Jaxson Hayes is showing how impactful he can be with new-look Lakers

It is unlikely Jaxson Hayes will ever be looked at as a starting caliber center on a title team, but he’s playing well in the role he’s being asked to fill for the Lakers.

After the Lakers traded Anthony Davis for Luka Dončić, there was great excitement about how acquiring a 25-year-old superstar and consensus top-5 player would impact and extend the Lakers‘ championship timeline. However, there was also explicit doubt about how good this year’s team could be, considering Jaxson Hayes was the only rotation-level center remaining on the roster.

Yes, everyone unanimously agreed that getting Dončić was wonderful, but the Lakers desperate need to improve in the pivot if they were to be a real contender this season was an almost universally held sentiment by anyone with a podcast, TV show, print article or Instagram walk-and-talk to distribute to the masses.

It was not just outsiders who vociferously opined this, either. Clearly, the Lakers front office thought this way too, as evidenced by their almost immediate move to try to upgrade on Hayes by trading for Hornets big man Mark Williams. Irrespective of how the young Williams would help for the future, the trade signaled the Lakers’ attempt to go for it this season too.

Alas, as a result of the team’s doctors — despite the outcries of Williams’ agent and several medical professionals who had nothing to do with it — that deal was not to be. And while the Lakers did grab the recently bought out Alex Len as another big body to add to their mix of two-way centers Christian Koloko and Trey Jemison, the team was back in the same position they were before the big man merry go-round started spinning, with Hayes as their best option to man the middle.

Thus, those same doubts coloring the Lakers championship chances in the immediate aftermath of acquiring Luka are again shaping how high up the rung of contending teams pundits believe the Lakers should rise — which seem to be, at best, right outside the upper crust of no-doubt contenders and in the mix with other teams who have a real chance only if one of those main teams falter.

And maybe all those prognostications are right. Hayes, after all, is making the minimum this season for a reason, right? Lottery pedigree be damned, the limitations in his game are real and well known at this point.

Hayes is not a strong rebounder. His slight frame and higher hips leave him vulnerable to being moved off his spot not just by the behemoths of the paint but also by stronger wings who can get under his center of gravity to leverage him out of position.

He is also limited in more traditional defensive coverages. Hayes is not adept at playing in a deep drop because ball handlers can attack his chest and finish through him. He can also not handle less severe drop coverages, as he lacks the feel to play in center field, where he’s asked to navigate both the ball handler and the roll man trying to get behind him.

Hayes can also be foul-prone on both sides of the ball. Defensively, he too often reaches in and, even more damagingly, at inopportune times. He also does not show enough discipline when going “vertical” to contest shots, bringing his arms down to try to block shots when offensive players engage him, creating contact in the process.

And offensively, he is not the most patient or fundamentally sound screener. He sometimes vacates his spot too early in an eagerness to go downhill or simply moves outside the frame of his body to set the sorts of lunging screens that draw whistles.

Again, there’s a reason why Hayes holds the status he does in the league and is almost universally looked at as a backup.

That said, viewing Hayes solely through a deficit model does him a great disservice and undersells his value in general, specifically on this version of the Lakers. And that underselling is also why it may be an overstatement of how much Hayes’ starting spot really does impact the Lakers ability to go as far as they’d like this season.

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First off, just as we can agree on what Hayes isn’t, we can also agree that what he is is a phenomenal run and jump athlete who plays hard for nearly every second he’s on the floor. Hayes sprints the floor with gusto, rim running relentlessly and filling the wide lane in transition like a wing. He moves in and out of his screens with vigor and rolls hard to the rim after setting those picks, eager to get into and attack the paint.

He’s a tremendous leaper and can finish above the rim with ease even if only playing off a one- or no-step vertical. His reel of poster dunks in the past two years is filled with true violence and offers the exact sort of explosiveness that plays well off of his trio of shot-creating teammates of Luka, LeBron James and Austin Reaves.

Beyond the finishing, though, Hayes also shows a better-than-credited feel as a passer, especially for operating as a short roll or downhill player who won’t always have the red carpet rolled out for him to the rim.

Hayes knows how to spray the ball out to shooters on the wing when catching the pass on the move and understands his reads to both corners based on the defense’s positioning and where the help is coming from. He can also make the sort of big-to-big pass to a teammate slashing to the rim on a second wave or corner cut.

He understands his role in the more global sense of his place within this group of players, and seems acutely aware of what his ask is and when it’s simply best to reset and give the offensive leaders of his team a chance to create something anew.

If Jaxson does not have an easy lane to the rim or a pass to a teammate, he more often than not is happy to turn around, look for LeBron, Luka, Austin or Gabe Vincent and sling the ball their way or to flow into a dribble-handoff chance that keeps the wheel in motion and continues to force the defense to make the next decision. He knows his job is to make the simple play in front of him and to do it quickly, whether it’s shoot or pass.

Defensively, the asks one Hayes are not much different than they are on offense, namely to be aggressive and proactively use his athleticism. Hayes can and will defend centers, but he’s also been put on forwards or other non-shooters where he can be more aggressive in help situations and try to be disruptive around the basket.

JJ Redick is also comfortable deploying Hayes more in switching groups, allowing him to use his quick feet and mobility to try to stay with guards and wings on the perimeter. Hayes also shows good movement when closing out and rotating to the shooters and has shown a penchant for chasing back on defense to impact plays in the paint in transition.

He’s not perfect at these things, but the same motor physical tools he has on offense can be deployed on defense.

And, I would argue, this sort of two-way play is working for the Lakers, even if it has some clear shortcomings.

For the season, Hayes is fourth on the Lakers in total plus-minus at +73, trailing only Reaves (+163), Dorian Finney-Smith (+162) and Rui Hachimura (+104). And while the Lakers offense is slightly worse with him on the court vs. when he’s off (112.4 offensive rating when he’s on, 113.6 when he’s off), the team’s defense is 5.5 points per 100 possessions better when he’s on the court (107.8 vs. 113.3). The team’s defensive rebounding rate and total rebounding rate are both slightly better with him in the game than when he’s on the bench.

It would be silly to credit all of these things to Hayes, of course. He’s one player in a group of five whose asks on both ends of the court are both limited and tailored to his specific strengths. He also plays almost exclusively with the starting lineup, one of the team’s best five-man groups, which helps boost his individual numbers.

But, in the bigger scope of things, that’s exactly the point. Hayes is rarely, if ever, asked to do a task on the court that he’s not physically or mentally able to succeed at, and his skill set seems to work really well with the core starters. This doesn’t make him immune from mistakes and it certainly doesn’t make his job simple — no job in the NBA is that — but it does put him in the best position to succeed and, at the same time, help the team while doing it.

It’s great to want the best player possible in every spot, but that’s not realistic in the world of second aprons and the modern NBA. What is possible, though, is to try to find the types of role players whose skill sets and games are complementary to the team’s best players; to fill out your roster with the proper archetypes who can slot next to your stars to help them thrive in the same way they help those role players.

And, I would argue, that’s what the Lakers have in Hayes. He’s not the best player that spot. But he is the right archetype and has the right skill set to thrive in the role he’s being given. And as long as the ask remains what it is, I’d expect him to continue to fill his role capably, whether he quells the doubts in his ability to do so or not.

You can follow Darius on BlueSky at @forumbluegold.