Hawes Watch

A Quarter In The Life Of Spencer Hawes.

Hawes starts the game for Sacramento tonight with Brad Miller out. He’s matched up with Frabicio Oberto on the defensive end. Tim Duncan is guarding him on the other.

Second possession of the night for San Antonio. Tim Duncan posts up on the left block against Moore. Hawes gets caught ball watching as Oberto slips baseline for the reverse layup.

Hawes works his way down to the low post. He catches the ball, sizes up Duncan, takes two hard dribbles towards the middle of the paint, spins back baseline and finishes with a right handed jump hook. Nice move.

Next play down Sacramento run a screen and roll on the right wing with Hawes. He rolls to the basket, catches the pass and gets fouled heading to the rim. Two free throws, one make and one miss.

Hawes displays the range by taking and making a 21 foot jumper just inside of the three point line on the right wing.

Duncan comes right back up the floor. Spencer forced to switch onto Duncan for the possession. Duncan goes right at the rook, turning right into a quick hook shot. Spence skies for the block but couldn’t get to it. Basket Duncan.

Spencer goes back to work on the left block. He keeps his back to the basket, attempts to back down Duncan, shoulder fake going left then right, and a beautiful drop off bounce pass to the open cutter for two.

Defensive rebound Hawes. Uncontested.

Spencer Hawes set four screens on one offensive possession. The final resulting in some open space for Salmons to take his man off the dribble and got to the rim. Two of them were close to moving screens except the defender didn’t run into him. He has to set his feet and take the hit. Sloppy.

Hawes helps out on a perimeter player of San Antonio. Ball kicked back to his man Kurt Thomas. Kurt pump fakes, Hawes goes for it, Kurt steadies himself and shoots it. Hawes makes it back into the play and gets the block. Great second and third efforts and a quick second jump ther from Hawes. Hawes has been very active looking to contest shots. He’s jumping a bit too much though, needs to stay on his feet more, he’ll pick up silly fouls if he continues this.

Spencer on the baseline with a runner. No good.

Substitution for Spencer Hawes, Shelden Williams. 8 minutes of action.

……………….

Hawes would finish the game with 17 points shooting 8-14 from the floor. He would shoot shoot 4-7 on shot attempts outside of 16 feet. He’d also shoot 4-7 in the paint (within about 8 feet) showing off some nice post moves in the process. He also added 3 assists and 2 blocks. In his 25 minutes (Theus is currently splitting time between Shelden and Spence to get a good look at both of them for next season’s plans) he had only 3 rebounds.

On the season Hawes is collecting a rebound every 4 minutes which is a good clip. Reggie Theus has done a great job of getting the big man to work defensive and on the glass. All season long you could see Spencer has really put forth a huge effort to help his team there. He realizes that for now he’ll have more effect defensively than he will offensively.

Hawes showed great talent on the other end of the floor. Spencer has a very versatile offensive game for a big man. He’s equally comfortable on either the low post, the high post or the screen and roll game. His passing ability, shooting touch and intelligence make him the perfect fit for a high post offense. He’s an excellent passer for any player, nevermind one of his size or for a player as young as he is. Perhaps more importantly he has a great scoring touch down on the low block. He has jump hooks going either way. He has great balance with helps him on spin moves, ball fakes, shot fakes and a bunch of other tricks he uses down there. He’s shown a lot of confidence, composure and moves over the course of the year and he should turn into a fine low post scorer. Since Sacramento didn’t have a big man with a post game, this is very important for their future.

He’s going to be a fine player. He could have done a lot more this rookie season if he were not playing behind a player as good as Brad Miller. It’ll be interesting to see what Sacramento have in store for Hawes next season.

Player Love: Martell Webster

Year Three folks …. big year for Martell.

I wanted to take some time out and send a little praise over to a player on the West Coast who is flying under the radar a bit and is deserving of some credit.

First some raw numbers

Year G MPG PPG FG% RPG APG
05-06 61 17.5 6.6 40% 2.1 0.6
06-07 82 21.5 7.5 40% 2.6 0.6
07-08 23 31.8 11.5 43% 4.9 1.3

Nice improvement right there alone but that doesn’t come close to telling the true story of Martell and how far he’s come.

Martell came into the NBA straight out of High School as the 6th pick in the 2005 draft. Scouts raved about his ready made NBA body at 6-8 230lbs not to mention his nice perimeter game. But times would be difficult … and progress was slow. Martell’s body was ready for the dance but his mind wasn’t. Webster had difficulty learning from his coaches. Always a good kid but not always a good student. All too often the advice from Nate McMillan and Co. would fall on deaf ears.

Monty Williams began to take Martell under his wing. Spending hour after hour with Martell going through his moves and teaching Webster about the game. Still progress was slow but Monty was starting to get through to him. Soon Martell began to see the guidance and how it was improving him and that is when he started to take off. By the end of last season, Martell had an NBA mindset to go with his NBA body. He would dig deep and spend a long summer listening to his coaches and developing his game.

He would spend the summer re-defining his body, improving his conditioning was key to making him tougher to guard. He improved his defense, both his one-on-one skills (after being burnt all too often in the past) and his recognition on help defense to stay in the play. He began to see the passing angles that all too often passed him by in the past. He was open to advice and ready to play.

Then came the season.

Portland were dealt a huge blow with Oden’s injury but an under-stated question mark around the team was the SF position. Martell’s progress had been slow and many fans were unsure how ready he’d be. Outlaw was the other candidate and expected to take the role but he would start camp with his usual issues with consistency. Martell pounced on the opportunity to play and hasn’t looked back since. Long may it continue.

Martell is an early candidate for Most Improved Player and he’s made that all-important step for young players (especially High School guys).

He is showing everyone just why he was considered a star-in-the-making three years ago