Phoenix @ Utah 7 pm MT

[D Will> CP3]

People on here suffer from bi polar disorder. Mostly every1 hated the Hayward pick when it happened. Then everyone seemed to love him for a long time and now people are calling for his head. Talk about bandwagon fans, holy ****

 

[Jazz4ever]

Hayward scares me. My disappointment will know no bounds if he doesn't get DRASTICALLY better.

If its any consolation Paul George has radically struggled even worse than Hayward, and Ed Davis already has a serious injury.

 

[Ferguson_Mellochill]

Besides Portland and OKC, no one.

Well, Carmello and JR Smith sometimes light us up.

 

[NAOS]

I'll try to let off Hayward, but at the same point in their respective careers, Koufos looked better. FWIW.

Your man Aldrich is having a killer preseason. My favorite performance was the one where he fouled out after 9 minutes of action.

 

[Ferguson_Mellochill]

Actually, Michael Beasley and Wesley Johnson could be pretty good too.

 

[Stifle Tower]

Your statements are fair. The Jazz reached for this kid, and they are going to have to take some heat for it.

The fustration with Hayward for me is where he was drafted. He never did look like a top 10 pick to me.
He's a good player. He looks like a late 1st round, early second round guy to me that I would have liked to have picked there. Since we were all so excited
with having a lottery pick Hayward feels like a big let down. Frankly, it's always going to be that way. I think he'll be a nice player, hit some big clutch shots, but
never be a consistent force on either end. He's a good role player, and that's never what you shoot for with the 9th pick.

Who was available at 9?
You have to consider the draft. Maybe in 2004, Hayward wouldn't have been the #9 pick, not with Igoudala, Biedrins, Jefferson, etc. available.
I think it will be interesting to track the guys taken below Hayward, say 10-16: George, Aldrich, Henry, Davis, Patterson, Sanders and Babbitt.

George: is 7-31 in his pre-season games to date.
Aldrich: fouled out in 17 mins vs. CSKA Moscow. Had 2 pts. Game before he fouled out in NINE minutes against Memphis with 0 pts and 2 boards.
Henry: 2-6 in his last game w/ 4 rebounds.Overall is 8-24 in 5 games (33%).
Davis: injured, has not played.
Patterson: 7-19 to date. Had one game where he got 9 boards, nothing special in the others.
Babbitt: 6-15 (40%) with one DNP. Most of that came in one good game vs. Denver.
Sanders: 9-30 (30%) and about 4 boards/per.

So none of the rookies available at #9 are tearing up the league. It will be interesting to see how they all develop as the season progresses.