Tuesday, October 9

The Omen

Looks like Damien Wilkins will get the call for the Sonics' first pre-season game, and not Jeff Green.

Percy Allen reports in his Sonics' blog that the starting five for tonight's game with Sacto are:

Ridnour, Durant, Wilkins, Collison, and Swift

Wow, I've got to agree with Allen that Bob Swift in the starting lineup is not something I expected to see, and likewise with Collison replacing Wilcox, although the recent minor injury troubles for Weezy might have played a role. And The Omen? Who saw that coming?

And, it's entirely possible that Carlesimo is just interested in seeing how certain fit together. As he and the rest of the coaching staff have said repeatedly, this is just another version of practice and we shouldn't read anything into who starts or gets the most minutes. At this point, it's a case of the coaches getting a better feel for their roster.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

Interesting.

The biggest concern to me is that they're starting Swift. Wasn't he recently coplaining of soreness in his knee? Hopefully they don't play him too much...

By the way, did you see that Hollinger's new player projections are out?

75. Chris Wilcox
96. Delonte West
114. Luke Ridnour
138. Wally Szczerbiak
163. Nick Collison
164. Earl Watson
174. Johan Petro (only one spot worse than Channing Frye!)
207. Damien Wilkins
236. Mike Wilks (?? is he even on the roster?)
276. Kurt Thomas
287. Mickael Gelabale

Interesting facts:
The average player, is somewhere between Jason Maxiell (110) and Sergio Rodriguez (111). Considering there are 328 ranked players, the average is significantly higher than the median. I guess that means there are a limited number of exceptionally talented players, and a boatload or moderately crappy players?

Not sure I'm convinced of the accuracy of these rankings. For example:
Stephen Jackson: 179
Bonzi Wells: 242
Bruce Bowen: 324

and the very worst returning player?
Jason Collins of the Nets, coming in at 328.
Interestingly enough, twin brother Jarron of Utah’s not much better at 314...

AB said...

Delonte West showed last night why he should be in line for significant minutes. He does a little bit of everything.

Also, Swift had reasonable numbers (preseason, I know), but is it possible one of those three dreadful first round picks will work out?