Thoughts on Hawes?

[king07]

Didn't see a thread anywhere. I thought he looked pretty damn good. He's a better shooter than I thought. I hope he can learn to rebound better with his size. All you Petrie haters I think we actually drafted the right guy with that pick.

 

[BritishColumbia]

He is still out of shape .... He is (at least) 15 days away from being ready to play an adult basketball.

 

[OptimusRhyme]

Didn't see a thread anywhere. I thought he looked pretty damn good. He's a better shooter than I thought. I hope he can learn to rebound better with his size. All you Petrie haters I think we actually drafted the right guy with that pick.

Yah he looked solid, hes very wise for his age. I'm glad Miller hasn't given up on basketball because i could see Hawes being like a hybrid Miller with a phenomenal post-game if Miller mentors him well.
Another thing about Hawes is he compliments Martin well with his range stretching the D, clearing the lane and he passes to cutters well.
Things don't look so bad for this team as they seem if you look closely.

 

[tyrant]

The best big man we got. Can play with his back away and facing the basket. Lovely turnaround shot. Brad miller tried a move like that before. He got it thrown into the stands. Spencer needs to get a little stronger. But he is gona be good

 

[NikateeN]

I was impressed, i didnt see much from him the other night so tonight i was quite suprised, i like his jumper, and i like him under the basket, but as we all know he has no D, add him to another on the list of "bigs" that dont.

 

[SacTownKid]

He is a bit heavy, yeah I'd say about 2 weeks from now he'll be in game shape.

My one thought? Sweet.

 

[SacTownKid]

I was impressed, i didnt see much from him the other night so tonight i was quite suprised, i like his jumper, and i like him under the basket, but as we all know he has no D, add him to another on the list of "bigs" that dont.

I think he is unfairly dogged on his defense. He seemed pretty solid given the circumstances and really looks to be aggressive trying to block shots and help in the paint. He also seemed pretty decent in summer league.

 

[Jechtsphere]

It's gonna be tough for him to play D or rebound until he gets a lot stronger, he gets pushed around easily...even offensively he won't get great position because he doesn't have that strength...yet.

He will though so we have to be patient.

Saw some nice shots by Hawes though, was good to see.

 

[Bricklayer]

Didn't see a thread anywhere. I thought he looked pretty damn good. He's a better shooter than I thought. I hope he can learn to rebound better with his size. All you Petrie haters I think we actually drafted the right guy with that pick.

No defense, no rebounding (except his own wide open miss), some nice offensive moves. About what I expected. At some point this year, given minutes, he is going to have a 17pt 6reb 3ast breakout game. The question about him is whteher he wil ever have a 17pt 11reb 3blk game.

 

[Jer]

Not singing his praise as high as Jerry was. He needs to rebound better and I'd like to see some more mobility, but I want to see him with a more aggressive attitude fighting in the paint.

He could be really good though; if we develop him properly he could be a really important piece for our team in the future.

 

[Gary]

No defense, no rebounding (except his own wide open miss), some nice offensive moves. About what I expected. At some point this year, given minutes, he is going to have a 17pt 6reb 3ast breakout game. The question about him is whteher he wil ever have a 17pt 11reb 3blk game.

As bad of a rebounding team as we have I bet his numbers jump up a bit.

I was thinking about 6 a game as well but that can go as high up as about 8 if given about 35 minutes a night.

 

[creAtivetfh]

The best big man we got. Can play with his back away and facing the basket. Lovely turnaround shot. Brad miller tried a move like that before. He got it thrown into the stands. Spencer needs to get a little stronger. But he is gona be good

really have me cracking up on this one

 

[bajaden]

It's gonna be tough for him to play D or rebound until he gets a lot stronger, he gets pushed around easily...even offensively he won't get great position because he doesn't have that strength...yet.

He will though so we have to be patient.

Saw some nice shots by Hawes though, was good to see.

I'm curious. Where, in tonights game did you see him being pushed around. I saw him in good position several times in tonights game. He just didn't get the ball. He spent the summer working out and lifting weights, so how does anyone know how strong he is. Sometimes I think some of you have a crystal ball or something, because you seem to know things that I don't know. This kid, and he is a kid, is tougher than many of you think, but aside from that,its awfully early to be making decisions on how good a rebounder or a defender he will be. He's still just learning his way around.

 

[Glenn]

I'm curious. Where, in tonights game did you see him being pushed around. I saw him in good position several times in tonights game. He just didn't get the ball. He spent the summer working out and lifting weights, so how does anyone know how strong he is. Sometimes I think some of you have a crystal ball or something, because you seem to know things that I don't know. This kid, and he is a kid, is tougher than many of you think, but aside from that,its awfully early to be making decisions on how good a rebounder or a defender he will be. He's still just learning his way around.

Thank you 'cause it saved me the effort of writing the same thing. Miller isn't going to teach him any moves around the basket. This kid is already a light year ahead of Brad. I was surprised to see his eagerness to set picks. From what I saw in the summer league his close in moves are great. What I DIDN'T know (except by report) is that he could shoot from the outside.

