re: Hey remember when people melted over the Jaxson Hayes pick?

CBS Sports:
The fact that Hayes is vastly outplaying the guy that he was traded for -- Hunter -- makes the topic even more worth discussing. The 19-year-old Hayes scored 28 points on 10-of-15 from the field with three blocks and four rebounds. Meanwhile, the Hawks' Hunter vastly struggled on 2-of-8 shooting from the field, scoring just six points in 21 minutes as Atlanta lost to the Minnesota Timberwolves in a blowout, 90-66, on Sunday.




*Can’t wait to see him and the boys tomorrow.
Exciting times.
Would they have picked Jaxson at 4 if they couldn’t make a deal? I think so.
He may be the second best player in the draft.

Anybody check back and see who all melted in the draft thread? It was ridiculous.

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As soon as we traded the 4th pick, pretty much all of us were saying it should be Hayes if none of Garland, Culver or White dropped.

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gtfo with that.

LINK /

Heres the page where we drafted him. The Pirate King melting like usual

Bronc Pre Summer League (only two pages in a Hayes thread):

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this will be one of those trades the whole league looks back on and laughs. Garland will be a fricking stud and we gave him away for a project.


I'm right with you.

It doesn't even take 30 minutes to see Atlanta likely got the better end of this deal.

While I am not super high on either, they traded Hayes and a crapshoot at 17 for DeAndre Hunter and Cameron Reddish. The former has probably the highest floor after the top 3, and Reddish at least has very high upside.

I'm seriously pissed off about everything past Zion tonight.

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Yeah, I feel completely at odds with the rest of the board because I think this was Griffin's first swing and miss and it is a doozy, and it seriously makes me concerned with how he will utilize those incredible assets he received in the Lakers trade.

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If we are weighing bust potential, Hayes is high on that list. while his upside seems no higher than either of those(or Culver or Reddish for that matter).

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So you discount Hayes high level defense? Why? Based on his synergy scores he was solid, not spectacular. Based on how the league is trending, a top ten pick on a non-elite prospect center makes little sense.

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You can get Dedmon or Noel on the cheap, which are both likely equal(perhaps better) players than Jaxson will be for his first few seasons.

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Bronc AFTER ONE SUMMER LEAGUE GAME"

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Yeah, I think Hayes showed he belongs and raised his likely floor, which is not something you typically do as a rookie one game into summer league, but he did it for me. And he did silence my worst concerns.

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I think the better argument in defense of the move back from 4 is NAW. He just looks really good from a skillset perspective. Way better than I gave him credit for, one summer league game or not.

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Wow, if he would’ve been happy with either Garland or Hunter at #4 and isn’t bothered by having competing strategies then he should’ve loved Hayes and NAW. Instead of having to decide between a boom/bust guy with obvious potential but tons of questions and relatively safe lunch pail guy that probably won’t ever dominate in any phase of the game he should’ve been thrilled with getting both.

I have multiple personalities leave me alone

There is a 7 page "Hayes is Javele McGee 2.0 lol" thread that is pretty nice to see who all melted and are already backpedaling.

I think the people that said "he showed enough to raise his floor" have it right. IMO Hayes will spend much of the season in the GLeague. What we saw last night was confirmation not of Hayes/NAW/Didi, but of Griffin/Langdon. You go from "you gave up the chance to draft several players many experts said are going to be studs for these 3 guys. Are you sure?" to "Ok, maybe you know what you're doing after all Trajan Langdon."

I mean, like I said then, like I said today, like i’ll say now, I hope I eat the whole crow on that. I hope Hayes turns out to be a multiple all star. Tyson Chandler with a three. Like many were screaming at me about because he shot 74% in college while I said(rightfully so) that his percentages were misleading and his shot needs a near total rebuild. That without that, as good as Hayes can be, there are long-term fit questions if he can’t be that while being next to Zion(or if Zion doesn’t rebuild his own jumper successfully). But that Hayes should remain a solid positive asset in most scenarios.

It is still going to remain true that wings are a premium, that big men are becoming increasingly a glutton(Favors speaks to this). I still do have a very high opinion of Garland. As good as yesterday looked, one summer league game doesn’t make a career, one summer league game doesn’t really change my opinion of a completely unrelated player that I came to conclusions on by judging him in his own context. I do still think he has all star potential... And while I think yesterday
for me raised Hayes floor notably, I still think Hayes has a long road to go to reach his ceiling, and have said multiple times people should reign in some of the hyperbole to align expectations more realistically. And if you really want to dive into it, what elevated my opinion of NAW, what makes me think I will get to eat that crow, was seeing a lot of skillsets that weren’t very present in his college game(the USA Today article made a lot of notes on this in their incredible near play by play breakdown), skillsets he demonstrated that you and others spent a lot of time(an irrationally obnoxious amount of time) trying to knock back about Garland’s own skill set.

Like Garland, NAW exhibited a bevy of translatable skillsets to me yesterday, which is largely where my enthusiasm came from: solid off-dribble shooting, textbook shooting mechanics, quick release, solid passing vision, good transition vision/passing/playmaking, solid finishing abilities, smart shot selection, and good off ball movement and separation(a lot of skills he didn’t get to show off in college). Skills they share and which makes them multifaceted guard threats that allow them to play on and off ball. But they differentiated in some notable ways, but with their own strengths and weaknesses. Garland is a better shot creator, better overall offensive player, while Naw has a good bit of work to do in some key areas(and there is a good chance some areas he will never be able to overcome, like creating easy separation). Garland will struggle defensively, while Naw seems to already have a good knack for on-ball defense.

I think what the first game did was raise the floor of Hayes, higher than I pinned him initially. Which I also made mention of. Doubly so for NAW.

All that said, if you want to anoint people after one summer league game, that is your right, I’d caution it though. I think what transpired has the making of getting people like me to eat crow, but we are probably 1-2 seasons out from actually making such judgements.