Reason #3 to draft Hayes: Young backcourt fire power
A problem that would arise from drafting Killian Hayes would be that either his growth or the growth of another young promising Cavaliers player would be stunted if he were to be drafted by Cleveland.
If the team were to play him at the point guard position, it would force either he or Garland to the bench, but on the defensive end, though he’s far from a great on-ball defender, he’s decent there off-ball and would likely get through screens much better than Garland on-ball. Albeit If he plays shooting guard, he will likely sit the bench behind Collin Sexton.
Lastly, it would be unlikely to play the 6-foot-5 Hayes, who would be another player that needs the ball in his hands the vast majority of the time to make plays, at small forward, and obviously, that would greatly reduce the minutes of both Cedi Osman and Kevin Porter Jr.
Also, that’d stunt the growth of feasibly Dylan Windler, too, assuming Windler can get his bearings after some way into the season, as he is likely to miss all of his rookie season (even factoring in the hiatus) due to a stress reaction in his left leg.
On the other hand, it is possible that one of Garland, Sexton, or Hayes embrace a bench role and it creates one of the deepest young backcourts in the league. Looking around the league, if all three players reach near their full potential, which would come from all three over time getting enough burn to develop, it is hard to find another team with a three-guard rotation that can compete with the backcourt the Cavaliers could eventually have on their hands.
Also, if an agreement can not be reached between any of the players, Garland or Sexton could potentially be traded for a young big (with salary to match) that is more on the timeline of Cleveland, unlike Love, Thompson, or Andre Drummond (who is 26 and has a $28.8 million player option for next season, for reference).
That being said, from what they have shown up to this point in their early careers and Hayes’ cooperation with his teams in French/German leagues when it comes to playing time, it is much more likely that Killian would mesh well with the team.
In that more likely scenario, the Cavaliers would have a roster packed with potential that they can continue to grow and develop and their young backcourt fire power would make for a ton of promise in having a variety of players that can handle it and be viable on-ball threats off-the-bounce.