Jaxson Hayes is a different kind of athlete. In a league filled with the most physically gifted people in sports, he stands out.
He’s tall, with long arms, but he moves with fluidity in the open court, as if he’s an NFL receiver. He’s one of the few bigs who soars for lobs as if he jumped off a trampoline, and he moves on the perimeter with the lateral quickness of a guard. When he’s moving around with confidence, there’s no one like him in the NBA.
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“I don’t think that I’ve seen a guy like Jaxson (before),” Pelicans center Willy Hernangómez said.
Guard Jose Alvarado added: “He should be in the dunk contest. He just does it so easily. I see it a lot from Jaxson in practice. He makes it seem so regular. He’s like, ‘Yeah, look at this.’ (He’ll go) off vert, between-the-legs, 360.”
Hayes is great at making the extraordinary look mundane.
UNREAL JAXSON!!! 🤯 pic.twitter.com/CPtbq0qFq8
— New Orleans Pelicans (@PelicansNBA) March 14, 2022
Even so, New Orleans drafted him eighth in 2019 with the understanding that it may take him a few years to learn how to be consistently effective. And it’s been a rocky road as Hayes has gone through a maturation process the past three years. Many along the way got tired of waiting and were ready to give up.
However, the patience New Orleans has shown looks like it’s finally paying off. Hayes is starting to connect the dots on both ends of the court. It’s not just a crazy highlight every few games; he’s turning into a crucial piece for a squad making a strong push to reach the Play-In Tournament.
With that being said, it’s easy to understand those who are skeptical about any of this having lasting power. Hayes’ journey back from losing his spot in the rotation earlier in the season would be more inspiring if the exact same thing hadn’t happened to him last year. Just a few months ago, he expressed how frustrated he was because he couldn’t get off the bench.
Outside of Zion Williamson, Hayes is easily the biggest enigma on the Pelicans roster. He’s so gifted and still such a major question mark on the court. But over the past six weeks, he’s worked to make himself a crucial part of the team’s identity. Since the start of February, he’s averaging 11.5 points and 5.4 rebounds while shooting an absurd 70.9 percent from the field. It’s the other end of the court where the Pelicans have really felt his presence, though.
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After trading for CJ McCollum days before the NBA trade deadline, the Pels wanted to re-establish their defensive identity. Before the deal, New Orleans was making some traction on that end by emphasizing rugged on-ball defense from Josh Hart, Herb Jones, Alvarado and others. After the trade, with Hart no longer in the picture, the team had to go in a different direction.
Green decided to roll with Hayes as a full-time power forward next to Jonas Valančiūnas in the starting frontcourt, and it changed everything. With Hayes, Jones and Brandon Ingram all in the starting lineup, New Orleans put so much length and athleticism on the court that it made it much easier for them to cover space in a hurry. Hayes has done well playing a complementary role next to Valančiūnas on defense as a weakside rim protector and a disruptive presence in the passing lanes. He’s also shown tremendous growth defending smaller players and preventing them from scoring on him in switches. If anything, the Pels enjoy putting him on an island and watching him embarrass guards who think they can blow by him off the dribble.
Watch how Houston’s Jalen Green attempts to break him down on this play. Hayes moves his feet, maintains legal guarding position and beats Green to the backboard for the blocked shot.
Hayes has struggled with the physicality and the rebounding demands that come with playing center. Featuring him more at the four has made it easier to show off his athletic gifts in open space more consistently instead of banging bodies.
“He’s extremely unique. His talent level, his ability to guard multiple positions,” Green said. “He makes it look easy.”
The improvement on offense has been fun to watch, too, as Hayes learns how to operate in different areas of the court. Instead of strictly setting screens and rolling to the front of the rim, Hayes has been making plays all over the court and showing how much his game has expanded.
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To space the floor for Valančiūnas, Hayes operates more along the baseline and in the corner, ducking into the dunker spot when teams try to help off him to clog up driving lanes. He’s also opened things up for everyone around him by proving he can be more than just a lob threat. His touch around the basket has improved, and he’s much better at moving around into open areas to hurt defenses instead of standing in one spot waiting for the ball.
Per NBA.com, he’s shooting 54 percent on shots in the paint outside the restricted area. He was at 46 percent on those shots last year and 18 percent as a rookie. In recent weeks, he’s been showing off something new he’s added to his game every night.
He’s more comfortable throwing up floaters in crowded areas.
He’s making more plays off the dribble when teams give him space.
And he’s even thrown up a few hook shots the last few games that would make any big-man connoisseur proud.
He’s also knocked down five of his 15 shots from 3-point range since the start of February.
Hayes isn’t a one-trick pony anymore. He’s becoming a more diversified asset on offense, and it’s a big reason New Orleans has been so dangerous when all its pieces have been healthy.
Hayes credits a lot of his growth to Green’s openness in terms of him trying different things on offense to expand his game. Hayes has always been inconsistent playing the role of a conventional center — because he’s not a conventional center. He’s morphing into this hybrid role that’s somewhat similar to what we’ve seen from Evan Mobley in Cleveland and Jaren Jackson Jr. in Memphis this season. It’s turned out to be the best thing that could’ve happened to Hayes’ career.
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“It’s definitely been a nice confidence-booster. I feel like it’s been a confidence-booster for the whole team,” Hayes said of Green’s willingness to give his players more freedom on offense. “He just lets everyone kind of do whatever they’re strong at. He lets you try new stuff. … He wants you to try stuff that’ll make you better.”
More importantly, having Hayes on the court has made it much more difficult to defend Ingram and McCollum, because they’re so good at getting downhill and forcing help. Sending that second defender at McCollum or Ingram isn’t as easy after giving up a few monstrous dunks to Hayes or watching him knock down two or three little push shots from eight feet away. He still has some work to do to improve spacing concerns, but he has done a nice job fitting in next to the Pelicans’ two biggest offensive cogs. The Pelicans have a plus-8.6 net rating when Hayes, McCollum and Ingram share the court. That net rating drops to -0.4 points per 100 possessions when it’s just McCollum and Ingram without Hayes.
“He’s picking his spots. That’s key for him. He’s out there with guys that draw a lot of attention,” Green said of Hayes. “He’s the recipient of being in the right spots, making the right plays, keeping the game simple. I like the facts that he’s also attacking the basket and making plays himself.”
Still, it’s easy to pick apart a lot of the good vibes around Hayes’ renaissance.
Since the start of February, New Orleans has a minus-4.4 net rating with Hayes and Valančiūnas on the floor together in their jumbo lineup. And over the past 18 games, Hayes has scored 15-plus points five times, which matches the number of games he scored 15-plus over the first 39 games of the season. But over that 18-game stretch, he also had six games where he scored seven points or fewer.
Then there’s the question of what kind of longevity this “Jaxson at the 4” lineup really has. Will the Pelicans stick with their two-big lineups in major moments against teams that hurt them with small lineups? Will Green have enough faith to give Hayes big minutes if it means he has to start chopping away at Valančiūnas’ playing time?
And what does all this mean when Williamson comes back? Is there a world where Hayes can get a reasonable amount of minutes at power forward if Williamson is playing 32 to 36 minutes every night? How effective will Hayes be if he goes back to playing center full-time? Can he anchor the defense against some of the most physical bigs in the league? How does this affect potential extension talks this summer?
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These are some tricky questions that will have to be answered soon. But considering how long it’s taken to get to this point, the Pelicans should enjoy the ride as long as they can with this version of Hayes. There’s no telling if or when history will start to repeat itself.
(Photo: Layne Murdoch Jr. / NBAE via Getty Images)
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