He has a lot he can teach Brad and vice versa. From what I saw in summer league, when he gets a low post position, he's very, very difficult to stop. We'll see if he has the leg strength to get himself in position.

He's 19 with 19 minutes of NBA experience. I understand it is not cool to get excited about a King without pointing out all the negatives but I'm excited about this guy just the way he is.

 

[Bricklayer]

I'm curious. Where, in tonights game did you see him being pushed around. I saw him in good position several times in tonights game. He just didn't get the ball. He spent the summer working out and lifting weights, so how does anyone know how strong he is. Sometimes I think some of you have a crystal ball or something, because you seem to know things that I don't know. This kid, and he is a kid, is tougher than many of you think, but aside from that,its awfully early to be making decisions on how good a rebounder or a defender he will be. He's still just learning his way around.

He was pushed under the hoop and out of rebounding position by both Milsap and Boozer.

Its nice/good he spent the summer lifting (if he did). So did everyone else. And some guys have it, some do not. Hawes is too young for the book to be closed on him this year, next year, or likely even the year after (although that is about the time you start making solid reads on guys). But rebounding, defending, being a banger, that's all nearly innate. Hawes has yet to show any of that ability against any serious competition. It is THE thing to watch with him. I'm telling anybody who listens that the kid has the talent to score in this league. Needs to be refined, shot selection learned, etc. But the talent is there. And you can see it. You can see no such natural talent when it comes to rebounding or defense.

 

[jimbodan]

I just hope his knees hold out, I don't have a list of big men that have had 4+ knee surgeries before the age of 21 and have gone on to have great careers, but I'd imagine that list can't be very long.

 

[kyo2002]

He's more like Miller than I thought. He needs to grow into his body for the moment. We'll see in a few years how determined he is to develop his body and expand his game.

 

[DocHolliday]

No defense, no rebounding (except his own wide open miss), some nice offensive moves. About what I expected. At some point this year, given minutes, he is going to have a 17pt 6reb 3ast breakout game. The question about him is whteher he wil ever have a 17pt 11reb 3blk game.

I think you're going to see him grow into a good shot blocker. He had 54 last year.

 

[CaminoChaos]

Offensively he is gifted but defensively looked so lost. He needs to learn the fundamentals of boxing out as well.

 

[Smills91]

No defense, no rebounding (except his own wide open miss), some nice offensive moves. About what I expected. At some point this year, given minutes, he is going to have a 17pt 6reb 3ast breakout game. The question about him is whteher he wil ever have a 17pt 11reb 3blk game.

Probably not this year, but I'll be when he's 25-28 he'll be averaging close to those number regularly.

17/9/2

 

[dude12]

He was pushed under the hoop and out of rebounding position by both Milsap and Boozer.

Its nice/good he spent the summer lifting (if he did). So did everyone else. And some guys have it, some do not. Hawes is too young for the book to be closed on him this year, next year, or likely even the year after (although that is about the time you start making solid reads on guys). But rebounding, defending, being a banger, that's all nearly innate. Hawes has yet to show any of that ability against any serious competition. It is THE thing to watch with him. I'm telling anybody who listens that the kid has the talent to score in this league. Needs to be refined, shot selection learned, etc. But the talent is there. And you can see it. You can see no such natural talent when it comes to rebounding or defense.

Wrong..he has the desire to go get the ball and go block shots....thats enough for me right now. He's going to have to learn positioning, for sure. I'd rather have a guy like him, who has an offensive game, than a guy like Justin Williams who has no offensive game. Did he get pushed around by Boozer and Millsap? Not sure but I'm taking your word for it. Boozer is a beast who pushed everyone around let alone 19 year old kids in their 2nd game back. Millsap? Led the NCAA's in rebounding 3 straight years and had an outstanding rookie year...an energy guy whose specialty is rebounding. Your right....he didn't matchup well with those guys.

 

[supamari0]

Probably not this year, but I'll be when he's 25-28 he'll be averaging close to those number regularly.

17/9/2

Haven't watched him at all but this guy sounds like a shorter version of Rik Smits.

 

[=LarryLegend=]

I think hawes will be a beast....kinda like Kmart but make his home under the rim! and by his 3rd year will draw double teams like crazy.

 

[kupman]

The big thing to keep in mind with Hawes right now is that he is only 19 years old. He is still two years from his first legal beer. He should be a sophamore in college right now. Meaning, what you see is not neccessarily what you will get. He may not be a good rebounder of defender now, but in 6 years....who knows. Maybe, maybe not.

All I can say now is that he is a darn good player for someone who is 19, but that does not mean too much in the NBA.

 

[BawLa]

Has anything changed since the beginning of the year?? Did anyone expect it to??

We knew this guy could score. Some of us might have wanted to see it for themselves before they believed in his scoring ability, but the rest of us knew that part of his game would translate relatively easily. Furthermore, we knew of all his shortcomings: youth, lack of strength, lack of nack for rebounding/defending the paint. We knew these things, and we should be thankful that there weren't any unexpected changes.

