Spencer.... how you like the draft pick now?

R

reid1boys

G-League
I have mentioned it a few times and then they were talking abou tit on the after game show last night.

Name me all of the centers in the league right now that can use the left and right like Spencer? he is quickly becoming a presence DOWN LOW. My initial impressions of him were that he was going to be another Brad Miller, someone that really prefers the 15 foot jumper. Spencer can go down low and post up on probably any center in the league and score(remember he did it to yao). Unless you get him too far away from the bucket, the hook shot is simply unstoppable. it essentially can not be blocked, so he either makes it or misses it, but the defender wont have much impact on it.


he is showing to be a pretty physical guy in the paint as evidenced by his blocks. he rebounds, and i love the fact that he (as in the words of Bill walton) will "throw it down big man," instead of going in soft.


At this point, I am ECSTATIC with Hawes. he is quickly becoming my favorite player. he hustles every second he is on the court. he is fearless as far as being willing to shoot when open, he is as confident in his abilities as ANY young player I have seen over the past several season.

So for those of you that continue to say he cant be a starter in this league, are you watching the games??
 
I loved it when Walt Williams lit up the 6ers for 40 points halfway through his rookie season. Too bad that turned out to be his career high.

Hawes is still very inconsistent. Just as I wasn't ready to string him up this summer when he was sucking horribly, I'm now not ready to predict a 20/10 career for him based on a good game.

Relax and check back in a year or two.
 
fnordius said:
I loved it when Walt Williams lit up the 6ers for 40 points halfway through his rookie season. Too bad that turned out to be his career high.
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Think it was the Jazz? Remember that game.


Spencer's production thus far looks more durable than Walt's however. Not any of this "any questions" nonsense durable -- there are all kinds of challenges and hurdles still to come. But its more than just empty stats.

P.S. Nope -- it was the Sixers. The Jazz game I remembered came a month later when Wiz scored 37.
 
fnordius said:
Hawes is still very inconsistent. Just as I wasn't ready to string him up this summer when he was sucking horribly, I'm now not ready to predict a 20/10 career for him based on a good game.
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He's arguably been the Kings' MOST consistent player this season. He's averaging 13+ pts and scored at least 12 in seven of eight games, and 9 is his low. He's shot over 50% in six of eight games, and one of the others was still over 45%. Granted his rebounding has been a bit more up and down, but he's still reached his average of 8 reb in five of eight games, and has had two games where he really disappeared on the boards. He's registered at least one block in seven of eight games.

In the games he started last year, he put up roughly a 12/8/2/2 line. Which is about the same as if you projected his limited minutes to starter's minutes. Which is about the same as he put up in the preseason. Which is about the same as he's put up so far this season. Wow, talk about inconsistent!

He's pretty well established the base from which he will improve at a level that, even in the unlikely event that he doesn't improve much over the coming years is already good enough to start for a lot of teams in the league. He's merely at this moment, 10th in scoring among centers, 12th in rebounding, 6th in FG%, 7th in blocks and 12th in assists (0.1 away from a tie for 7th). If that's not good enough to start in this league, then I can only conclude that about 20 teams don't have a starting center.

Can he be inconsistent on a play-to-play basis? Sure, he's a twenty-year old center who is still several years away from his prime. The fact that anyone can be anything other than extemely encouraged to have such a promising young seven footer is baffling to me.
 
Outside of the top 3 in the draft that year, there isn't another player I would rather have over Spense... so far anyway...
 
From his first days on the team, I felt that Spencer would be special someday. He has a great attitude and seems to be intelligent. He is also remarkably agile for his size and age.

I still think that he will become the team leader within five years. He cares about the success of the team, seems courageous, and has a game-attitude. When he messes up, he seems to take it to heart. He exudes more leadership "vibrations" than Kevin Martin, who is otherwise the heir-apparent to Chris Weber.

