Detroit Pistons: 5 takeaways from the first 5 games
By Duncan Smith
3. It’s going to take a while for Killian Hayes
Killian Hayes hasn’t gotten off to the same kind of start that his fellow rookies have. While Bey and Stewart have largely thrived, Hayes has struggled. It’s important to remember that more than ever, that was always to be expected. Rookie point guards have the most difficult path of all, and that’s even when they have the benefit of things like summer league (didn’t happen this year), a full training camp (nope) and a full preseason (also nope), to say nothing of that pre-camp stretch where players usually gather in their local market to work out and train together.
Related Story. Pistons: Killian Hayes is growing before our eyes. light
Hayes has had the benefit of none of these things that are usually par for the rookie course. He didn’t even know what team he would play for in the NBA until about six weeks ago thanks to the insanely abbreviated offseason. While he’s struggled with the speed and physicality of the NBA game, he’s shown better defensive and playmaking skills than expected, and the rest may very well come together for him sooner than later.
In a regular season, he would have had abundantly more time to get into a groove before getting thrown to the wolves in the way he has thus far, so rest assured that the book is far from written on this 19-year-old rookie with five games of NBA experience under his belt.