I heard some guy call in to D-Locke's show after the opener, saying "Vote for Petro" as he hung up. Brilliant! I don't know if he came up with it, or if I'm just late to the party, but regardless the Johan Petro for Less Pine Time campaign should be in full swing by now.
The rook showed some surprising grit to go along with the expected jitters vs. the Clips. For every time he finished nicely around the rim, just as often he'd get stuffed or swarmed before he could even move. Stranger still, the short-in-the-tooth rookie had more poise than his comparatively walrus-like substitute, Danny Fortson. In 12 minutes, Petro had 8 points on 3-of-5 shooting, 5 boards, a block, 3 fouls, and sure, 3 turnovers.
Meanwhile, Fortson in his 7-odd minutes had only the "Personal Fouls" column filled in his line, with five. Granted, there may be nights when you can swap those Petro stats for Fortson's, but good ol' Fort can always fall back on his league-leading "Boneheaded Momentum-Deflating Play" figures.
One night is not going to get Petro anointed the savior. But he performed well enough to warrant extended play. Steal time from Reggie, who after some quick buckets in the first quarter decided he was the first option on offense. Take time from Danny. Shoot, team the kid up with Vitaly for a Petro-Potato twin tower thing. (Mmm, French-fried Potatapenkos).
I'm ready to believe Petro could be solid for this team. The fact that he did some goofy poppin' and lockin' for his silhouetted pre-game intro was reason enough for me. But if you need more convincing, the reviews in the Times, Tribune and P-I have been positive--not glowing, mind you--but nevertheless favorable.
So Mr. Sonics Post Game Caller, please save me a spot on the "Vote for Petro" campaign bandwagon. Before all the deserters from The Bob Swift Veterans for Truth pile on...
20 comments:
I feel your pain, Dann...er...joey p. I have been DaFort's biggest supporter here at the Soul, and even I am close to giving up on the big guy. Still, as we learned last season, it's only one game. Fortson helped win his share of games last year, and with JJ gone, the Supes need all the Big Nasties they can get.
I'm probably Danny's last friend here in Seattle, but one more game-killing brain fart from this guy might make even me jump ship.
(Flip Murray on the other hand, should be sent to the PBA.)
Hey, maybe he'll come back as a latter-day Vincent Askew. A few years downing some postgame San Miguel beer and pinapaitan will set him straight. Yum, goat meat cooked in rich, creamery goat bile!
I wonder if Johan is concered about the rioting in Gay Pari? I've heard his play is partially responcible for the carnage.
Nice call on the Paris angle, Lance.
Makes me think that perhaps it's time to give our boy J.P. a nickname. My nomination is "Le Gran Bouchon" or "The Big Stopper."
Danny Fortson, regardless of what any of you all may think about him, has always been a hack.
Hell, even back when Fortson was a productive player -- wherein he had averaged a double-double in points and rebounds throughout both the '98-'99 (Denver) and '01-'02 (Golden State) season -- he still picked up lots of quick, stupid fouls and caused problems with team chemistry.
I'd beg to differ on that score. Overall, Da Fort has always been a hacker, but the first half of last season he seemed to be a good boy. While he was at or near the limit in almost every game, he was still able to average close to 20 minutes in November and December. When you pair that with close to 10 points and 8 boards, that makes for a good part of why the Sonics started out so red-hot last year.
Let's face it, the Sonics' options in the paint are limited. Shard and Sugar Ray aren't going to post up for big numbers, and Reggie Evans struggles with anything beyond rebounding. Fortson (and, perhaps, Collison) alone possesses the ability the rebound, go up strong, convert, and go to the line.
Yes, Fortson got himself in foul trouble last year, but he also got the other team in trouble as well. It was a winning formula - so long as he could stay on the court for about 20 minutes. Of course, if he continues to pull this 5 fouls in 5 minutes nonsense, there is no place for him, but I'm not so willing to cast him aside just yet, and I don't the Sonics are either.
I say give Fort two weeks. If he can't manage to stay on-court for more than 15 minutes on average in that span, then send him to the end of the bench, or waive him and eat the contract.
acenab, glad to see you're finally speaking up!
joey p, I'll miss the ponytails and the pythons flexing. and sorry we missed you at the game. though with those sneakers, I'm not sure how we missed you... Rep Yo City!
There's not much of a market for guys like Fortson, obviously, especially when he's ticked off at least 2/3 of the coaches and more than 1/2 of the GMs in the league.
In fact, after searching the whole league, the only viable trade I can come up with is Fortson to Sacramento for Corliss Williamson. Big Nasty's been on the bench for the first two games, only getting 6 minutes of garbage time minutes in Sac's blowout loss to the Hornets.
Like Fortson, Nasty can score down low, grab rebounds and hit foul shots. Unlike Fort, he can be pushed around on defense and won't foul out in 10 minutes. Salary-wise, the trade works, although I don't know if Sac. wants the pig-tailed one around. Considering they've already got Kenny Thomas, and he's complaining about minutes 2 games into a long season, perhaps not.
But considering Brad Miller's already played more than 40 minutes in one game, how long can it be before he gets hurt?
