Will garbage-time flurry get Jaxson Hayes some minutes?

It’s been a rough season for Jaxson Hayes of the New Orleans Pelicans.

What was supposed to be his breakout year has turned into him being benched in favor of Willie Hernangomez.

The Pelicans are 5-17 and have little big man depth with Zion Williamson out, so the fact that Hayes hasn’t been able to get minutes is disappointing to say the least.

He’s put the Pelicans in a tough spot, as Willie Green doesn’t want to reward his lack of effort, but the Pelicans can’t trade Hayes and benching him isn’t going to help his development.

Hayes got in for eight minutes of garbage-time in last night’s blowout loss to Utah, and put up a flurry of stats, scoring 15 points and grabbing four rebounds while hitting all three of his 3-point attempts.

The game was already well in hand for Utah, but hopefully this flurry will be enough to get Hayes the minutes he needs to improve and salvage his season.

It’s time for the New Orleans Pelicans to play Jaxson Hayes at power forward

With the news that Zion Williamson will be returning soon, minutes for Hayes will probably be even harder to come by, especially with Hernangomez playing well.

That’s why I’d love to see Hayes get some time at power forward, both now and when Zion returns. Hayes has shown nice shooting touch and his ultimate position may be at the four, where he can play more freely on defense and not be stuck trying to body centers, which he cannot currently do.

Personally, I’ve had enough of Garrett Temple and Tomas Satoransky and would much rather see the Pels go big with their second unit and play Hayes at the four. They have nothing to lose at this point and need to figure out what they have in Hayes and how they can use him in the future.

Hopefully, last night’s garbage-time flurry will get Hayes going a bit, as the Pels could use any kind of boost they can get off their bench, which has been abysmal this season.