Detroit Pistons: Rookie Killian Hayes avoids hip surgery
By Bob Heyrman
Detroit Pistons rookie point guard Killian Hayes recently received some good news. Hayes’ torn hip labrum won’t require surgery. Instead, the hope is about eight weeks of rest and rehab before potentially returning to the lineup.
It’s a small victory for the Detroit Pistons and their seventh overall pick. According to Rod Beard of the Detroit News, the injury had been recently reevaluated by the team physician Dr. Bill Moutzouros along with two other specialists; together, they determined that the injury was a subluxation and didn’t require surgery.
Sure we’d prefer to see the top-ten pick in last year’s NBA Draft on the hardwood playing as the starting point guard but knowing the potential repercussions of the injury suffered in a contest earlier this month against the Milwaukee Bucks, it’s welcoming news.
At the time, it seemed like an innocent play. Hayes was trying to get back on the defensive end, guarding the lane, when it appeared his hip just popped, leaving the youngster laying on the court nearly underneath the basket reeling in pain, clutching that right hip. It was a non-contact injury, and typically when you see an athlete hit the deck with a non-contact injury in any sport, it’s typically bad.
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The good news for Detroit Pistons rookie guard Killian Hayes is that we have optimism now that Hayes MAY return in 2021 and continue to develop his game at the NBA level.
Hayes, like many rookies, started the season off with an abundance of growing pains. Rather than rushing to insert the former league MVP, Derrick Rose, into the starting lineup, head coach Dwane Casey opted to allow Hayes to learn on the fly.
Through his first seven NBA games, Hayes averaged 4.6 points, 3.6 assists, 1.1 boards, and 2.4 turnovers per game. Hayes has averaged 21.1 minutes per night, shooting an atrocious 27.7% from the field and 25% from three. Hayes is also only shooting 50% from the charity stripe early on in his career.
The rookie’s player efficiency rating is -1.1, a far cry from the league average of 15. During his young career, Hayes’ usage rate of 18.7%, with a turnover rate of 26.2%. Needless to say, there is plenty of room for growth, and it appears the organization avoided losing Hayes for a longer period of time.
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Will Hayes be able to return in 2021? It’s unknown, but avoiding surgery at least makes for an opportunity to return, at the very least, but perhaps still unlikely.