Husky Men's Basketball Blog

Here's a projection of the NBA lottery picks from San Jose Mercury News columnist Tim Kawakami with some interesting comments on each player.

Kawakami writes that he talked to a number of scouts in the process of putting his draft order together, and he rates Hawes 14th with the comment that "he's a raw low-post specialist. NBA equivalent: A young and sane Rasheed Wallace.''

Not sure if calling him a "low-post specialist'' completely captures Hawes' value, however. So much of what awes scouts about Hawes is his ability to play facing the basket and handle the ball. I was reminded of that while watching some of the pickup game Wednesday when Hawes grabbed a rebound and led a fast break with a fancy dribble behind-his-back, the kind of move few 7-footers of any era could pull off.

Hawes struggled at times this season, there's no doubt, but a bad game or two obviously hasn't done much to scare off the NBA scouts as all of these mock drafts indicate.