Official Seattle Supersonics Thread

[Lamrock]

There isn't a Sonics thread yet... i follow the sonics because I live in Seattle. After a great 2005 season, the Sonics have sucked. For about a week after Rashard Lewis returned, it looked like the Sonics had playoff hopes with the 7th and 8th seeds having sub-.500 records. Then, they started losing, and have practically no chance of making the Playoffs. They have had close games but they should tank the season and try to get someone good in this strong draft.

My prediction: Sonics get Pick 5-10 after a 30-something win season and draft UW Center Spencer Hawes, making it their 4th useless young center, but will continue to start PF Collison, and enjoy another 35 win season.

Also, Rashard Lewis may not be with the team next season, and there are trade rumors regarding Ray Allen.

So... discuss the 14th best team in the West.

[nets4life]

IMO, Rashard is 100% leaving. So whether or not you can pick up something good in return for a sign and trade is up to ur GM. With a big gaping whole at the SF position you will draft Thaddeus Young higher than expected as ur future star. Enough of the huge foreign centres. so yea dont expect much next year either

[Lamrock]

They'll start Damien there, draft a center, maybe not Hawes, probably Thabeet. After all, they picked Sene over Marcus Williams and others. I don't have much confidence in Seattle right now.

[maes]

Here's the big question:

Trade Ray Allen & go into hardcore rebuilding mode?
Or keep Ray Allen and keep on trying for playoffs?

I guess as a big Ray Allen fan, i hope he goes somewhere where he can show his abilities in the playoffs before he gets too old.

[Lamrock]

Hardcore rebuilding I'm sad to say. I just don't get it. 2005 was so great, wtf?
They don't have any chance at the playoffs without the shard and getting a non-top 5 lottery pick every year won't achieve anything. Deal Ray Allen to a team lacking at the SG position for a pick and some young talent, and rebuild.

Unfortunately, I predict They will win 30-35 games per season, but never draft anyone decent. Although I can see them next year making the playoffs like New York, but with a team that is way over the salary cap and a bunch of old overpaid players.

[Silas]

If the sonics trade Allen, they'll give up any hopes of becoming good in the next 7 years. Allen is going to keep being an extremely effective player, even into old age because, just like reggie miller, he's going to be able to fall back onto his 3pt shooting when he loses athleticism, which might not happen so soon because at 31, he's having by far his best season to date.

What they need is a consistent defensive force in the middle, and they need consistent guard play besides Allen. Ray is there every night, but guys like Ridnour and Watson aren't. Ridnour has fantastic court vision, but he sometimes isn't the guy you want playing in the game down the stretch because sometimes he can just stop and not make things happen like he should.

Antonio Daniels provided that when they had the good season in 2005, and Danny Fortson/Jerome James gave them the strong defensive presence. Robert Swift was supposed to develop into that, but of course he suffered that massive knee injury.

Petro has shown some strong signs of perhaps becoming a great player someday, he has a ton of energy and he makes a lot of athletic plays, sometimes forgetting that he's a center by taking a step back crossover dribble and shooting a fadaway from 18 feet, but if he can consistently make that then he'll be a threat.

If they want to win soon though, they should probably trade Rashard (though I love him to death and he's the longest tenured sonic, the only remaining player from the Payton-Kemp days) for a solid post player, and perhaps they should package him with one of the young ones, like Sene, Swift, or Petro, for a strong post player who can make things happen on both ends of the floor, i.e. Garnett, Ilgauskus, Okafor, or Gasol.

Also, they wont ever make the playoffs by default like the knicks because Both Minnesota and Denver would win the division over them, knocking them out of the playoffs. The only way to make the playoffs in the west is by having a solid team, not championship material, but solid none the less, much more so than the east.

[maes]

Hardcore rebuilding I'm sad to say. I just don't get it. 2005 was so great, wtf?

They lost a lot more talent than people think. They were actually pretty deep in 05 and McMillan rotated heavily.

It may be surprising, but the current Sonics lost 44 ppg from the 05 team.
Vladi: 11.8
A Daniels: 11.2
Murray: 7.0
James: 5.0
Evans: 5.0
Potapenko: 3.5

And Hill isn't rotating nearly as much as McMillan, which is both wearing out our 2 big vets and not developing our youngsters.

BTW who do you guys like in the draft? Hometown hero Hawes? Or maybe the 7' jump shooting Yi?

[Lamrock]

They will obviously draft Thabeet. I mean, he is a potentially talented foreign center! Hawes would'nt be a terrible pick, as he is the hometown hero, but they drafted 3 inactive centers in a row. They are cursed! Watch him get injured in preseason.

