At first, it didn’t appear as if any good would come out of former No. 1 overall pick Cade Cunningham missing the rest of his season due to a shin injury. When Cunningham went out, though, another former lottery pick stepped up, and now the Detroit Pistons have even more reason to believe that their future is incredibly bright.
With a spot in the starting lineup up for taking and both scoring and leadership needing to come in abundance, 2020’s No. 7 overall pick, Killian Hayes, has finally found his shooting touch, confidence and swagger.
Hayes averaged just 6.8 points per game as a rookie and was disappointing in his second season, averaging only 6.9.
The on-the-season averages still look much the same for Hayes this season (8.7 points, 2.5 rebounds, 5.2 assists per game), but those numbers don’t tell the full story of who the French point guard is becoming for the Pistons.
More telling of his game as of late are his numbers since Cunningham went down in early November.
Hayes is averaging 11.6 points per game in the 16 he’s played since that Nov. 11 mark. Even more impressive, he’s averaging 13.3 points, 6.3 rebounds and 4.3 assists per game so far in December.
And he’s making shots like this:
