During the intros for tonight’s first game for the Kings since the Hawes-Westphal “feud” officially went public, the Kings coach and Spencer decided to show that it was all water under the bridge after two days of practice.

After the game, Coach had this to say about the intros:

- “If you want to see that again, you’ll probably have to go back to YouTube. I doubt if I’ll pull that one out again for a long time.”

He spoke about it being a lot of fun and after a couple days of hearing about how they hated each other, it was a fun thing for them to be able to go out and do. Probably not the blood-thirsty quenching that some people wanted from this situation but it’s good to see the team has moved ahead and chosen to laugh at themselves a little bit.

Am I right?

As many of you know already, Spencer Hawes was benched for the home game against the Detroit Pistons Tuesday night.

While we all assume it was a message to Spencer Hawes about questioning his role in the Sacramento papers, there may be more to this story. Here is never before seen footage of a fake conversation between a virtual Spencer Hawes and a virtual Coach Westphal:

Okay, that was a little stupid but I really wanted to test out this new site, xtranormal.com. Thank you for indulging in my boredom.

Did you notice the big, tall white guy dressed in a nice suit around the Kings bench on Tuesday night?

His name is Spencer Hawes and he is the starting center backup center no wait he’s the starting center again you know what let’s bring him off the bench guy in Paul Westphal’s dog house. After comments made in the Sacramento Bee on Tuesday, Spencer was benched and not allowed to dress out for the home game against the Pistons. The last time the Kings played the Pistons, Spence had 11 rebounds in 27 minutes. It was just the eighth time this season that he grabbed double-digit rebounds. So why wasn’t he given the chance to repeat that performance? Because of these comments:

Hawes acknowledged his frustration, saying “that’s about right” when asked if this trend made an already-tough situation tougher.

“All year we’ve kind of been dealing with that,” he said. “When you think you have kind of gotten over that hump, it comes back up again. That’s the philosophy, so you’ve just got to deal with it.

“Everyone up and down the roster has had a taste of that, so everyone can relate. I think it’s kind of tough, the not-knowing part on a game-to-game basis, to get in that rhythm. But that’s the way it’s going and there’s not a whole lot you can do about it.”

The nerve of this man!

Actually… that’s not really a big deal in my opinion. Now, as many of you know I’m not exactly Spencer Hawes’ biggest fan. I see the immense amount of talent and wonder why the consistent effort and determination don’t seem to match. But even with someone like myself who is so hard on Spencer, I really don’t see anything wrong with what he said. It certainly isn’t something that warrants a benching.

The rotations have been all over the place and inconsistent. You can see that here. So why banish Spencer for stating a complete fact? Especially when Sean May said this:

“It’s hard. Every (general manager) and every coach wants consistent results. That’s all anybody wants in this league, a consistent player, consistent results. But any time you have an inconsistent system, it’s hard to ask for consistent results, and I think that’s where a lot of guys’ frustration is right now.”

Sean May played 12 minutes tonight. He wasn’t benched. He wasn’t in a suit. He knocked down a pick-and-pop jumper from Tyreke. Heck, what about Tyreke? He said this:

“Guys never know when they’ll be having their time to play or they might be (starting),” Evans said.

“They’re going into the game confused, and when they get into the game they want to impress the coach and (try) to play well. ? It’s probably hard for a player to keep that focus when they know that if they’re playing bad they might not go in again.”

Those comments seem just as bad as Spencer’s and yet he played 44 minutes against the Pistons. So what gives? Why didn’t Tyreke Evans and Sean May suffer the same punishment for making similar comments to Spencer Hawes. Why the double standard?

Looking back at the team ever since Paul Westphal was named the new head coach, he and Spencer have seemingly butted heads in an indirect way.

There was the whole drama with Spencer not showing up to the Las Vegas Summer League. Spencer didn’t come to the summer league because he had “family commitments” that apparently couldn’t be rescheduled. It seemingly pissed Geoff Petrie off. And in a way, it showed Paul Westphal that Spenny wasn’t interested in learning the coaching staff and system early.

Then Spencer didn’t get to start the season and had to come off the bench behind Sean May. It’s one thing to be outplayed for your starting spot but Sean May wasn’t exactly re-slicing bread at the center position during the pre-season. He’s been in and out of the lineup ever since, which has to be frustrating for someone that is supposed to be a building block for this franchise.

After the loss to the Pistons Tuesday night, Westphal seemingly had some smarmy and possibly vindictive comments regarding the situation:

After the game, Westphal provided just short answers when asked about Hawes’ benching: “At least he knows his role.”

The Kings coach went on to add, “We have an open door, everyone knows their role. All you have to do is ask, anytime day or night.”

“At least he knows his role.” Seems kind of catty, doesn’t it? I almost expect that to come out of Jenny Garth’s mouth after she tried to prove a point to Shannon Doherty that she was the girl Dylan would like on an early season of 90210. It doesn’t sound like something that would be coming out of the mouth of a 59-year old coach who is trying to send a message to his young, brash center about falling in line with the system.