Spencer seems to be pretty smart. Of course, compared to the King's first-string center, Bobby Jackson comes off like Sir Isaac Newton.
 
Today, Spencer has 443 career points and Greg Oden has zero career points. It would be fun to start a pool and see who can guess (closest) on what date will Oden's career points surpass Spencer's career points.
 
NME said:
He's arguably been the Kings' MOST consistent player this season. He's averaging 13+ pts and scored at least 12 in seven of eight games, and 9 is his low. He's shot over 50% in six of eight games, and one of the others was still over 45%. Granted his rebounding has been a bit more up and down, but he's still reached his average of 8 reb in five of eight games, and has had two games where he really disappeared on the boards. He's registered at least one block in seven of eight games.

In the games he started last year, he put up roughly a 12/8/2/2 line. Which is about the same as if you projected his limited minutes to starter's minutes. Which is about the same as he put up in the preseason. Which is about the same as he's put up so far this season. Wow, talk about inconsistent!

He's pretty well established the base from which he will improve at a level that, even in the unlikely event that he doesn't improve much over the coming years is already good enough to start for a lot of teams in the league. He's merely at this moment, 10th in scoring among centers, 12th in rebounding, 6th in FG%, 7th in blocks and 12th in assists (0.1 away from a tie for 7th). If that's not good enough to start in this league, then I can only conclude that about 20 teams don't have a starting center.

Can he be inconsistent on a play-to-play basis? Sure, he's a twenty-year old center who is still several years away from his prime. The fact that anyone can be anything other than extemely encouraged to have such a promising young seven footer is baffling to me.
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Granted his rebounding numbers have been up and down, but you have to put it in perspective. The Kings as a team have been out rebounding their opponets. With Miller, JT, Sheldon and even a Mikki sighting grabbing mucho rebounds. I would be worried about Hawes if we werent winning the boards.
 
NME said:
He's arguably been the Kings' MOST consistent player this season... The fact that anyone can be anything other than extemely encouraged to have such a promising young seven footer is baffling to me.
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What about games which didn't count, but which we can't erase from our memories? The preseason wasn't all so kind.

Average of games against Portland on the 7th and 20th, and Houston on the 17th:

22 minutes - 3.67 points on 20% shooting - 4.33 reb - 0.67 asst - 2.33 TO - 3.33 PF - 0.7 blk - 0.0 stl

I don't expect a lot of consistency from a player his age, I don't think it's a big deal. If he were consistent at this point in time, I'd be dumbfounded. But that's not to say that I can forget his bad games. He's progressing normally, bad matchups and bad games will happen.

Maybe he'll be great in 2 years, or maybe he'll be wearing a suit and on crutches. I really don't know at this point. So, just as I wouldn't bash him before, I'm not going to get carried away in the other direction now.

We suck this year, so waiting and seeing might as well be our standard mode for now, eh?
 
Here's what I don't understand:

Spencer is really the only post up player the Kings have. JT isn't there yet, but he might develop into that. Hawes's back to the basket game can draw the help defender in the post, opening up outside shots, and if not, he can usually get a hook or make a move to exploit the single defender. Since he's the only guy they can do that with, WHY don't they do that more often, and why didn't they do that last night late in the game? That's exactly where a big man with a post game is needed. It opens up so many more options in the game, and it was horrible watching Miller and Beno try to force the issue when they had a better option there. So, I don't understand why Theus doesn't utilize the options he has and call Spencer's number.

I was critical of Rick because he used a short rotation, and in the playoffs I thought his decision to leave in struggling starters instead of playing the bench more contributed to the losses, and I can't stand that there might be a coach on the rebuilding track who can't use the talent we have now.
 
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Hated the pick at first...
love it now.
Hated the Thompson pick too...
love it now.

Petrie always drafts well... except for Douby.

I will never doubt him again.
 
Fresno King said:
Hated the pick at first...
love it now.
Hated the Thompson pick too...
love it now.

Petrie always drafts well... except for Douby.

