Killian Hayes (PG, DET) - Fantasy Basketball Waiver Wire Pickups for Week 21

Killian Hayes is worth considering as a fantasy basketball waiver wire pickup heading into Week 21 of the 2022-23 NBA season.

BALLER MOVE: Add in 14+ Team Leagues

ROSTERED IN: 13% of leagues

ANALYSIS: Even though the ceiling seems to be lower than the one we expected after a scorching hot start to the season, the truth is that Killian Hayes has kept on going and improving his season-long results as the campaign has advanced and he's kept getting reps in the Pistons' backcourt.

Hayes' average production went down a notch after his 40th game (more or less) this season, but that drop also coincided with the end of a staggering run between Christmas and late January in which the Frenchman averaged 31+ FPPG.

After getting injured and coming from the bench in six games after January 19, Hayes has now started 10 of the last 11 matchups, all of them from February 8 onwards. Since the start of that run of games, Hayes has played 29 MPG, producing 8-3-7 per-game stat lines to go with 1.5 SPG and 0.5 BPG.

The numbers aren't gaudy but it's hard to find players so unrostered putting up such a solid, all-across-the-board type of contribution nightly. In fact, when looking at season-long stats, there are only 13 players (all of them legitimate superstars) keeping up an 8-3-7 per-game line.

Even dropping that to a more manageable 8-3-5, only 43 guys are doing it this season and just 28 are adding 1+ SPG to that. Not saying Hayes is a bonafide performer on those levels every day, but he's closer than not to averaging those numbers this season than he was ever before.

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