New Orleans Pelicans’ Player Grades: Jaxson Hayes

What Jaxson Hayes needs to improve

Those who think Jaxson Hayes is going to be a 3-point shooting stretch-five for the New Orleans Pelicans need to relax.

Teenage rookie centers don’t generally come into the league with much shooting ability and the Pelicans don’t need Hayes to be Marc Gasol.

His shot will come with time, and if Hayes ever develops even a mid-range game he’ll be an offensive force.

The New Orleans Pelicans have one of the top scoring offenses in the NBA, so they don’t need Jaxson Hayes to be a long-range shooter.

But it would be nice if he improved his free-throw shooting. Hayes figures to draw a lot of contact and fouls, so he needs to shoot better than 63% from the line.

Most of what Hayes needs to improve revolves around understanding of the game, knowing where to be and defensive rotations.

Hayes was often out of position on defense or slow to rotate, which left his man open for dunks.

He got pulled from games several times after only a couple of minutes when Alvin Gentry was clearly exacerbated by his defensive mistakes.

Defensive rotations are probably the hardest thing for rookies, particularly big men, so we expect Jaxson Hayes to make big strides in that area in year two.

Hayes also needs to improve his rebounding, especially on the defensive end. He’s only grabbing 5.3 defensive rebounds per-36 minutes, which is not great for a center.

Hayes has the tendency to look for the big dunk on the offensive end, but needs to put in the work on the defensive glass to finish possessions and help the New Orleans Pelicans get out on the break.

He also has a tendency to go for the big block instead of staying in defensive position and can fall victim to pump fakes which cause him to pick up silly fouls.

Part of the reason Jaxson Hayes only averaged 17 minutes a game is that he often picked up quick fouls or got lost on defense.

This may seem like nit-picking considering Hayes is a teenager (and it is) but with Zion and Ingram at forward the Pelicans really need their center to play elite defense, rebound the ball and run the floor. That’s it.

His season was up and down but overall a success, so how does Jaxson Hayes grade out overall?