You are an idiot. Luke Babbit sucks. Cole Aldrich would have done jack **** for us.
You've seen him blow layups and get beat down on defense? Holy ****, I've seen Kobe Bryant blow layups and get beat down on defense!! Hayward is going to be the next Kobe!!!
You've been hating on this kid since we drafted him, and are just too much of a hardass to admit how wrong you were. Embarrassing.
Great points.
Now, I'm not comparing Hayward to Kobe. Not even close. But Kobe was absolutely pwned by the Jazz his first couple of years in the league. Bryant couldn't hit a shot in 4th quarter to save his life. We're expecting Hayward to be an all-star after 3 games?
The comparison to CJ is pretty valid, although Miles came in right out of HS. Also, don't forget Hayward had an incredible growth spurt. He was a PG and then shot up to 6'8". He'll need 1-2 years to grow into his body and develop his skills.
Out of the players available at #9, you could probably make equal arguments for Hayward, Babbitt, George, Aldrich and Sanders. And when the players are fairly equal, you then look at need. We may regret not taking Sanders. But KOC knew Millsap was already in place and he was in the process of making the deal for Jefferson (as we learned, KOC had been trying to get Al since the trade deadline the previous season). Aldrich? Please. The guy will be a good rebounder but there's not a chance in hell he'll ever be a decent offensive player, not with the ugly shot of his.
The others? Meh. What have any of those guys done thus far? George is 7-17. Babbitt has played FOUR minutes! Aldrich sure had a monster game against the Jazz, didn't he? That's been his only game thus far.
Even IF Hayward never starts, I think he's going to be a great 6th man. He can initiate the offense, drive and dish, pound the boards. But it's going to take more than 3 games for him to develop. And like was pointed out earlier, he probably won't get as many minutes as the other top-10 picks. Utah already has a core in place, with good starters. Hayward may get 10 mins or 15 tops unless the Jazz have injuries. In other situations, the lottery picks are penciled in as starters or expected to play 30 mins+ from the minute they're drafted.