Petro has adapted to the NBA faster than expected. I thought he could give you Jerome James numbers coming off the bench but be generally bad. But he's been decent and really not all that foul-happy as expected. He used to be the guy who had an incredible body but questionable motivation but about midseason last year he started to look like a guy who gets it and he certainly has gotten even better today.
I wouldn't trade Danny Fortson ($6,415,584) to the Sacramento Kings for either power forward Kenny Thomas ($6,109,375) or small forward Corliss Williamson ($6,000,000); Thomas is a highly overpaid and undersized put-back artist who is in just the third-year of a seven-year, $50 million contract, while Williamson is an extremely soft player who can't play a lick of defense or shoot the ball well beyond 15-feet from the basket.
As it is, though, the best thing that General Manager Rick Sund can do with Fortson is to trade him for an expiring contract; at any rate, however, an example of such a trade would be Fortson for oft-injured center Scot Pollard ($6,274,937) of the Indiana Pacers, as President of Basketball Operations Larry Bird might, perhaps, be interested in a guy with his abilities.
In addition, as I mentioned within the "Fortson Flips, Sonics Get Clipped" post, Sund ought to consider trading reserve centers Vitaly Potapenko and Mikki Moore in a package, so as to acquire guys with expiring contracts like center Aaron Williams and power forward Pape Sow of the Toronto Raptors.
Fun Fact: Johan Petro is ranked #2 in Offensive Rebounds Per 48 in the NBA and #4 in Free Throw Attempts Per 48. Stay tuned for another fun fact.
Not a good first half for Petro:
10 minutes
1-3 FGA
0 REB
0 AST
1 STL
0 BLK
3 PF!!!
2 PTS
I'd like to see a second half of:
15 minutes
3-4 FGA
5 REB
1 AST
0 STL (anything more is gravy)
1 BLK (or more)
0 PF
10 PTS (maybe some FT's?)
If it's not too early in the season for such statements, this was a huge win for the Sonics. While they didn't exactly play a great game, they did what they had to do and defended their home court. Plus, Ray was $$$$$$$ late.
What a game. We will play games in March that won't match the intensity tonight.
Big win for the Sonics tonight. Any in over a divisional rival is.
The team is a lot better without Ronald "Flip" Murray running the point; "Flip" is only useful when Ray "Jesus Shuttlesworth" Allen is resting on the bench. Hell, for what it's worth, I'd rather have Richie Frahm instead of "Flip" on the ballclub.
Also, Danny Fortson -- much to my amazement -- came through tonight; he did an overall decent job playing defense in the paint and controlling the glass. Yet, regardless of his play against the Minnesota T-wolves, he still ought to be traded elsewhere.
Good game for the Supes, bad game for Petro.
Rashard scares me. He's not posting up that much this year. He's being aggressive like last year, not like "Old Rashard" but he's taking too many jumpers.
I've given up on Vlade. And Flip.
Luke looks like he's progressed just a little this year. Does look more aggressive and a more confident decision maker.
Ray put up 13 3 pointers and Petro had no rebounds? Damn. I hate Marko Jaric.
Did you see the job Nick did on KG late in the game? He didn't exactly shut him down, but he really took the man out of his offensive groove. I for one was impressed. Start the man!
ok, i hear yall yelling from the anti-FORTSON camp... horrible first game. he can be a serious baby, he's a total homophobe... he can be a disaster. BUT come on, why you all want to go and get soft? if we really want to contend, we need a big scary bruiser. Allen and Rashard are two of the softest players in the league. When push comes to shove as they say, you really want Luke, Ray, Rashard without backup? Reggie Evans would stand up to anyone. So would Fortson. What you can't forget is that as scary as these guys are for our team they are even more intimidating for other teams. Back in the day, we had Maurice Lucas, we've always known we need a tough guy. We got him in Fortson. AND he took that first game really really hard and came back and played well against Minnesota. I aint saying he's easy to live with, I'm just saying, I'm not jumping on the group think anti Fortson bandwagon.
With Reggie Evans and Nick Collison -- who, as it is, are two of the best defensive power forwards in the NBA -- on the team, there is no real need for the overhyped, overpaid Danny Fortson. Fortson did, however, have a good game against the Minnesota Timberwolves; though, it's doubtful that he'll be as productive each and every game. At any rate, ultimately, it would be more beneficial to the team to have Fortson's $6,909,901 salary for the 2006-2007 off of the books; trading him in return for a player with a contract that expires after the 2005-2006 season would accomplish that objective.
Rashard Lewis is, to put it bluntly, a soft player. His post up moves are, well, remarkably weak in nature; plus, he doesn't shoot very well off of the dribble nor play decent man-to-man or zone defense. Hell, if GM Rick Sund could've upgraded the small forward position this past off-season, then he should've done it; Lewis' +/- is -10.8.
Ray Allen is, without a doubt, the best shooter in the NBA; he, unlike Lewis, is a legitimate superstar.
Ronald "Flip" Murray is one of the worst players in the NBA; his +/- is an extremely pitiful -54.1!
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