As the Detroit Pistons eagerly wait for the playoffs to start, one of their former players is enjoying the new opportunity he landed with a Western Conference bottom-feeder.
Killian Hayes, who was on two 10-day contracts with the Sacramento Kings, just signed a new two-year deal with the team. Kings insider James Ham confirmed the deal and added that the next season of Hayes' contract will be non-guaranteed, meaning that the point guard has until the end of the season to prove his worth to his new team.
Killian Hayes' New Kings Contract Is Surprising for Pistons Fans
Fortunately, Hayes will have ample opportunity to turn things around.
The Kings are tanking and have no incentive to win. They have more players on their injury list than they do healthy ones. They had an eight-man rotation against the Utah Jazz on Sunday night. As a result, Hayes ended up leading the team in minutes with 38. He also had his best game of the season, putting up 16 points, five rebounds, and eight assists on 5-of-9 (55.6%) shooting from the field.
Even though he finally had a good game in Sacramento, it's difficult to understand how Hayes earned a new deal. The 24-year-old guard has shot 31.1% from the field and 30.0% from three, even after Sunday night's solid performance. His 41.8% True Shooting would make him the least efficient player in the league by a mile.
For Pistons fans, this isn't surprising. Throughout his Detroit tenure, Hayes was consistently one of the least efficient players in the league with a 45.6% True Shooting. He never shot over 30% from three during his four years as a Piston. He rarely got to the free-throw line, either, averaging a measly 1.2 attempts per game at the charity stripe.
The expectation from the former seventh-overall pick was very high among Pistons fans. Unfortunately, the fanbase quickly soured on him, especially after seeing the success of players like Tyrese Haliburton, Devin Vassell, and Deni Avdija in the ensuing five picks. The Pistons' taking a major step forward after Hayes' departure made the French-American guard the face of the franchise's dark era, in which they didn't win more than 23 games in four years.
Considering how Hayes' stint in Sacramento is going so far, it will be an uphill battle for Hayes to prove that he is an NBA-caliber player. Regardless, Pistons fans can tune into Kings games over the next month to remember the bad old days and be grateful for where they are as a franchise.