Hopefully, they will get a high draft pick... Currently, SF Jeff Green is NBA Draft.net's prediction, which would make sense, since Rashard probably won't be here.

I never realized that about the 2005 team... I figured that if Shard and Ray Ray have awesome seasons, at least they will make the playoffs...

I guess rebuild around Ray may be the best choice. Ridnour and Wilcox are FA's this year, and also Fortson's contract ends, giving cap relief.

[Silas]

Well you have to factor in the guys who are here now that replace the guys they lost... but still they lost more than they gained.

And McMillan was a HUGE part of the success of that team.

Potapenko really wasn't that effective. They'd have him play defense in some key situations, like against Duncan in the final minutes in the spurs series, but overall, guys like Fortson and Evans were much more valuable, and I think Sene and Petro more than make up for Potapenko.

Murray was really a dribble dribble dribble dribble dribble shoot guy, and he never really fell into favor with McMillan, except for when Ray was hurt. He hardly contributed in the playoffs, and they could have achieved very similar results without him. He was really just a backup scorer when Ray was hurt.

Vladamir Radmonovic was important, but also highly inconsistent. I dont think he was an integral part of the team as people think, and Chris Wilcox is more than worth Vladamir, so I dont think that was a loss in any way. Evans is the same, he was in for rebounding, that's it. They were a soft rebounding team in 2004-05, except for Evans, and now they have the emergence of Collison and Wilcox, who more than make up for Evans.

The big losses were Jerome James and Antonio Daniels, as well as the injuries and "out of favor-ness" of Danny Fortson. Jerome and Danny provided a serious inside toughness that they lack now. They could defend teams that had strong big men, such as the spurs. Now, they have a very tough time at that.

Daniels was a very solid Point Guard, who could play the two just as well. He was the leader of the team in crunch time, not Ridnour. He could also be counted on to score 20-25 points if the team needed it. He was their third punch on offense, and he was consistent, something that couldn't be said about Radmonovic. He fit in very well to McMillan's system, and Bob Hill has tried to emulate what Daniels brought with Flip Murray and Earl Watson, but so far nobody has been able to do. Granted Watson has done a decent job, but he doesnt contain the same offensive potency as Daniels, nor the versatility. With Daniels in the lineup, the sonics would often play a small lineup consisting of Evans/Fortson, Rashard, Ray Ray, Daniels, and Ridnour, and it was quite effective. You seldom, if ever see a lineup like that nowadays.

As far as draft picks, Hawes is not the way to go unless they plan on trading at least two of their drafted centers. They need a more versatile player post-to-perimiter player, like Joakihm Noah or Kevin Durant, though it's not likely they'll get either.

[maes]

Man that Rashard Lewis is unstoppable when he gets it going. Erased a 25 point deficit in 5 minutes?!

I was most impressed that he could still score when being double teamed by his man and KG...he just floated the layup or jumper over Garnett's block attempts.

[Matt]

I always thought that Lewis' numbers never did justice to his actual damage. He's such an offensive threat and tonight he had it all going for him in the 2nd.

[Lamrock]

Amazing... Even though by winning they lost in a way (you need the lottery pick) but it was still amazing. Without the shard, will the Sonics be at the very bottom next season?

Also, who is Jeff Green? He is Sonics projected draft pick, and he is a SF, but that is all I know.

[maes]

Hmmm i don't see Green going that high. The NBA is up to its neck in athletic SFs being developed.

I believe they'll go for the 2nd tier of big men that come after Oden/Wright/Noah. Probably Hibbert, Horford, or even Yi. I think Hawes will stay in school, he seems to be that sort of guy, much like Brandon Roy.

I know they've blown a lot of picks on getting a big but that's the nature of gambling, you don't always win big on the first few when you're doing high risk, high return bets.

[maes]

Saw this on realgm, it's nice bit of good news for the franchise.

My neighbor's son, who is in high school, came back today from a basketball camp at Rutgers for elite high school players. They saw a presentation from an NBA scout, and it just happened to be a scout from the Seattle SuperSonics. People were calling the scout Rosie, so maybe that's a nickname or his last name is Rose, or something. (Maybe someone who's familiar with the scouting staff will have more information than I do.) Anyway, the guy talked a good deal about his team and is very bullish. Some of his statements:

- He is 100% confident the Sonics will re-sign Rashard Lewis. Not "I think it's going to happen," or "we have the inside track," but "we're going to sign him."

