i think he was good for us most of the season (and huge in game 2 of this series, iirc). i think you can do way worse than hayes for the money, and most teams do.
my real point is that centers with weak bases can be exploited in certain matchups, and we just happened to have found two playoff opponents in a row who play guys that back down and use their lower body strength to hurt you on offense. this is part of why you pay less for centers and have a couple different kinds, imo. i actually liked houstons steven adams/capela theory. total outlay of 20 million, can play either way, and equally importantly, don't have to worry about how much cash you're putting on the bench if you're forced to match small for a few minutes.
Hayes has been really good this year in the regular season. If that’s all he is, that’s enough to bring him back and use him to eat minutes over 82 games.
I get that but I think we have a particular need to be strong at the 5. First, with Luka and AR, you need a good rim protector because they'll get beaten more often than others. Then, we have Wemby and Jokic in our conference and OKC runs Hartenstein and Chet together plenty of times. Size is required to cope with these teams. We can offset some with big and strong wings but we still need the center to be very good. We can see how this team is different when Ayton has a double-double. On the other hand, it's likely none of the 10 best centers are available this summer, so we may roll the ones we have for now or trade for an upgrade that is a stopgap until we find "the" 5 we need.
Who are the best 10 centers? Wemby Jokic Embiid (when healthy) AD (when healthy) Chet Sengun Hartenstein KAT Gobert Mobley BAM We can’t get the first 3 or Chet and Sengun, and probably don’t want AD back due to wage. Out of the next set; I feel like Ayton can hold his own against KAT, Gobert, Mobley, Bam, Duren etc. The only possible (but unlikely) improvement would be getting Hartenstein, he is consistently at a high level whereas Ayton goes in and out of effort.
also note all those guys are 30+ million per players. since we can't get one of them, i'm still good with doing center by committee and spending the difference on beefing up perimeter athleticism.
Agreed, he’s someone you keep. Jax may not be the most polished basketball player, but he brings relentless energy and effort, which is exactly what you want from a backup center. The fact that he fits so naturally alongside Luka just makes the decision an easy one.
thought his stint in the late first quarter/early second was instrumental in building/maintaining the early cushion.
I think we all like Hayes, he plays really well with Luka and is pretty great in the regular season. He also played minutes in these playoffs too, so he is improving. I'm just not bringing him back for more that the TPMLE. I'd prefer around 4.5m with another raise the year after.
i think tpmle money keeps him here. also those full bird rights mean we could give him bigger raises after we're done using cap space this year (assuming we go that route).
Not the biggest Hayes fan, but I don’t love being back to only 2 bigs again, especially when one of them is an Ayton who will most likely struggle to play very motivated off the bench. Hayes at least didn’t care about his role.
Loved regular season Jax. Just never translated to playoff basketball. Surprisingly one of my favorite players on the squad the last few years. Good luck in Utah.
i really didn't see this coming at all. i thought he'd come back on a vet min here, partially because i thought nobody would offer him considerably more. makes some sense for utah after losing one of the game's best centers. not sure how that happened, as they're really smart and good.
Man we'll probably be playing Utah in the playin game. That s*** is going to be hilarious. Hopefully Pelinka pulls a rabbit out of the hat by this weekend.
Good for him to get the money and take advantage of a hole in Utah, even though they're paying the rest of the front court a boatload of money. Duffy probably had this planned as soon as he saw how the Kessler talks were going, swooped right in with Jax. Enjoyed the improved play he gave us last season, that added bulk helped a lot. Where will he get his citizenship transferred to now? And unfortunately that puts us back into a place where we need a 3rd C for when (not if) you lose Ayton. Wonder what Timme is up to.
