Man, what a miserable outing last night.
Last night's loss leaves the Sonics with 25 games left. By my figuring, Seattle has about seven winnable games left on the schedule, depending on how the playoff seedings shake out and how important the last couple of weeks of the season are to certain opponents. What does that add up to?
22-60.
22-60!
The franchise of Payton, Kemp, Gus, DJ, Lenny, Haywood, Rule, Mac-10, Karl, Sam ... reduced to a 22-win season, and this coming off consecutive 30-odd win seasons?
How does that sound, folks? 22 flippin' wins, another lottery selection ... and how many wins next year? 25? 30?
I don't think it would be unrealistic to expect the Sonics to enter the lottery again next spring, considering the odds of them picking up any true help this summer is somewhere between slim and none. Short of dealing away the entire non-Durant portion of the roster for more expiring contracts, this team just doesn't look capable of winning 30 games next year, either.
Thanks alot, NBA. I didn't know it was possible to destroy a 40-year-old business in the span of two years, but, well, when you've got Clay Bennett doing David Stern's dirty work, I guess anything is possible.
It's not as bad as all that! Got to remember that Shard left for nothing and that we never would've matched Orlando's ridiculous offer. So in that respect, we were always going to be taking a step backwards this year. We could've kept Ray around to stop the bleeding, but he'd have had even less trade value after another season's passage. We've got some good young guys and if we draft well we'll have loads more next year. And by then we'll still have our key guys on rookie contracts plus bucketloads of cap space. The west is ultra-competitive this year, meaning we would never have made it into the plaoffs with just Ray and KD. I'm not at all worried about 22-odd wins this year, with capspace and picks. That's a much better prospect than 35 wins, a late draft pick and capped out. The killer of course is whether the team will still be in Seattle once it all come to fruition... perhaps Clay Bennet will keel over some time in the next year or so...
ReplyDeleteHey guys, you gotta put a link to this up on your page
ReplyDeletehttp://sports.espn.go.com/espn/page2/story?page=simmons/080228&sportCat=nba
Thanks Bill Simmons!
Nugs fan here, I've been reading up on this site a lil bit today though, and I definitely feel your pain. I thought Seattle was actually pretty darn good heading into the beginning of last season. How the mighty have fallen, and of course, the kicker, is the whole SuperSonics leaving Seattle thing. That's a real kick in the nuts. I mean, I'm a Nuggets fan living in Denver. If the Nuggets ever left Denver I'm pretty sure I'd have no more reason to actually live here. I'm sure that's gonna break a lot of hearts in Sea-town. Peace.
ReplyDeleteThanks Nugs fan--I have to admit the Nuggets are my favorite non-Sonics team, mostly because they have my all-time favorite coach. God how I miss Coach Karl. KARRRRRLLLLLL!!!!! (starts weeping)
ReplyDelete"Favorite non-Sonics team"??!!!?? The Nuggets?
ReplyDeleteI say strip that man of his green and gold underwear!! Have you no sense of history, man? Do the words "Dikembe Mutombo" or "1 vs 8" mean anything to you? Watching John Elway and his gigantic horse face cheer on the Nuggets in the playoffs?
Man, next thing you know you guys are going to say that Terry Porter is your favorite all-time non-Sonics point guard.
Forget the Nuggets, dude. All Sonic fans should switch their allegiances to the Warriors if Bennett winds up stealing the Sonics from us. It would be the only honorable thing.
So sorry to see that the Sonics might lose their team.
ReplyDeleteI am shocked that Stern doesn't do more to keep the team there.
Keep your head up guys!
Seattle losing the Sonics is a major punch in the face to all of us who love the NBA. It makes me feel like I should boycott the league altogether. I just pray that we can keep the team name and colors here in Seattle for future use. I would love an expansion team as much as this team....we don't know these players and other than Durantula.... the don't have a whole lot going on other than future prospects.
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