A league comparison of Hawes and Thompson:

[bajaden]

College is a perfectly reasonable reason to miss. It's not like Hawes is going to be in college for 10 years. You just come off stupid everytime you make stupid, ignorant jokes about Hawes.

I'm going to respectfully disagree. Now I agree that its not mandatory and so its his choice about how he spends his summers. But he's being paid millions of dollars by the Kings to hopefully be their center of the future. All the great players, and the players that overacheive have one thing in common. They usually spend their offseason working on their game. If Hawes chooses to not do that, he has every right to do so.

But he's not helping himself by doing so, and he's not as valuable to the team as a result. And being a fan of the team, and not Hawes persay, it doesn't make me happy. By that statement, I mean the team comes first with me and the player second. I like Hawes. I wanted the Kings to pick him because he was very talented for a 19 year old kid. But so far I haven't seen the commitment from him to reach his potential. Ken Venturi once said that the more I practice, the luckier I get. I have no idea what Hawes priorities are. But he has an opportunity to do something that only a small percentage of people in this world get to do. Play in the NBA. Its up to him how good he wants to be.

 

[VF21]

Guys - The equine has expired. You can quit beating it.

What you're arguing about happened last summer. Was it the right thing to do? Nope. Did Hawes learn a lesson from it? Quite possibly.

Pretty much everything on the team - including a number of teammates - has changed since then. Hawes now seems more focused, albeit still prone to ups and downs, than he's been in his entire Kings career. I think he's beginning to understand that his role will not always be exactly the same, but that he'll always be called upon to do his best when needed.

I think some of you really need to cut him a break. I was at the game when Hawes had to sit out as a disciplinary measure and I saw a young man working very hard to make sure he wasn't in the doghouse, who was supportive of his teammates and his coach, who clearly knew he had done something wrong.

Give him a chance to learn from his mistakes. This constant dissecting of every move he makes and then going into the past when there's nothing current to grouse about just isn't fair. He's a freaking kid, for God's sake. Not everyone matures at the same pace.

Instead of continuing to berate him for something he did last off-season that he cannot change or undo, wait and see what he does this year. Then, if he flakes again, I promise not to object in any way to you drawing and quartering him.

 

[bajaden]

Guys - The equine has expired. You can quit beating it.

What you're arguing about happened last summer. Was it the right thing to do? Nope. Did Hawes learn a lesson from it? Quite possibly.

Pretty much everything on the team - including a number of teammates - has changed since then. Hawes now seems more focused, albeit still prone to ups and downs, than he's been in his entire Kings career. I think he's beginning to understand that his role will not always be exactly the same, but that he'll always be called upon to do his best when needed.

I think some of you really need to cut him a break. I was at the game when Hawes had to sit out as a disciplinary measure and I saw a young man working very hard to make sure he wasn't in the doghouse, who was supportive of his teammates and his coach, who clearly knew he had done something wrong.

Give him a chance to learn from his mistakes. This constant dissecting of every move he makes and then going into the past when there's nothing current to grouse about just isn't fair. He's a freaking kid, for God's sake. Not everyone matures at the same pace.

Instead of continuing to berate him for something he did last off-season that he cannot change or undo, wait and see what he does this year. Then, if he flakes again, I promise not to object in any way to you drawing and quartering him.

I was, and probably still am one of Hawes biggest fans. And my post came down on the side of a point of order. Sacky who I seldom agree with, had a legitimate point. Whether it applied to Hawes, or any player. None of that has anything to do with whether I want Hawes to succeed or not. I wasn't very happy at the time when Hawes decided not to work on his game and then skip summer league. But I said nothing at the time. I chalked it up to immaturity. But that doesn't mean its not a legitimate point for criticism. And old point perhaps, but a point none the less. So to my mind, there's a difference between taking umbarage with someone for bringing up something that passed under the bridge a long time ago, and saying that the criticism itself was stupid. You came in on the side of the former, which I would agree with, but said fan came in on the side of the latter, which I don't agree with.

There, I hope I've thoroughly confused everyone..

 

[VF21]

Nope, I follow your rationale completely - which should scare both of us and everyone else.

 

[Kingster]

Guys - The equine has expired. You can quit beating it.

What you're arguing about happened last summer. Was it the right thing to do? Nope. Did Hawes learn a lesson from it? Quite possibly.

Pretty much everything on the team - including a number of teammates - has changed since then. Hawes now seems more focused, albeit still prone to ups and downs, than he's been in his entire Kings career. I think he's beginning to understand that his role will not always be exactly the same, but that he'll always be called upon to do his best when needed.

I think some of you really need to cut him a break. I was at the game when Hawes had to sit out as a disciplinary measure and I saw a young man working very hard to make sure he wasn't in the doghouse, who was supportive of his teammates and his coach, who clearly knew he had done something wrong.

Give him a chance to learn from his mistakes. This constant dissecting of every move he makes and then going into the past when there's nothing current to grouse about just isn't fair. He's a freaking kid, for God's sake. Not everyone matures at the same pace.

Instead of continuing to berate him for something he did last off-season that he cannot change or undo, wait and see what he does this year. Then, if he flakes again, I promise not to object in any way to you drawing and quartering him.

I'm not cutting him a break until I see that bod of his chiselled like stone after the summer. The guy has some major talent. I hate it when people waste their potential. He's gotten three years of slack from me. I really think part of his slow development has been the coaching carousel. But next year he knows he's going to have the same coach, and he should know exactly what is expected of him. Next year he's really got to bring it. By the way, if I had to bet whether he will dedicate himself to his improvement this offseason, I would say, yes, he will.