Monday, August 15

Potato

Seattle Supersonics center Vitaly Potapentkosomething
"Say hello to Mr. Elbow!"

The Sonic roster continues to take shape. According to Frank Hughes, Seattle is close to signing the Potato to a $3 million deal, although the number of years are not specified. Considering Vitaly isn’t going to get a better offer, I’m thinking it’s a one-year variety.

Assuming Hughes is right, here’s the current roster, with salary (in millions):

Allen, $16
Lewis, $8.6
Fortson, $6.4
Potato, $3
Collison, $1.8
Ridnour, $1.6
Swift, $1.8
Brunson, $1
Petro, $0.7

Those nine players add up to roughly $41 million, still well below the cap. Of course, there are a couple of question marks out there:

1. How much will Allen make this year? His contract is flexible, dependent upon the Sonics’ budget.
2. How much will Radman get? He hasn’t said yea or nay on the $42 mil./6-year deal the Sonics are dangling, so his figure could either be the $3.2 renewal, or the full $7 mil. Personally, I have a feeling he’s going to take a one-year deal and split Seattle next summer. Just a feeling, nothing more.
3. How does the remainder of the roster fill up? Assuming Mateen Cleaves re-signs for the third year of the Flint Experiment, and Radman inks for whatever price, that gives us 11 guys out of the 13 they are required to have under contract. Who are the two missing pieces? Anybody know Tom Chambers’ number?