Jaxson Hayes had an up-and-down tenure during his time with the New Orleans Pelicans, showing flashes of the player he could become but never quite putting it together for a multitude of reasons, both owing to him and the team he was on.
As numerous players with pedigree have done in recent years, Hayes — the 8th overall pick in the 2019 draft — has come to the Lakers on a veteran’s minimum deal hoping to resuscitate his career with the team’s vaunted development staff who have helped catapult underperforming players like Malik Monk into a higher tier, or players who were on the fringes of being rostered (like Troy Brown Jr.