With Cade Cunningham Out, It Is Killian Hayes' Time To Shine In Detroit

Detroit Pistons star guard Cade Cunningham will undergo season-ending surgery on his injured left shin, paving the way for Killian Hayes to finally prove his worth to the Pistons.

From 2001-08, the Detroit Pistons were a force in the Eastern Conference and led by Chauncey Billups in 2004, Detroit went on to win their third championship in team history.

Following six consecutive runs to the Eastern Conference Finals, the Pistons then lost in the first-round of the playoffs in 2009 and since then, everything has been downhill for this organization.

The Pistons have made the playoffs just twice in the last thirteen seasons and they have failed to win a playoff series since 2008, resulting in them constantly relying on the NBA Draft lottery for a chance to build themselves into something special again.

Greg Monroe, Brandon Knight, Andre Drummond, Kentavious Caldwell-Pope, Stanley Johnson, Luke Kennard… These are all players Detroit has taken through the years in the lottery, but none of them remain on this roster.

This year’s fifth overall pick, Jaden Ivey, has a lot of room for growth and his potential is very high given his athleticism and last year’s top pick in Cade Cunningham is a future All-Star in the making for the Pistons, but Cunningham’s growth in this league has been put on pause this year due to a left shin injury that will require season-ending surgery.

Now, while a lot of attention is being cast on the rookie Ivey, the Pistons have turned to Killian Hayes, their 7th overall pick in the 2020 NBA Draft, to step up at the point guard position.

Beginning his professional playing career in France at 16-years-old, Hayes began to jump on a lot of team’s radars due to his play with the French national team at the FIBA U16 European Championship in 2017 and the FIBA Under-17 World Cup in 2018.

Viewed as a lengthy guard with two-way potential, the Pistons found themselves as the lucky team to end up with Killian Hayes in the 2020 NBA Draft, but some injuries during his rookie season limited Hayes to just 26 games.

Going back-and-forth from a starter to coming off-the-bench, Hayes’ time with the Pistons has been a little rocky, but now with Cunningham sidelined indefinitely, the young French guard has really started to understand the game more and is beginning to look comfortable in his role as the team’s starting point guard.

Playing in all 29 games for the Pistons thus far, Hayes has averaged 8.1 points, 2.7 rebounds, 5.1 assists and 1.1 steals per game while shooting 32.9 percent from three-point range. In 17 games without Cunningham though, Hayes has shown flashes of his full potential, averaging 11.0 points, 3.2 rebounds and 6.6 assists while shooting 36.9 percent from three-point range.

Perhaps what is most impressive about Hayes’ play this season is the fact that he has cut back on his turnovers immensely and to this point in the season, he has recorded a near 3:1 assist to turnover ratio.

The last few seasons, Killian Hayes has received a lot of scrutiny from the Pistons’ fan base and Hayes taking a shot from the perimeter has not always well received from the crowd at Little Caesars Arena every night. 

Now though, the 21-year-old guard is showing signs of maturity and his head coach Dwane Casey has confidence in his young guard.

“He heard the noise,” Casey said recently in regards to Hayes' play. “It’s unfortunate that we have the internet, for that reason. He heard the noise. I wish he had my mentality. I don’t even look at it. He probably felt like he had to score, and he doesn’t. He’s our best playmaker. He’s our best point guard. He’s the best defender on the point guards. That’s what we need from him first.”

No matter what kind of criticism Hayes has received over the course of his young NBA career, he has always put his head down and done his job for the Pistons, which is something not a lot of guys in this league can accomplish.

Expectations placed on those drafted inside the top-10 of the NBA Draft are always extremely high and for a suffering, rebuilding franchise like the Pistons through the years, expectations for Hayes in 2020 were immensely high.

Coming overseas to play in the NBA at just 19-years-old is a major culture shock and to say that Killian Hayes has handled everything well to this point would be a major understatement. 

Hayes deserves a lot of credit for the work he has put in over the years and while he may not be reflective of other guards drafted with the seventh overall picks in NBA history like Stephen Curry or Jamal Murray, Hayes is showing signs of improvement and that is really all the Pistons can ask of him at this point.

“The things he does, the intangibles, he doesn’t have to score to impact the game,” Pistons’ forward Saddiq Bey told The Athletic after Detroit’s game on December 1 against the Dallas Mavericks, a game in which Hayes recorded 22 points and 8 assists in the team’s 131-125 overtime victory. “When he does score, it’s icing on the cake.

Him.#Pistons | @iam_killian https://t.co/oFgq86fWwO pic.twitter.com/t0nKDFC00Q

— Detroit Pistons (@DetroitPistons) December 2, 2022

“No matter what the perception on the outside is, what he gets with us in film sessions and practice, we continue to tell him to play his game. We know how much he contributes, and it might not always show up on the stat sheet. Like I said before, him just scoring and showing more of what he can do on a broader scale just helps everybody. Everyone inside knows what he brings to the table.”

The Pistons’ front-office is still high on Hayes, their head coach is high on his abilities and Killian Hayes has the full support of his teammates, which is why he can still be a key talent for the Pistons moving forward.

Obviously the rest of the season without Cade Cunningham will be very telling as to what Hayes’ future in Detroit will look like, but currently in the midst of December, Hayes is beginning to prove why he was the seventh overall pick in 2020.

The rebuild continues in Detroit and right now, Killian Hayes represents what the future looks like for the Detroit Pistons. 

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