True shooting upto 52% in December which is still bad but much closer to average than he’s ever been
Shot the three quite well, actually still a nightmare from 2
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I cut him in fantasy a week or two in. Ya hate to see it, but ball out Hayes!
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He still doesn’t get to the basket. I aesthetically don’t love his pull up game, but he is hitting it more regularly.
The impressive part is the kind of threes he’s taking. These aren’t wide open catch and shoot looks. He hit three clutch shots that he took with confidence.
He’s improved all around. Catch and shoot looks has no hesitation, which he struggled with previously, plus a nice quick release. He always liked the step-back three, but is now actually making them at a higher rate. I wonder if attacking the basket and drawing fouls will ever be part of his game. Some players just don’t do that and his love of the pull-up mid range shots makes me think he just won’t be that guy. Still a huge improvement from where he was at the start of the year.
I keep singing the same tune which is these 18, 19 and 20 year olds are not going to come to the NBA ready to tear it up on most cases. They will need 2-3 years of seasoning to get the NBA game down. Just look at Boston with their two stars. They were not overnight sensations and they still have a hurdle to cross to get that title.
Killian Hayes to me is coming along just fine. Just need to improve something each year. Cade going down was probably the best thing to happen to him. Ivey needs another year or so to work on several things such as his in between game, shooting and especially defense. His defensive posture is some of the worse I have seen.
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Livers really needs to stay healthy. It gets late early now.
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Well I hope and do think he’s bought himself some time by making his 3s and being a smart floor guy. He’s not been a big minutes player but he’s played his role very well when out there, and stuck in the rotation.
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Last night was embarrassing. Up 14 with 3:30 left and lose by 11 in OT. Low IQ basketball players on that roster. Cade and another top 5 pick isn’t saving this rebuild.
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They even held that 14-point lead at the 3-minute mark. If it wasn’t so awful, I’d say it was kind of funny. Their most recent issue was that they’ve been getting crushed in the 3rd quarter. Last night seemed to be going that same way, as they were tied at halftime and got down by as much as 15 in the 3rd. However, they came back to grab the lead by the end of the quarter and were playing very solidly through the first 9 minutes of the 4th. Duren and Stew were both forces, Killian was solid, and Bojan was getting his usual 20 points. Ty Lue even pulled most of his starters in favor of guys who hadn’t played all night. He was essentially waving the white flag.
With 3:04 left, up 14 and with the ball, this is what came next:
Stew missed a 3.
Duren got the board and missed a putback.
Norman Powell made a 3 for the Clips.
Bojan turned it over.
Clippers miss a 3.
Bojan gets fouled but makes only 1 of 2 FT’s.
Amir Coffey gets a dunk.
Bojan’s shot gets blocked by Batum. Pistons get the rebound but get called for a shot-clock violation.
Moses Brown get a 3-point play.
Killian turns it over.
Batum makes a 3.
Killian misses a midrange J, Ivey gets the rebound, Burks misses a J, and misses a putback attempt.
Killian fouls Kennard. Luke hits both FT’s.
Burks misses a 3.
Paul George comes back in, promptly gets fouled, but only makes 1 of 2 from the line.
21.2 seconds left, Pistons up 1.
Killian gets fouled with 20.1 to go…and he only makes 1 of 2 FT’s.
MVP-candidate Terrence Mann (great role in Field of Dreams, BTW!) drains a midrange J over Stew to tie it with 5.0 left.
Bojan gets a pretty good look at a 3 before the buzzer but it doesn’t drop.
Since PBP started getting tracked for NBA games in 1996, there have been over 12,800 games where a team had a 14-point lead with 3 minutes remaining. Up until last night, only 2 times has the team behind come back to win.
Epic.
I wouldn’t put this loss all on player I.Q. There weren’t many early shot-clock takes once it started getting close again. I would say they lacked intensity from the 3-minute to the 2-minute mark. I would also say that this is where they missed a guy like Cade (or Jerami Grant, for that matter) who can settle things down and get a tough bucket when needed. Killian isn’t a closer, at this point. Neither is Ivey, but I think he can get there. He wasn’t in for the final two offensive possessions and didn’t attempt a shot in the final 6 minutes of regulation.
Hopefully, one of these two young guys (who will have the ball in their hands at the end of the game) with figure it out over the next 40+ games.
