing in the team’s first three games, injuries, desperation, and a spate of losses forced Alvin Gentry to see what he had in the young rookie.

His first game went about as well as possible as he scored 19 points on 9-11 shooting. Ever since then, Hayes has remained a fixture in the Pelicans rotation and has even started the team’s last two games with Derrick Favors and Jahlil Okafor unavailable. With Pelicans fans getting a more extended look at Hayes than many expected to when the season began, here are three things to be excited about as the season and his career progresses.

Ability to convert passes into buckets

Jaxson Hayes is not a playmaker or a shot creator. He is not going to play with his back to the basket and post up opponents or pull up for a mid-range jumper. Hayes is a rim runner and a lob catcher and what he may lack in variety, he makes up for in ability. Nearly 80 percent of his field goals have been assisted, which is not surprising, but what has been a bit surprising is his ability to convert the passes he receives into points.

Hayes shot 72 percent in his lone college season and it would have been reasonable to wonder just how much of that was due to playing against college players and how drastically those numbers would drop against professionals. Well, that percentage has dropped, but not nearly as much as pessimists may have guessed.

He is still shooting 64 percent overall, which would place him in the top five in the league, alongside Rudy Gobert and Clint Capela, if he’d taken enough field goal attempts to qualify. And what’s most exciting is that it’s not unfathomable that these numbers go up over the course of his career as he gets stronger and more knowledgeable about how to exploit opportunities near the basket.

Defensive Presence

Against the Blazers, Jaxson Hayes put an end to the first half by emphatically blocking a Portland lay-up into the stands. While it’s just one play, it is emblematic of how solid he already is as a rim protector. While Hayes still has a lot to learn about positioning, much of where he struggles is likely to improve as he gets more playing time. The instincts are there, but the discipline and execution sometimes isn’t, which is to be expected in a player as young as him.

Also, the last three games, with Hayes on the floor, the team’s defensive rating has been 85.1 against the Blazers, 85.3 against the Warriors, and 94 against Miami. Of course these numbers are lower than they would be if these three teams had been fully healthy, but it’s still encouraging.

This would be far and away the best defense in the league if such a performance were able to be extrapolated over the course of full games, but even though that’s impossible, it’s good to see that at least something is working for the Pelicans defensively in light of their struggles on that end all year long.

It would not be surprising to see Hayes continue to steal minutes from Okafor even after he returns in light of Hayes’ ability on that end, especially when compared to Okafor’s.

The Pelicans are just better with him on the floor

We’ve already noted how good the Pelicans defense has been with Hayes playing over the last three games. But while it may not be that dramatic of an improvement all the time, the Pelicans are consistently better when he is on the floor.

According to Basketball-Reference, the Pelicans outscore their opponents by 4.3 points per 100 possessions when he is on the floor. This is impressive on its own, but his net rating is even better. The Pelicans are 10.1 points better per 100 possessions with Hayes on the floor than they are with him off of it.

Part of this may just be a small sample size and perhaps these numbers will be less outlandish moving forward, but it’s great to see the Pelicans’ investment in Hayes pay off so much so quickly. With so many injuries to so many players, Hayes has been the only center consistently available to the Pelicans these last few weeks and it’s great to see him making the most of his opportunity and helping the team, even as he still is forced to learn on the job.