Hayward is seventh in the league in FG% on shots inside 3' (minimum 50 attempts). The six players ahead of him are all centers. The next ten players after him are all centers or power forwards. Then Luka, followed by five more centers.
One thing that has returned to pre-injury results is that he's great in transition. The only playmaker with a good volume of transition opportunities who has finished better than him is Butler. All the other guys ahead of him are bigs finishing dunks or shooters hitting spot-ups.
He's scoring 1.37 PPP on transition finish attempts, and anyone who watches the C's knows that he's not shy about trying to score in transition so they're not all easy. LeBron and Giannis are at 1.12 and 1.13, respectively, as comparisons. He was great at this in Utah, too.
Don't get me wrong. Dray would certainly help us. But I'm still skeptical as to how he would fit here, if his personality would clash, and if the fact this year was a lost/tanking season led to him being so overweight, out of shape, sluggish, and slightly above average on the defensive end as opposed to being strikingly dominant. Basically, Dray sort of let himself go, but what did people expect? He's known as the quintessential elite role player. His spacing is still decent enough, if you leave him open, he may or may not hit the 3 like Smart does. But his numbers all across the board are slightly lower than last year.
Dray fixes a lot of issues, and helps us play small all more effectively. I just wonder about concerns of chemistry. Would Dray fit in seamlessly, or would he cause some rift in the locker room?
Regardless, I'm content with keeping 3 dominant wings at hand. It leaves plenty of roster room flexibility, lineup rotations, and as based on the evidence above, Hayward's pretty freakin' great at finishing inside/through contact, and in transition fast break. Something Dray's really good at.
In conclusion, Hayward is literally the opposite of Dray, whereas Dray is a 6'5/6'6 defensive specialist that can guard pretty much 1-5, Hayward is an skilled offensive play making specialist that gives our offensive firepower plenty of mismatches.
But the amount of disrespect to Dray is ridiculous... When healthy, and around the right fit/system, he's a top 30 player easy in my book.
EDIT: But there's just no point in messing with what's works now. I would love to have Dray on this team, I think he would not only elevate our team even more defensively, but his playmaking and court awareness can certainly help our shooters/scorers.
Topic: Draymond for Gordon, who says no? (Read 9260 times)