Monday, September 17
Sonic Notes for a Monday
Paul Westhead has been offered a spot on PJ Carlesimo’s coaching staff, according to Norm Frauenheim of the Arizona Republic. Westhead is currently the head coach of the Phoenix Mercury in the WNBA and has known PJ for 30 years. The casual observation is that Westhead would provide offensive know-how to Carlesimo’s defensive excellence. ... Sonicscentral has good coverage of the rumored deal between the Muckleshoot Indian Casino and the Sonics. The press conference today from the Muckleshoot folks was in regard to the feasibility of an arena at their casino, and NOT any agreement to build an agreement, which would obviously keep Clay Bennett’s team firmly in Seattle for the long-term. According to this story by Jeff Meisner in the Puget Sound Business Journal, the cost of a new stadium on the tribe’s land would be $452 million, about $78 million less than the previous arena proposal in Renton. Of special note in the study the Muckleshoot presented today (put together by Brailsford & Dunlavey) is the statement that luxury boxes and suites in the Seattle area have reached a “saturation point,” and that no additional suites beyond what are currently in KeyArena would be built – which completely goes against what Howard Schultz was complaining about two years ago. From what Schultz, and to a degree, Clay Bennett, said, one would get the impression that more suites were needed to keep up the pace with the other newly constructed arenas in the NBA. But what this study details is that is untrue, and that additional suites would sit vacant. In addition, the new stadium the tribe proposes would seat 18,500. And, as Jim Brunner points out in the Seattle Times, Brailsford & Dunlavey’s consultant indicated “improvements to roads in the area would likely be required.” In other words, $450 ain’t even close to the total bill on this deal.
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9 comments:
Yeah a renovated Key arena wasn't necesarily going to the magic bullet because of suites or an increased number of rafter seats. And I doubt the fancy new restaurants, bars and retail would really be that huge either, given that lots of alternatives would still be near by. Want to make more money? Build a better team and win more like they did in the 90s. Don't want the risk of operating losses? Well don't buy a pro team or run the business better.
The second Schultz proposal to legislature, done in contradiction to previous understanding with city of Seattle about working together, may have genuinely sought the relatively sweet deal to increase their revenue prospects but facing long odds and without the cultivated political support it also seems then and moreso now like theater so Schultz could throw his hands up and sell the region's fan out. I can understand he was over his head and took the money and run but after his spiel about being a community trustee I have to say he broke that trust. He was going to be a near billionaire either way and could have lived thru some operating losses without much harm. If he was concerned about the small owners he and the other big fish could have bought them out. I think his reputation has deservedly taken a pretty big hit locally. Ancient history but it is and always will be mostly his fault that the team is in jeopardy and could be lost.
Does anyone else see the hypocrisy in claiming that a new arena is needed to be financially secure, yet they admittedly would be happy just to break even following a move to OKC? I really think this is all posturing. There is no way the Sonics are going to move because even under the most optimistic projections, it will be impossible for the team and the league to make more money with the team in Oklahoma instead of Seattle.
Re: "impossible for the team and the league to make more money with the team in Oklahoma instead of Seattle." As far as "make more money" is concerned, probably true. However, if OKC is willing to foot all the bills (or a significant portion), involved with relocating the team, it is conceivable that they could make more profit in OKC (even if it's less total revenue). Afterall, zero profit is greater than negative profit...
Re: the first point, could I get some details on Paul Westhead's coaching style? I realize he was the Pre-Showtime Lakers coach, and that he's offensive-minded, but not much more than that. Is he more of a transition game guy or a half-court guy? If he joins, he will likely have a significant role in the development of the rookies.
Speaking of rookies, there's an interesting post regarding Durant at http://morekrolik.blogspot.com/2007/09/not-so-fast-kevin-durant-lovers.html
Although I don't like his points, they are well laid out and hard to discredit--as of right now, he's a jump shooter, and on bad nights, he could end up looking like Nowitzki during the GS playoff series...
Wow, I'm guessing he didn't buy a bunch of Durant rookie cards this season. I disagree with his using summer league stats to back up some of his points; for one thing, summer league stats are extremely unreliable, both for the players in the games and for the people keeping the stats; for another thing, Durant and Green were the only talented players on the roster. As bad as the current Sonics are, at least Durant's going to have guys with skills alongside him during the season, and that should help with the double- or triple-teams.
I can see him shooting <44%, simply because he'll get alot of shots and he hasn't learned the NBA game yet. Will he be a bust? No way.
"at least Durant's going to have guys with skills alongside him during the season"
-- I sure hope you're right...
It's just that, for a rookie, I would think that it's at least as important for them to have consistent, reliable teammates as it is to have skillful ones. Collison is really the only guy on the team whose play even approaches being consistent...
I don't mean to be a debby downer or anything. I guess it's always better to be pleasantly surprised then to overexpect going in and be disappointed. Years of being a Seattle sports fan has taught me that lesson...
I would count Kurt Thomas as a member of the consistency club as well. You're right, though, that the majority of Seattle's players are definitely not consistent veteran presences.
"Collison is really the only guy on the team whose play even approaches being consistent"
That's fucking hilarious. What is it with people and Nick Collison? Sure, he's a hard worker, seems like a good guy, was certainly the best center we had active last year, and that's where the compliments should stop.
The guy is so inconsistent it's maddening, just look at his numbers throughout the previous year, he was as consistent as Chris Wilcox, with worse stats.
For some reason, people fall in love with Collison and Ridnour every offseason. WTF.
Also, anyone making projections based on a rookie's Summer League performance is an idiot. If you saw any of those games you'd realize that it was essentialy 2 on 5, with Durant and Green being the only players to do anything. Also, I didn't read the article yet, but did the author include anything about Durant's incredible Team USA performance against top-tier pros?
-Balloholic
I agree about Collison being maddenly inconsistent. Last season he started out cold, got hot in the middle, then dropped off at the end. Wilcox in comparison, was the model of consistency, although being consistently inconsistent isn't a compliment.
I said "approaches being cosisten," not "consistent." (ie. possibly consistent by comparison to the other players on the team)
Also, I guess it has to do with the fact that he wasn't as frustrating to watch as Wilcox. Wilcox would occasionally tease us with a ridiculous game...
Although, now that I think about it, Collison had a few freakishly good lines as well...
My point was that there aren't any players that can be described as models of consistency, and that the only player that I could think of that was even remotely close to that was Collison.
Russ mentioned Kurt Thomas, whom I had forgotten about, but he should (hopefully) be a solid veteran presence.
As Re: Ridnour, he is the model of INconsistency... You could say he's Wilcox-like in that when he's shooting well, he teases you by looking like a real PG.
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