- He thinks Robert Swift may actually have benefited from his injury. He's been hitting the weight room hard (including leg work as part of the rehab), weighs a solid 270 and is now the strongest player on the team. This scout apparently is one of the people in the organization who pushed for drafting Swift, so maybe he's biased; but in any case, he believes Swift is going to return next season and be an outstanding center very soon.

- The organization's message to Luke Ridnour when the season ended was you can never, ever miss an open jumper. Since then, in his daily workouts, Ridnour has stayed in the gym each day until he hit 500 shots.

- Lest we think this man is just talking up his own team indiscriminately, he doesn't appear to be a fan of Saer Sene. He says the league where Sene averaged 4 ppg before the Sonics drafted him was no better than a high school league.

- No surprise here, but he is absolutely sure Kevin Durant will be a Sonic. No draft-day surprises by Portland, and no trades.

- None of the kids asked him about the chances of the Sonics moving. Of course, this is just a scout, so he probably doesn't know anything we don't know from the news.

- He also dished on some other teams a little, which is surprising. He said the fire sale in Phoenix is going to happen, although he doesn't see the Sonics getting actively involved (or otherwise hitting the trade market in a serious way this offseason).

- His choice for the biggest stiff in the NBA is, drumroll please, Kwame Brown. Limited moves around the basket, no touch, bad timing on his leaps.

Well, there you have it, for what it's worth. This is hearsay from hearsay, and for all I know, my neighbor's kid just made it all up. But I do think he's honest, and I know he's pretty smart. Overall, this is a scout who likes the team he has and doesn't think a whole lot is going to happen in the offseason.

I'm glad to hear Swift is finally coming along, i always thought he had good potential. With a good coach, and all the contract issues resolved and Ridnour back to his old self this is going to be a good team, any help from Durant his rookie year will be a bonus.

[Sauru]

with all of these official team threads why not just make 1 per team and lock the forum so no one can make any new threads cause you can find a way to plug this entire forum into a team thread. well add a "nba" one too and you got everything covered.

[Silas]

That's good to hear... I was really looking forward to watching Swift before the injury, it'll be fun to see him next season, and fun to see more of Petro too. If the rumors of resigning Rashard are true, which I hope and think they are, the Sonics, I believe, are going to take a major step forward next season.

[maes]

Did you guys see that news that Rashard's agent screwed up his contract, and the deadline for a written notification of opting out of his contract went by on June 1st with a 5 day grace period?

I think Seattle has to let Lewis opt out anyway out of good will because you don't want a key player being unmotivated and unhappy, but it might be a leverage point to signing him to something reasonable.

[cyanide]

After watching some Durant highlights, does Durant remind anyone of a really tall Ray Allen?

[Ckidd--]

yup.. he's a quick, athletic player with a great shot.. just stuck in a tall-ass frame.

wow.. can you imagine if he kept growing. he's so quick, i don't think the additional height would affect his quickness too drastically. durant would be f***in unstoppable

[Sauru]

After watching some Durant highlights, does Durant remind anyone of a really tall Ray Allen?

this hurts my feelings. we were supposed to have durant but instead we got a much older, shorter version of durant? damn you cyanide you are trying to break my back aint ya

[Silas]

I can promise you, even if it doesn't reflect in stats, Ray Allen will be better next year than Durant, and probably, though I won't promise, the next year or two after that as well.

[OG24]

I really like ray allen but i think he is a little to old...he already passed his prime but he is still the best 3pt shooter in the league and durant will not pass that stat in his lifetime but i do think that durant is quicker and maybe a little stronger...nevertheless ray allen will still be a very valuable player until the day that he retires, but how will he fit in with paul peirce who also likes to shoot the ball alot?

[---]

I can promise you, even if it doesn't reflect in stats, Ray Allen will be better next year than Durant, and probably, though I won't promise, the next year or two after that as well.

I honestly see Kevin putting up 24/7/2 next year. I don't know if Ray Allen can put numbers like that up alongside Al Jefferson and Paul Pierce.

He's still a great player though.

[Silas]

Which is why I said it obviously won't reflect in stats. Kevin Durant will probably take a lot more shots than Ray Allen next year, and obviously grab more rebounds. I still think, even though it wont reflect directly in the stats, Ray will still be the better player.

Kevin Martin was a statistically better, or certainly equal to Baron Davis this year, but that certainly doesn't mean Martin is the better player. I see the same thing happening with Ray and Durant.

[---]

My bad, I sorta skipped over your post. Get what you mean now.