That said, Hawes is still at least a 2-3 year project, minimum. This year should be all about him getting comfortable in the league. After a season of getting acclimated, we/he/the team will really be able to identify what areas he needs to work on. Many of us have jumped the gun, and rightfully so, and have identified that he will need to get stronger, need to learn rebounding positioning, need to develop a nose for shotblocking, etc. And many of us still feel that he should still be paired with a rebounding/shotblocking freak-of-a-PF, irregardless of how he develops.

As for this year, I am just going to enjoy watching a 19 year old, get comfortable playing at the highest level. And once we have established a rebounding/shotblocking base for him this year, then I will look for improvement in years-to-come. I will also look to see if we can run some offense through him. That does't mean we should abandon Theus' run-and-gun philosophy, but when we do get in the halfcourt, we should begin to feed him the ball. He could really provide some stability to an otherwise erratic offense, even if it is off the bench for now.

 

[bajaden]

He was pushed under the hoop and out of rebounding position by both Milsap and Boozer.

Its nice/good he spent the summer lifting (if he did). So did everyone else. And some guys have it, some do not. Hawes is too young for the book to be closed on him this year, next year, or likely even the year after (although that is about the time you start making solid reads on guys). But rebounding, defending, being a banger, that's all nearly innate. Hawes has yet to show any of that ability against any serious competition. It is THE thing to watch with him. I'm telling anybody who listens that the kid has the talent to score in this league. Needs to be refined, shot selection learned, etc. But the talent is there. And you can see it. You can see no such natural talent when it comes to rebounding or defense.

Bricky, you just said what I did in a different way. You and I look at things through different lenses. That doesn't make either one of us right, but we both want to accomplish the same thing. I remember when the Warriors had a young center who, I believe had just completed his second year, could be his third year. I remember Scotty Sterling on KNBR saying that he hadn't progressed enough and wasn't athletic enough etc. They traded him and their 1st round pick (the third pick in the draft) to the Boston Celtics for their 1st round pick(the first pick in the draft). The Warriors drafted another center, whose name eludes me at the moment, and Robert Parrish went to the Celtics and the rest is history.

My point is that the league is full of stories about teams giving up too early on players. Your suspicions about Hawes defense could prove to be right,but I think its early to make any kind of decision on him. The point of my orginal post is that I think too many people read other people's opinion's and assume that its fact, without ever seeing a player play. I watched Hawes play quite a bit last year, and most of my opinion is based on that. I understand however that its not the same as NBA competition, but its better than someone else's opinion.

Didn't mean to get so long winded. By the way welcome back to college basketball. See you at March Maddness..

 

[kupman]

But rebounding, defending, being a banger, that's all nearly innate. Hawes has yet to show any of that ability against any serious competition. It is THE thing to watch with him. I'm telling anybody who listens that the kid has the talent to score in this league. Needs to be refined, shot selection learned, etc. But the talent is there. And you can see it. You can see no such natural talent when it comes to rebounding or defense.

IMHO, rebounding and defense are some of the least innate skills on the court. These can be learned. Not saying they will be learned...but they can be.

 

[Warhawk]

Has anything changed since the beginning of the year?? Did anyone expect it to??

We knew this guy could score. Some of us might have wanted to see it for themselves before they believed in his scoring ability, but the rest of us knew that part of his game would translate relatively easily. Furthermore, we knew of all his shortcomings: youth, lack of strength, lack of nack for rebounding/defending the paint. We knew these things, and we should be thankful that there weren't any unexpected changes.

That said, Hawes is still at least a 2-3 year project, minimum. This year should be all about him getting comfortable in the league. After a season of getting acclimated, we/he/the team will really be able to identify what areas he needs to work on. Many of us have jumped the gun, and rightfully so, and have identified that he will need to get stronger, need to learn rebounding positioning, need to develop a nose for shotblocking, etc. And many of us still feel that he should still be paired with a rebounding/shotblocking freak-of-a-PF, irregardless of how he develops.

As for this year, I am just going to enjoy watching a 19 year old, get comfortable playing at the highest level. And once we have established a rebounding/shotblocking base for him this year, then I will look for improvement in years-to-come. I will also look to see if we can run some offense through him. That does't mean we should abandon Theus' run-and-gun philosophy, but when we do get in the halfcourt, we should begin to feed him the ball. He could really provide some stability to an otherwise erratic offense, even if it is off the bench for now.

Well put. I am in total agreement. Let the kid get his feet wet the first year without pushing his healing knee too hard and let's see what he can do.

 

[Mr. S£im Citrus]

IMHO, rebounding and defense are some of the least innate skills on the court. These can be learned. Not saying they will be learned...but they can be.

Okay, I'll bite: who was the last player that "learned" to be an above average rebounder?

 

[Jechtsphere]

To me rebounding...you have it or you don't.

But you can learn to be a better defender.