Stock soaring for 2 Clippers, while 2 are fading fast to begin 2023-24
By Will Eudy
Stock soaring: Bones Hyland
Traded to LA from the Denver Nuggets at the trade deadline last February, Bones Hyland had a bit of a rocky start to his time with the Clippers. At his core, Hyland is a no-fear, high-volume scorer that relies heavily on his speed and athleticism.
As a youngster, he had also been known to sometimes make rash decisions with the basketball. This led to some public disagreements between him and his teammates, most notably Mason Plumlee, last season.
His performance in the playoffs did not help his case to be in the Clippers’ future rotation much either. He shot just 34% from the floor and 25% from three in LA’s five first-round games against the Phoenix Suns, and was routinely outsmarted by the older Chris Paul on offense.
With all those factors working against him, many wondered if Hyland was mature enough to move forward with the team. But his performance so far this season has helped to quell some of those worries, as Bones scored in double figures on very decent efficiency through the Clippers’ first five games.
Since then, his numbers have taken a bit of a hit, but it is pretty obvious he is one of the many casualties of now having James Harden in the rotation. Bones Hyland has shown early on this season that he can thrive and be a net positive if placed in the proper role offensively.