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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?

Memories wrote:
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.

Weren't they trying to trade for Mark Williams lol NBA funny

LockoutSeason wrote:

Memories wrote:
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.

True.

Seems like Hayes stepped up when his number was called. Dude was a top 10 pick for a reason.

I think he's been an interesting player in the NBA.

When he was drafted he came in as a rookie looking more ready than most in the draft class. I recall he had a decent BPM to start the season and he's have a bunch of highlight dunks.


He is a useful big because he can shoot FTs pretty well (70%) for his size and he provides a strong vertical threat, his hands are decent.

He's always been decent defensively for a switching defense but JJ has really unlocked his best defensive situation by not making him the anchor (LeBron is) and instead letting him free roam for contests and help contests at the rim.

But no I don't think he gets paid since it's been a specific set of circumstances that have got him playing like this, he's not a C that would work well on many teams.

He could earn $5-$10m though.

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.

Good thing that Williams trade got vetoed. Jaxson is filling that role perfectly right now.

The reasons for the improved defense are DFS, Vando and JJ coaching.
Luka's main contribution of defense, low TO and protecting the ball, hasn't even been good the 1st few games.

He gotta show up to work and actually perform while being held accountable

He's interesting. Can't rebound at all but he's always active, decent passer and tons of energy. Hes not nearly as bad as people make him out to be.

People were talking about him like the Lakers had a broom at Center.

Memories wrote:

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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.

The Master wrote: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.

Frank Dux wrote:Good thing that Williams trade got vetoed. Jaxson is filling that role perfectly right now.

Those doctors who said no deserve a nice raise.

BCbudraptorfan wrote:Weren't they trying to trade for Mark Williams lol NBA funny

They were drunk off the Luka trade and decided to trade for Enes Kanter 2.0 (all offense, no defense). Luckily they sobered up lol.

He's probably just over the minimum average minutes played at 22-23 minutes per game since then so that is an additional sample size bias.

Liked him as a rookie and not at all surprised that he's feasting as a lob finisher next to Luka and Bron.

Defensive rating isn’t meant to be compared across teams. Media does it for clicks.

Ok, what kind of image is that, I mean in a tweet. AI it seems, but man, terrible

NBA re-opened its investigation on Hayes in November '24. Was that ever resolved or is it still ongoing? That may affect his next contract.

Lakers better pay him or trade him for Kessler