On Detroit he was a bit of a ball-stopper, and not good enough to justify it.
But I remember also that he got traded just days after he broke off an end game out of bounds play for Bojan, to demand the ball himself. He made the shot to win the game, but it was really obvious he didn’t run the play - he just stepped in front of the guy inbounding and demanded the ball.
Always wondered if that showed that there was more behind the scenes than was obvious.
On Detroit he was a bit of a ball-stopper, and not good enough to justify it.
But I remember also that he got traded just days after he broke off an end game out of bounds play for Bojan, to demand the ball himself. He made the shot to win the game, but it was really obvious he didn’t run the play - he just stepped in front of the guy inbounding and demanded the ball.
Always wondered if that showed that there was more behind the scenes than was obvious.
Theory going around that this is a way to get a load management day against bad teams.
First Giannis, now Jokic. It makes sense from their perspective. And Jokic wasn’t exactly holding back when he got his second T.
Ok, I don’t blame anyone for not watching Detroit, but here’s the honest take:
I need to emphasize this: Duren, who was looking like their best player, rolled his ankle. He has been in and out of the lineup, but he’s been a shadow of himself when playing.
The lack of Duren hits Cade hard. Cade has always played much better when he has an athletic roll/lob big to play off of in p&r. Duren made defenses have to respect the roll and it opened things up for Cade. Without that, and with Hayes and Ausar on the wings, Cade has no room to breathe.
Cade has played poorly. He’s made dumb decisions. He’s also trying to do everything and Monty is playing him essentially all game.
Monty has inexplicably not only benched Ivey, but moved him to fourth guard and - until today’s second half - has relegated him to fifth option on offense. For context: Ivey’s per 36 and efficiency numbers are very good, except for turnovers. He’s arguably their best player so far, on a per 36 basis. But he’s getting jerked around in minutes and role. It’s fucked up.
All of the vets who were supposed to support the youngsters have missed some or all of the season. Bojan, Monte Morris, Burks, Livers. These are all rotation guys and/or starters. Only Burks has played, and he’s missed time too.
They’ve been getting CRUSHED in ft disparity. I haven’t checked recently but I think they were literally around 50% of their opponents’ ft attempts a while back. Part of this is that they do foul a bit more. A bigger part is that they don’t have a single foul merchant on the team - Cade has a comically bad whistle. Burks can merchant a bit, but he’s a backup.
All in all: they’re not a good team but if they had the injured half of their team playing, they wouldn’t be nearly this bad. I’d put a LOT of money on the narrative around Cade being a lot different if he had Duren and Bojan to pass to instead of Wiseman (third string) and Stanley Umude (no offense to him).
Ausaaaaaaar.
11th in the league in blocks, 11th in total rebounds, 2nd in offensive rebounds.
As a rookie small forward.
Don’t let Sasser’s 26 points distract from Ausar’s 15 rebounds.
I think he’s leading rookies in assists, rebounds, and steals now? Third in blocks, fifth in scoring.
That’s a lot of steps.
Detroit is one bucket at Miami from being 3-0.
From a Pistons fan who has seen most of Hayes’ games over the last two years:
Hayes is weird because he’s simultaneously both better than his stats, but also much worse than his stats.
He’s better in that he’s a very solid defender and a good passer, and generally doesn’t LOOK like a weak link minute by minute. He doesn’t bleed points on defense, turn it over, make stupid decisions that grab your attention, etc. You can go a long time without noticing him for better or for worse.
But where he’s much worse than his stats is in everything he can’t do, and doesn’t even try to do.
He can’t drive to his right. At all. He literally cannot take two consecutive dribbles with his right hand on a drive - he always has to come back left. Any feint he makes to the right is only to set up his left. And forget about finishing with his right hand - I literally haven’t seen him do it in two years.
And this limits him tremendously. It basically takes away half of the court in any given play - he’s absolutely no threat to do anything going right.
And so he’s basically no threat to drive into traffic. He can’t finish in traffic in the half court - despite being big and fairly athletic. And so he can’t even initiate anything meaningful going to the basket - there’s no creative potential, no uncertainty in his intentions, when he does anything. The defense knows they just have to take away his very simple one option - a left hand layup - and there’s nothing else he can do. The only possible outcomes are a pull-up jumper or a pass.
So where he’s worse than his stats is in all that he can’t do. When he’s out there, you’re conceding that one of your guards has no ability to attack the basket or create for bigs in the half court.
So your offense suffers and everyone else has to do more, because he can’t do those basics. But you don’t notice it’s because of Hayes right away.
What’s hilarious is this guarantees that some of you are going to be PISSED on some random night this season.