This is the thing that people do not realise! There was only 1, maybe 2 players in the draft that would address the need for interior defence and rebounding. Surprise, surprise, those two players were selected at 1 and 3.
What we did was pick someone with an eye on the long term future. Not next season. Who ever we picked at 10 today wasn't going to be a MAJOR contributor next season. We picked a player with a view of what our team will be in 2-4 years time. We had a SG position solved. We might have a SF position covered but the rest was all pretty much up in the air. We needed to get a big guy and we did. He was the best big guy available at 10. We took him.
According to Petrie we talked to every team in front of us other than the top 3 picks about us moving up. Today, Petrie spoke to Charlotte to move to pick 8. He even had an offer from team below us wanting to trade up to our pick to select Hawes.
Point is, we shoudln't be judging this pick as whether or not it addresses our current needs, but whether its a young piece to put in the bank for the future.
Sure he has some weaknesses to his game which is pretty much expected with anyone you pick at 10.
Right now we have some young pieces going forward. Forget Miller, SAR, Thomas, Artest, Bibby et al... those guys are not part of the LONG TERM FUTURE which clearly Hawes is. Whether he is going to be an All-Star C in his prime or whether he is going to be a nice starter at that position is debatable. Big guys just don't grow on trees. Especially not skilled 7'1", 19 year old big guys.
He averaged almost 2 bpg in 28mpg. That could translate into the NBA but he is not as useless as some people here make him out to be. This pick is about what he can do for us in the long term future, not next season or the season after.
What we did was pick someone with an eye on the long term future. Not next season. Who ever we picked at 10 today wasn't going to be a MAJOR contributor next season. We picked a player with a view of what our team will be in 2-4 years time. We had a SG position solved. We might have a SF position covered but the rest was all pretty much up in the air. We needed to get a big guy and we did. He was the best big guy available at 10. We took him.
According to Petrie we talked to every team in front of us other than the top 3 picks about us moving up. Today, Petrie spoke to Charlotte to move to pick 8. He even had an offer from team below us wanting to trade up to our pick to select Hawes.
Point is, we shoudln't be judging this pick as whether or not it addresses our current needs, but whether its a young piece to put in the bank for the future.
Sure he has some weaknesses to his game which is pretty much expected with anyone you pick at 10.
Right now we have some young pieces going forward. Forget Miller, SAR, Thomas, Artest, Bibby et al... those guys are not part of the LONG TERM FUTURE which clearly Hawes is. Whether he is going to be an All-Star C in his prime or whether he is going to be a nice starter at that position is debatable. Big guys just don't grow on trees. Especially not skilled 7'1", 19 year old big guys.
He averaged almost 2 bpg in 28mpg. That could translate into the NBA but he is not as useless as some people here make him out to be. This pick is about what he can do for us in the long term future, not next season or the season after.
How long is this "Long Term Future" you speak of?... because I'm not really down with going through the 90's again.