Bricklayer
Don't Make Me Use The Bat
You must think that by restricting Hawes's game to the inside we would be making the playoffs this year...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.)
So Hawes plays against Shaq and you want to tell him to take Shaq inside? That's absurd. Or, conversely, he plays against Golden State and Don Nelson wants puts Jackson on him. Obviously, you want him to go inside then. Flexibility on offense is a great advantage. I see no reason to take away that flexibility. Instead, I would emphasis and augment it. And, I would hope that the coach devises an offense to take full advantage of a center who can do both.
In the last decade in particular many a young big who might have been more did not turn out because they were soft and undisciplined and took the easy way out on offense. And the easy way out is shooting a jumper. Easiest thing you can do on offense. Least amount of work. Least amount of contact.
A strong post player is not only more valuable than a strong jump shooter, it is also rarer. If you get one, or the potential for one, you can not let that young guy develop bad habits. Its a tough physical game inside. Far too great a temptation to bail and stand outside rather than take the punishment. There are a lot of guys in the league who are good shooters, and have no realistic chance of ever being a good post player. We call them guards. If you are a 7'1" wuss standing out at the three point line, you are in their way. You are screwing up the spacing, not creating any room for the little guys, you're not drawing fouls, you're not in position to rebound, nor to pass out of the post. And because you're 7'1" and not much of an athlete you do not have the mobility to slash all the way to the hoop from out there for a layup or rebound. Hawes is not a Webber or Garnett a Dirk, and he never will be. He does not have that mobility or those ball handling skills. If Spenser is outside, it is as a flatfooted jumpshooter.
I've mentioned before the three great big man skills are:
1) rebound
2) block shots
3) post game
#1 and #2 are unlikely to be much with Hawes. But he has a real chance at #3. There is a reason Rik Smits continued to start despite being a lousy rebounder and shot blocker, and that people continue to talk about Eddie Curry despite the same. If those guys were spending their time popping soft little face up jumpers they would be completely useless.
AFTER he has established himself as a post player. After that is his game, he knows it, the league knows it -- then the jumper becomes useful as a counter. But the danger in the early going is that he falls in love with the soft stuff, and never learns to really excel and hammer away at the skils which he and very few other guys actually have.
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Am I old or what?