Ultimately, who knows if this is personal or if this is a legit learning lesson. Based on the comments made by other guys who didn’t feel this wrath, it’s hard to classify this as strictly a lesson.

But hey, at least he knows his role now.

This is a guest post by Sacramento Kings fan, David Ford. It’s his second post on the site (his first one can be found here). Enjoy.

In the midst of a disastrous 17-win season, it becomes increasingly difficult to have a positive outlook for the future. The Kings were in this dilemma last season and found very few bright lights at the end of their dark tunnel.

You could conceivably come up with two positives from last season’s nightmare. One was the Kings had a great chance at the top pick in the upcoming draft. As we all know, there was heartbreak across Sacramento when the Kings ended up with the number four pick, then great rejoice as we’ve seen Tyreke Evans lead this team out of the depths of the NBA and emerge as the Rookie of the Year thus far.

The other positive that appeared as the dreadful season plodded along was the emergence of Jason Thompson and Spencer Hawes. Thompson looked like a nightly double-double waiting to happen, while Hawes was starting to show the skills that made him the 10^th pick in the 2007 draft.

As we approach the halfway point of the current season, the Kings promising big men are leaving fans with more questions than answers.

Let’s start with Thompson, who has actually had a pretty strong sophomore season. He is currently averaging 14 points and 9 rebounds per game, which is up from 11 and 7 in his rookie season. Unfortunately, those numbers don’t tell the entire story.

Thompson has continued his most troubling trend from his rookie season, which is the foul trouble he constantly gets himself in to. He cannot keep himself on the floor with any type of consistency. Too often we see him pick up two early fouls, followed by his banishment to the bench for most of the first half.

In this recent five-game slump that he’s in, Thompson is only averaging 23 minutes per game. When you can’t keep yourself on the floor for any significant amount of time, it’s impossible to get in any type of rhythm on offense. In four of those last five games, he has scored 7 points or less.

Along with the foul trouble, Thompson’s shots have not been falling with any consistency either. His mid-range jumper continues to be a pleasant surprise, but a 6’11 power forward should be doing more damage around the rim. He is shooting a measly 41% on his shots 5-10 feet from the basket. Even his overall shooting percentage has dropped from 50% in his rookie season, to 47% this season.

While these are troubling issues with Thompson, they are correctable issues for a kid only in his second year in the league. He is still looking like the more promising of the two big men for the Kings. We won’t be confusing him for Tim Duncan anytime soon, but he has shown that when he is focused and on his game, he can be a legitimate starter in this league.

Hawes on the other hand has been perplexing to say the least. While it’s still believed Thompson is and will remain the Kings starting power forward, the same cannot be said for Hawes at the center position.

On the outside, Hawes seems to be what you’re looking for as a center in this league. He’s 7’1, weighs 250 pounds, can still add more muscle to his frame, is pretty athletic for someone his size, can pass the ball extremely well and has great range on his shot.

Unfortunately, Hawes hasn’t used that 7-foot frame to his advantage. He has become a defensive and rebounding liability at the position where you can afford neither.

When defending he gets beat off the dribble, gets overpowered and finds himself out of position, unable to provide any type of support on the inside. The rim is uncontested and the lane is wide open for anyone to take.

Hawes is also averaging under 6 rebounds per game. Did I mention he’s a 7’1 center? That number is far too low for someone his size. Rookie Jon Brockman, who is 6’7 by the way, has already had as many double-digit rebounding games as Hawes this season, including 14 in the game against the Charlotte Bobcats on Monday. This is the main reason we are seeing more of Brockman on the floor than Hawes lately.

He also relies on the 3-pointer too much. While he does have the tendency to hit some of them, that should not be his game. For a team in dire need of a powerful big man in the middle, he spends too much of his time roaming the outside looking for the deep shot.

Until Hawes can tighten up his defense, rebound the ball better and play around the basket, he will continue to find himself rotating in and out of the starting lineup. He may even find himself out of Sacramento for another center that can do those things if he doesn’t turn it around.

The Kings appear to be improving across the board this season. They are about to surpass their season win total from last year with stellar play from their group of young players. Unlike last season though, the future frontline of the Kings is not as certain. Thompson has struggled, mightily at times, but still looks like he will be the power forward the Kings think he is. Hawes’ situation is much cloudier and unless things change, he could be the one that isn’t part of the future in Sacramento.

(Photo by Kent Smith/NBAE via Getty Images)

From your favorite beat writer and mine:

What are my thoughts on Spencer not starting? Other than Kevin Martin, I feel like every single starting position should be up for grabs. If Spencer hasn’t proven himself due to poor performance in the preseason, injury issues or whatever was going on with the summer league, I have no issue with Westphal throwing a little tough love Hawes’ way.

Spencer Hawes is a very talented player and he could very well be the center of the future but if he can’t be a tough presence inside on both offense and defense then why should he be a starter for this team? Sean May has done everything the team has asked so far. He dropped about 40 lbs to appease the higher-ups and earn $100k. He has played solid defense and worked hard inside during the preseason. He deserves to start the home opener. Hopefully, this is an eye-opener for Spencer. Your spot has to be earned.