LOS ANGELES – The Los Angeles Lakers have been one of the best offensive teams in the NBA this season amid their 14-4 start. But when it comes to the Lakers’ defense, that’s been a slightly different story. The teams has a few good individual defensive players, but most on the team believe the defense can improve. Lakers reserve center Jaxson Hayes is one player in particular who has made an impact on defense this season.

Following the Lakers’ win against the LA Clippers last Tuesday, Jaxson Hayes spoke about where the team’s defense stands in the early goings of the regular season.

“I feel like there’s always room for improvement. Right now everyone is just flying around making plays and just trying to cover for each other. And it’s like we have our nights of good defense and we have our nights where we have lapses,” Hayes said. “But I feel like it’s all part of the growing pains of the season. I feel like we’re just trying to get better and get more connected.”

With the quarter mark of the regular season approaching, the Lakers are sixth in the NBA in offensive rating at 119.4, as per Basketball Reference. But they are just 16th in the league in defensive rating at 115.5.

The stats also back up Hayes’ place as one of the better defenders on the team as he is in the top half of the roster in defensive rating at 115.6 in terms of the players in the regular rotation, as per StatMuse.

Article Continues Below

However, Lakers head coach JJ Redick cautioned against using defensive metrics such as rating when evaluating the team’s defense.

“I think our defense is better than whatever our defensive rating is,” Redick said prior to the Lakers’ win against the Mavericks on Friday. “There’s some positive things that we’ve done this year. . .when you have a couple of outliers of games, it’s not always going to be reflected through your overall defensive rating. But that typically evens out over a longer season. I know that we’re trending in the right way defensively.”

For Hayes in particular, his role has remained the same whether he’s starting or coming off the bench. Hayes’ job is bring energy and intensity especially on the defensive end. Through the first 18 games of the season, 2.8 of Hayes’ rebounding average of 3.9 is on the defensive end.

Hayes is in his third season with the Lakers after re-signing in the offseason on a one-year contract.