Pelicans big man Jaxson Hayes has regained his rotation spot and he’s determined to hold onto it, Christian Clark of the New Orleans Times-Picayune writes. In his past five games, Hayes is averaging 11.4 PPG, 3.8 RPG and 1.4 BPG in 17.5 MPG. The 2019 lottery pick, who had his third-year rookie-scale option picked up by New Orleans in December, has displaced Willy Hernangomez as the second-unit backup center.
“The main thing I took away was I never want to be in that position again,” Hayes said of his February benching. “It’s not like it was a bad thing. I just always want to be on the court.”
We have more from the Southwest Division:
- Eligible members of the Pelicans organization received their first dose of the COVID-19 vaccine, according to Andrew Lopez of ESPN. A majority of the players who were eligible received the shot did so, including Sindarius Thornwell, Lopez tweets. Italian Nicolo Melli also received the vaccine, Marc Stein of the New York Times tweets.
- The Spurs had four games prior to the All-Star break postponed due to coronavirus issues. Two of the affected players, Rudy Gay and Derrick White, expressed their gratitude to the team’s training and medical staffs for the high quality of care to Tom Orsborn of the San Antonio Express-News. “They’re just great people, the most helpful people I’ve been around, and they care about us,” Gay said.
- While the Mavericks plan to give stars Luka Doncic and Kristaps Porzingis periodic nights off, don’t expect coach Rick Carlisle to give the team’s four rookies extended playing time, Brad Townsend of the Dallas Morning News writes.
- Rockets big man Christian Wood is hopeful of returning to action on Tuesday, Tim MacMahon of ESPN tweets. Wood has been sidelined since February 4 due to an ankle injury. He’s listed by the team as doubtful.
Christian Wood and Justin Patton will be elite together on the court especially on defense
After the trade deadline next week the Rockets should still have an open roster spot so they can sign Patton to a 3-year deal with their MLE.
Rockets need to inactive Wally and Wood
I like Sam Hinkie, the best GM ever in the nba history in term of restore and retool
I would love to hear a logical explanation as to why they would shut down Wood for the rest of the season. He looked spectacular in his first 17 games, and even with all of the roster turnover and injuries the team has dealt with they still went 8-9 with Wood on the floor.
Of course in the 16 games since his injury they’ve gone 0-16.
Wood, Porter, and the rest need to build chemistry together.
But go ahead believing that Hinkie and The Process is how to run an NBA team, we all saw how trusting the process worked in Philly.
Embiid/Simmons!!!
I am pretty sure the silly guy meant Sam Presti lmaoo
Patton was a solid pickup. Healthy he’s got a chance to develop into at least a rotation big. Still very young. He was looking good on Knicks G-league team.
Houston’s gonna have a nice future with Porter, Tate, Wood and Patton. Speaking about Patton he needs to get a standard contract after the trade deadline