LOL @ Bill Bradley of the Sacramento Bee

and not as an NBA scout or GM.

He lacked the brains needed to have a real job in basketball. Some of his comments there were clearly speculative and unbelievable, but he held them out as known facts.

What is he thinking…
Did he hope that no one outside of Sac would read this?

Parental instincts tell him, Hawes is beautiful!

and I was expecting a more descriptive title than “Really??”….

…anyway, if you want my input, I think Bradley is ridiculous in his remarks. He is basing his commentary on 2 games, not even the 10 games Oden has played, which, in itself, is miniscule. You don’t draft a center based on being game ready less than a dozen games into his professional career. You draft based on potential, size, and intellect. I doubt Hawes will ever be a big game true starting center in this league. On top of that, the 30 minutes of game Mr. Bradley has seen is surely not enough to bear witness to other intangibles that Oden brings to the floor, or at least has the potential to bring: Passing, drawing a double team, and defensive prowess. I doubt if Hawes will ever regularly draw a double team, resulting in open men.

Does he look rusty on the offensive side? Of course! He’s a guy 10 games into an NBA career after not having played in a real game in over a year and a half, and has already played some tough defenders: Shaq, Bierdrins, Chandler, Jefferson, etc.

To say “Who would you rather have right now” is just comparing apples to oranges. Of course most teams would benefit more from Hawes right now than Oden, but who would I rather have? I’ll still take Oden any day of the week.

Anyway, my whole point is that a snap judgement like that just shows me that Kings homers are doing as much as they can to justify their belief that they made the right pick, and to a lesser extent, Portland made the wrong one. All things considered, I think 8 to 9 out of 10 teams would have taken Oden over Durant. The 10th team in that scenario being teams that already have a significant center (Bynum, Howard, Yao, etc).

I can just imagine what his column would have been like in November of 1998:

After spending two of the past five nights watching the top point guards of the 1997 NBA draft, I ask you to ponder this: Who would you pick now, Brevin Knight or Chauncey Billups? I would take Knight. You say I’m crazy? Stay with me. As much hoopla as there was over Billups as the No. 3 overall pick — and yes, he was traded last season, which affected his play — he seems to be just an average player. He doesn’t have the passing ability of the point guards to whom he was compared, Terrell Brandon and Mark Price……

I guess the guy IS entitled to his own opinion. I certainly wouldn’t take Spencer Hawes over Greg Oden, but then again I don’t think it’s outside the realm of possibility that when both their careers are over Hawes has been more successful.

Don’t get me wrong; I do believe Oden is more talented, and has better potential – I also have faith that he will meet that potential – but if I’m being honest, I have to admit that some of my faith is of the slightly irrational “fan” variety.

Hawes, on the other hand, has put up very strong numbers in all the games he’s started for the Kings this year. Averages of nearly 13 ppg, 7.6 rpg, 1.7 bpg, 1.6 spg, almost 2 apg, while shooting roughly 50% from the field – including an AMAZING 64% from beyond the arc, and about 73% from the line. Very solid numbers for a guy a couple months YOUNGER than Greg.

Hawes is certainly talented, and could have a very successful career. Toughen up a bit, work on his passing, become a better post-defender, and Hawes could be a very nice player.

For the new Lackers GM