Personally I was mad that Yi and Noah were gone, but Hawes was the next best pick. Even if we do trade Artest, which I mean really who wants him, and where are we going to get anywhere near fair trade value for him, we have a logjam at SF. Kmart obviously starts at SG, so we have Garcia and Salmons who we just signed to a 5 year deal. Drafting Al Thornton basically says, signing Salmons was a mistake, and that Garcia doesnt have a future with the team. Both of which couldnt be more wrong.
Sure we wanted an athletic bigman who can block shots and rebound, but hell obviously doesnt everyone? isnt that why Oden went #1?????? Obviously we all want Bill Russell reincarnate, but those guys do not grow on trees.
Hawes can develop into a bigman who unlike Brad Miller he can actually score close to the basket, and with his back to the basket. Miller cannot evne make a freaking layup or hookshot, I dont want to hear crap about how this guy is the next Brad Miller. Hawes lives for basketball, whereas Brad Miller lives to go hunting and fishing. Hawes is 19, and didnt have all of hte knee problems nad injuries that Brad did. Plus hes a much more polished player than Brad was, and has this thing called Desire.
Now all we have to do is resign Justin Williams to play the 4, and put Hawes at the 5. Plus we can actually get Garcia like 25-30 minutes with this setup instead of relegating him or Al Thornton to the bench ala Gerald Wallace and have a huge waste of talent.
Hawes actually wants to play basketball for a living, and is going to work his butt off to get better at rebounding and on defense. He was decent at rebounding and shotblocking although obviously he isnt a defensive stopper. We still have a ton of scorers, and guys who can run the floor, and now we have a guy who can command a double team in hte paint, something we have not had since Webber. He is very tough also, something nobody in their right mind could ever say about Miller. Just because hte guy is 7'0 and white and has offensive skills doesn't mean he is Brad Miller. He isnt a jump shooter, he is a low post scorer.
Let all the people cry and whine, these are the same people who want us to draft a SF, and then also the same people who were crying about needing a bigman, and that they are sick of drafting 2's and 3's every year, yet they want to have Thornton although obviously AT cannot play the 4.
Be happy we got a bigman at least finally instead of another freakin combo guard who will ride hte pine forever. We are probably going to keep Ron Artest anyways, who is a heck of a defensive player, along with Justin Williams, and possibly some trades in the mix, the Kings are going to be much much better in the future.