What's with all these old guys making comebacks?First the Celtics try to lure Reggie Mlller out of the old folks home, and now this:
Eric Williams over at the News Tribune blog takes a look at possible starting point guards for the Sonics, including a couple of long shots named Sam Cassell and . . . Gary Payton?!
Read about it here.
3 comments:
The Sonics currently have 14 players under salary for next season. If they bring in Payton or Cassell, then they'd lack the ability to sign any of the FA's that they bring in to fill out their pre-season roster in October (I think teams usually have 18 to 20 on their pre-season roster and then cut down to 15 for the regular season). I doubt either Payton or Cassell would come into the Sonics camp if they did not have a guaranteed contract. Granted the Sonics could cut some else if they wanted to keep one of their pre-season FAs on the main roster (by the way this includes guys we send to the D-League).
I've got a feel that no move will be made about the PG position until the middle of the season. I'm confident that the Sonics front office wants to re-evaluate what they have in Ridnour, Watson and West. And even though us fans have seen all we need to see from Ridnour and Watson, I'd like to reminded everyone the current Sonics front office (Presti on down) hasn't seen a lot of either player. Who knows, maybe PJ can teach Ridnour how to guard a tree or some how enlighten Watson into playing the role of distributor more than play maker or maybe West defense is so good and his size is such an advantage that the coaching staff can over look his lack of PG experience/ability.
I believe the Sonics and their PG issue is something that is going to require a lot of patience from us fans. Seeing as we have less and less patience theses days and to add to the fact that the team my leave after this season that our ability wait is incredibly hard to do. So to all us Sonics fans I say wait until Mid-December to decide whether or not Ridnour, Watson, and/or West work in PJ system.
McW makes a good point - from the perspective of the Sonics' front office, losing a bunch of games this season is an assumed quantity, so they have nothing to lose by experimenting at the PG position. That could blow up in their faces, though, if Ridnour lays an egg in the first half of the season, thereby ruining whatever trade value he had this past June, when he was rumored to be worth a lottery selection from the Hawks. What happens if his confidence drops even lower and he's in the first year of a $6 mil. per season contract? Would he even be worth a 2nd-round pick at that point?
On the side, I don't think anyone thinks Gary Payton should be starting at PG for the Sonics this season. If he's on the roster, it would have to mean that Watson/Ridnour had been dealt and he's the 2nd or 3rd stringer. Also, isn't Cassell under contract for one more season with the Clips? If the Sonics were to get him, you'd have to assume that they had dealt Watson/Ridnour to get him.
Yeah, Sam Cassell is under contract with the Los Angeles Clippers through next season; he's set to earn $6,150,000.
As it is, Cassell will most likely split minutes at point guard with Brevin Knight. I, therefore, don't expect that Elgin Baylor will trade Cassell elsewhere.
Besides, an aging veteran like Cassell wouldn't be an apt acquisition for a rebuilding franchise such as the Seattle Supersonics.
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