Killian Hayes (PG, DET) - Fantasy Basketball Waiver Wire Pickups for Week 19

February 19, 2023

Killian Hayes is worth considering as a fantasy basketball waiver wire pickup heading into Week 19 of the 2022-23 NBA season.

BALLER MOVE: Add in 12+ Team Leagues

ROSTERED IN: 15% of leagues

ANALYSIS: The French Gawd finally arrived in Motown. Most folks were already completely out of the Killian Hayes Believers mob, but he just came out of the blue to prove them all wrong. Ah, how good it feels to pick an island to die alone on and end up getting vindicated?

Hayes has experienced a little bit of a slump of late, it must be said. To that, though, I have to advise you to take advantage of the little slippage and land as many shares as you can of Hayes while other GMs are scared and pass on the young man.

In a little span of six games coming off the bench, Hayes saw his numbers dip to an average of 9-2-5-1 per-game line, which is reasonably good but definitely not great. After that (February 6) and with the trade deadline already in the rearview mirror, Hayes came back to his senses, and in four games played before the All-Star break, he put up an average of 6-3-6-1 while totally hampered by a putrid set of shooting. He otherwise looks good on all other fronts.

Shooting has been an issue on Hayes' numbers all year long, though, so it's not that we can expect anything gaudy there. He's putting up 37/30/79 shooting splits over the year while averaging 9.5 PPG and that won't change ROS. That said, Hayes' upside comes from all other cats, mostly his assists (nearly six APG) and steals (1.3) while keeping turnovers at a moderately low two TOPG.

Through the break, in the NBA, Hayes is one of just five players dishing out at least 5.8 APG while turning the ball over no more than two times per game along with Fred VanVleet, Jalen Brunson, Mike Conley, and Tre Jones. On top of that, Hayes averages more RPG than Conley and more SPG than Brunson.

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