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Well after the Detroit Pistons had defeated the New York Knicks on Sunday night, Blake Griffin once again found himself playing defense but this time it was for rookie teammate Killian Hayes.
The Pistons’ first-round pick has endured a slow start to his preseason campaign and has struggled to shoot the ball. He recorded five points, four rebounds, three assists and two steals in his debut on Friday while he shot 2-of-7 from the field and turned the ball over seven times. Hayes followed up that outing by scoring six points, five rebounds and four assists on 2-of-11 shooting from the field during the 99-91 victory on Sunday.
“I think he looks great,” Griffin said. “Everybody always does this whole thing with preseason where a guy doesn’t shoot well, especially young guys. This is their first crack at NBA basketball and these guys especially didn’t get to have Summer League. They didn’t get to have that time with the team working out and they got thrown right into the fire. Killian has been great, all our rookies have been great.”
Pistons head coach Dwane Casey was unbothered by his shooting woes and volume of turnovers after his first preseason game. The mistakes, as Casey said, are all part of the process of transitioning to the NBA and provide a valuable learning experience for him to play through those errors on the court.
Casey said Hayes immediately found his mistakes from the first game in film study and knew they needed to be corrected. The film review allowed Hayes to cut his turnovers down to just one on Sunday, something Casey was happy to see.
“That’s growth,” Casey said. “That’s what we’re looking for, more so than points. The shooting is going to come as long as we take the right shots and right now we are taking the right shots. Killian was impressive the way he came in without turning the ball over. They tried to blitz him, he handled the blitzes much better and moved the ball.”
Following the contest, Hayes stayed back at the arena to put up extra shots on the court. Hayes was certainly not happy with his shooting performance over his first two games and vowed to get some work in to try and snap out of his cold streak.
#Pistons Killian Hayes is out after everyone's gone to get some extra shots in. He went 2-of-21 tonight. pic.twitter.com/bEYC2jONOz
— Rod Beard (@detnewsRodBeard) December 14, 2020
Hayes has practiced for less than two weeks with the Pistons following the shortened offseason period and has had few opportunities to run full-court scrimmages with his team. The NBA game is still coming to him and he is certainly still adjusting.
The 19-year-old will eventually settle in and prove why he was regarded as one of the top international prospects in the draft this year. He has shown some flashes of his potential and it is only a matter of time until he can get rolling on the court.
Detroit returns to action on Thursday vs. the Washington Wizards.
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