I will never doubt him again.
Click to expand...

yup, and remember when he reached and everyone thought he wasted a late first round pick on that kid that was supposed to go late in the 2nd, Kevin Martin.

Hawes was the #10 pick but you have to consider the draft class.

#11 pick was Acie Law and the next available big was Sean Williams who went at #17 to NJ -- good pick IMO, id take Hawes potential over the 5-6 average athletic wings that went after him(maybe except for Thad Young but we have too many young wings as is)
 
Not to mention the kid has a relatively high IQ. He's quite articulate as well in interviews (again comparitively). He's only 20 and getting better each game. A steal at # 10.
 
I liked the Hawes pick from the get-go and I love it even more now. What has impressed me is his rebounding and defense. These were two big knocks on him when he was drafted and for the beginning of his career he looks like he will be at least average in those areas. I expect him to get better at man defense as he gains weight. Most of all, I love his attitude and professionalism. For a 20 year old, he doesn't get down on himself if he makes a bad play. He just gets right back to work on the next play.

Hawes still has much to prove, and much to improve upon, but as of right now I couldn't be happier with the pick.
 
If I have been right about anything it was picking up a Spencer Hawes jersey before he played a single minute of play (and that included the Summer League). Someone at that age, with the skills that most centers don't learn in their careers, that's something special. You can question his athleticism, but those arms seem to magically extend to get blocks. And lets not mention his passing, dribbling, ability to run the floor, good court vision, leads the freaking league in 3 point %.

How many more 3s does he have to make while holding the 3pt % before they let Hawes into the 3 point contest?
 
Showtime said:
Here's what I don't understand:

Spencer is really the only post up player the Kings have. JT isn't there yet, but he might develop into that. Hawes's back to the basket game can draw the help defender in the post, opening up outside shots, and if not, he can usually get a hook or make a move to exploit the single defender. Since he's the only guy they can do that with, WHY don't they do that more often, and why didn't they do that last night late in the game?
Click to expand...

Hawes has a back to the basket game but has trouble posting up due to his lack of strength compared to certain other players. Have you ever seen Hawes really backing down his way deep into the paint? He usually puts up a running hook or a jump hook from a bit further away than he should. I'm sure in a few years time as he becomes stronger his skills can be put to much better use once he can get deeper position in the paint.
 
NME said:
He's arguably been the Kings' MOST consistent player this season. He's averaging 13+ pts and scored at least 12 in seven of eight games, and 9 is his low. He's shot over 50% in six of eight games, and one of the others was still over 45%. Granted his rebounding has been a bit more up and down, but he's still reached his average of 8 reb in five of eight games, and has had two games where he really disappeared on the boards. He's registered at least one block in seven of eight games.
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That's pretty good, considering the fact that he was a terrible rebounder in college. Eight a game is exceeding my expectations.
 
Superman said:
That's pretty good, considering the fact that he was a terrible rebounder in college. Eight a game is exceeding my expectations.
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His year in college was a little hard to judge considering he was quite sick for much of the season with a mysterious stomach ailment and he lost a lot of weight.
 
Two things i like most about Hawes is he is willing to learn and second he gets pissed off when he makes mistakes and uses that to fuel himself to work harder, unlike Miller who gets frusterated and then starts making silly fouls.
 
He's just a big white stiff, right?;)

Only he's quicker and faster than people give him credit for. And his high basketball IQ allows him to anticipate plays, making him quicker than he really is. And he's ambidextrous. And he can play down low. And he can shoot three pointers. And he can very effectively come off of screens. And he's an excellent passer. And his rebounding is at least going to be good enough, if not just downright good.

The thing I've been surprised about is the shot blocking. Didn't see a whole lot of that in college. But, after all, he's not close to being in his prime physically.

His major challenge now is staying out of foul trouble. As he gets more experience, I'm expecting he will anticipate even better and put himself into position to take charges, not just try to shot block.
 
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