My question is, what should the people developing Hawes really work on with him? If he lacks the predisposition to rebound and/or defend, should they focus on him learning techniques to try to get those areas to be average? Or should they focus on his offensive kills that are already relatively excellent and try to make those NBA-level excellent?
If all of the above was possible, then that's obviously the answer, but if you can't focus a lot of time on everything, where do you put the effort?
I'll take a shot at answering that.
1) Offensively -- I was a little alarmed when I heard Reggie casually say that we were a pick and pop team with Brad
and Spenser and that only Ron had a post game. Mortifying for Reef I am sure. But a major concern with the kid. I do not know whether Reggie said that because he has a bad read on Hawes' talents, or whether because the kid is already following through on his misguided threat to model himself after Brad (that he made around draft time). Either way...no. Get his *** in the post. He can shoot? Fine. Nifty. Irrelevant for the moment. Park his *** in the post and make him work it -- I have seen this kid show all kinds of nifty moves in there, but you can't let him become yet another lazy softie lurking on the perimeter. Make him post, keep him there, and only when he's established himself as a major threat inside do you let him pop out ot mix it up. He has the moves already -- you don't need to teach him them. You need to teach him the importance of using them. Oh, and if he takes another three, spank him. I mean, right there, on the sideline. Call a timeout, take him out of the game, get a big ole paddle, and give him a spanking.
2) Rebounding -- Spenser does not seem to have instincts as a rebounder. Does not react quickly, explode after them, snatch them. Not much of a body for it either, but not so bad there that its impossible. So two things. First, by getting his *** in the post, one side benefit is that you should keep him in offensive rebounding position, which he will not be if he does become Brad part II. Secondly, work very hard, make it a major focus, on blocking out. He rarely does it, and has been moved around and beat in there in nearly every game I have watched him in summer league/this season. So focus on the basics. Teach him to block out, EVERY time. He will still not have great instincts about where the ball is going, will still get muscled, but if you hammer it into him to block out and block out and block out, it will at least keep him focused on the ball, on trying to rebound, on impeding the man he is blocking out, and at his height he should be able to get some.
3) Defense -- a bit of a mystery. He does not appear to have the instincts here either. Will never be Marcus Camby no matter how many drills you run. But he's tall/long enough that he should be able to get you 1+ blocks a game with starter's minutes. Its highly unlikely he'll ever be any good as a team's primary shotblocker though -- high end is more of a decent support guy. And there is no drill you can run to make him into primary guy. So you have to make up your mind whether, given our lack of shotblcoking, you want to even put him into that role with all it implies of leaving his man to come over and try to help as our "goalie", or whether it s better to keep him on his guy, blocking out, impeding, but not trying to be a special presence inside. Man defense = who knows. Best thing there is at his height, have him workout, workout, and workout some more. He has the length, I think he has some competitiveness, so concentrate on building strength.
If he's going to be a starter one day here are the rough threshold numbers you need to get him to:
Rebounds: 8.0
Blocks: 1.5
Those are still weak. But they are the kind of minimal competence numbers that can justify a guy being out there if he develops into a strong scorer.
What we need is to build this team for the long term, not sacrifice Hawes's game by restricting it to the inside. We certainly don't need to take a talent who has the flexibility to hit outside and inside shots and tell him to restrict his game to the inside. I want him to be able to play both inside and outside. You would be inhibiting his long-term growth as a player and the team's long term growth if you restricted him just to the inside. (I remember in the draft there was a tall european player (name escapes me) who's "brilliant" coach told him to restrict his game to the inside. The result? He lost confidence in his outside shot. Now he only has an inside game.) 
