Jaxson Hayes Is The Number 1 Defensive Center In The NBA Since February 1st

[ForeverTFC]

I don't think this is how DRTG works...

[CobraCommander]

Good coaching and high effort rewarded with minutes - saying you have confidence in him - encouraging good play and holding him accountable in a professional manner and he looks better….

Wow

[TheNewEra]

So question: will other teams get fooled by this and pay him a lot of money in the off-season? Or is this simply the Luka effect?

Luka didn’t play for the Lakers until February 10th.

That’s the crazy part about the whole C talk for the Lakers when Hayes was on fire with AD out and before Luka started playing

[Dr Aki]

Good thing about Hayes is that when he's switched out on the perimeter, you don't instantly know that he'll get burnt.

He is light and agile enough to be able to compete with all but the quickest guards

[XTC]

Hes always had the athleticism and build to be a solid rim protecting big who can switch onto the perimeter.

Luka and Lebron are the perfect players for him (who wouldn't excel next to those 2).

[zimpy27]

Good thing about Hayes is that when he's switched out on the perimeter, you don't instantly know that he'll get burnt.

He is light and agile enough to be able to compete with all but the quickest guards

That and the 70% FT shooting and know his role on offense.

The combination of the 3 makes him valuable to the Lakers.


Lakers have early bird rights in him. They can give him $4.3m next season (9m/2 with PO) and then offer to sign him properly with full bird rights in 2026 offseason.

[The Laker Kid]

Jaren Jaxson Hayes Jr.

[NO-KG-AI]

Good thing about Hayes is that when he's switched out on the perimeter, you don't instantly know that he'll get burnt.

He is light and agile enough to be able to compete with all but the quickest guards

His best quality. He’s always had good energy too.

[MrGoat]

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So question: will other teams get fooled by this and pay him a lot of money in the off-season? Or is this simply the Luka effect?

Luka makes big's better at defending? Guess Luka is DPOY if his impact is that strong on the defensive end that he can make a big man #1 in defensive rating. I understand crediting his offense to Luka, but defensive I'm confused.

Team DRTG is a useless stat to evaluate individual defense.

That being said, Hayes looks like a legit starter ideally fitting to what Lakers need against most opponents (decent at switches on D, great finisher on O). Let's see what happens against Jokic once again and great offensive rebounding teams, these are weaknesses of this Lakers team potentially, regardless of recent winning streak.

They played Jokic and dominated him. He had his worst game in like 5 years that I've seen him have.

Whether they can do that 4 times out of 7 in a series remains to be seen, but it worked once.

Luka does make bigs better at defending, he had to suffer with Dwight Powell being his main big for the first few years of his career so when they finally drafted an actual big it had such an impact on the team it took them straight to the Finals despite that big being a rookie. Any athletic big basically wins the jackpot if they get paired with Luka. Dallas' defense was lights out after the trade deadline and nobody hitting an open shot doomed them against Boston, not the defense.