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Incredibly poor coaching throughout that last 3 minute debacle before OT. Clippers had thrown in the towel and removed all the starters! Wasted a really solid second half effort.
Generally if we’re trying to explain a really bad bout of play from this team, I’d just point at “8-28” and move on right
They play really badly sometimes because they’re a bad team with not many people who are, at this moment, league average players (Bogdanovic, and at least for last night, Stewart)
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The positives that I’ve seen from this season, thus far:
Ivey looks to be worthy of his draft slot.
Duren also looks to be worthy of Jalen Ivey’s draft slot. He’s ahead of schedule. He may still be more of a classic big, but he has shown a bit of a midrange touch and I can easily see him leading the league in rebounding as early as Year 3. I think he’s a steal.
Stew is adapting to the 4. He’s hitting 38% from 3, and is starting to show some ability of putting the ball on the floor and blowing by guys. He still may project as a back-up but a valuable one.
Killian has established some worth. After the first month, he was looking like he might be in his last year in the NBA. Now, he has a go-to shot and is at least passable from deep. Add that to his already good defense and passing, and you at least have the makings of a reliable rotation player.
Bojan is a scoring machine. He can’t do much else, but that’s gotta be valuable to some team.
Burks is still Burks. Even young teams can use a good vet. I’d be cool with him sticking around.
Knox may also not be worthless. The sample size is still pretty small, but he’s already done more than I expected out of him.
That’s it, but that’s something.
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That game last night was very fun… until it wasn’t. Overall, I’m high on the team going forward.
I like the Stewart-Duren frontcourt going forward. Stewart keeps showing new aspects of his game almost weekly. And while Duren leaves a lot of points on the table, he has nice touch and passing vision. He could easily have a significant jump in ppg just from not blowing a couple easy opportunities each game. The two of them will give you rebounding (offensive and defensive) and shot blocking going forward.
As for the backcourt, Cade needs to shoot better and Ivey needs to keep working on his mid-range game and consistently making better decisions.
The place where I think they need an upgrade is on the wing where they need a two-way player (a wing defender that can give you some shooting/scoring.)
Also, the Duren alley oop literally made me jump out of my seat because I thought that was a sure turnover:
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Once Cade went down it was all about tanking again. I want them to be fun, exciting, and competitive but the season is already lost so I mostly rolled my eyes and shrugged. I will say, that’s impressive to blow a lead in such a short time with so many second chances!
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I haven’t watched but Saddiq seems to have taken a solid step backwards this year?
I’m also still not a Killian believer. 4 of 5 games his shooting is a mess, he just will throw up 4/4 in game 5 to keep things looking merely bad instead of horrific.
Admittedly 1 game of 5 of solid shooting is 1 more than he used to have
Saddiq is not shooting as well from 3 as he did as a rookie. He’s improved his efficiency from 2 though. Problem is he’s not a great defender or passer. Feels like a legit starter on a not great team or a backup on a good team.
Killian’s shot looks much better both from 3 and from the midrange. I think the games he hasn’t shot well were ones where he was forced to do too much. Problem is he doesn’t get to the basket. But he plays good defense, is an excellent passer and now isn’t a major liability on offense. Going forward, I think he’ll be a solid backup PG that sticks in the league for a while. Like a TJ McConnell.
I like Ivey my biggest concern is his role this year compared to next year. He hardly got any time with Cade. Cade is out for the year. Is Ivey’s role currently going to be the same or similar to what he’s doing now? After what he said over a week ago and what happened last night just concerned this group is going to mail it in.
I think the larger question to answer is if Cade should be a full time point guard, or if he should spend time at both guard slots.
Once you answer that, you can start asking questions about Ivey’s role.
It may not be the case but I think there is definitely a possibility that they are better off with Ivey taking on ball reps when he plays with Cade, and having Cade take them when he’s not with Ivey.
I realize this removes a rotation role for Killian, mostly.
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Killian is going to have a spot in the rotation as long as Ivey plays defense the way he currently does. Pistons will give Killian every opportunity to bring his game along. Killian coming off the bench for either Cade or Ivey is perfect because they will be all interchangeable. Pistons need a wing (small forward) player who can start who has a complete game.
What did he say?
Also, if the group was going to mail it in, they had the perfect chance to do so when they got down 15 in the 3rd.