Thursday, May 8

New Sonic Asst GM

As Percy Allen reports in the Times, a much-rumored move has come to pass and the Sonics have hired Troy Weaver as their new Assistant GM to Sam Presti, replacing the departed Scott Perry, who returned to Detroit about one month ago.

Weaver has been with Utah since 2003, and I thought it might be interesting to compare who the Jazz have selected, and then match those picks up with the ones the Sonics made in that same time frame, with career points scored:

2004
Sonics, #12, Robert Swift (330)
Jazz, #14, Kris Humphries (1,090)
Jazz, #16, Kirk Snyder (1,333)
Jazz, #21, Pavel Podkolzine (0)
Sonics, #35, Andre Emmitt (7)

2005
Jazz, #3, Deron Williams (3,706)
Sonics, #25, Johan Petro (1,287)
Jazz, #34, CJ Miles (477)
Sonics, #48, Mickael Gelabale (489)
Jazz, #51, Robert Whaley (51)
Sonics, #55, Lawrence Roberts (334)

2006 - Ouch
Sonics, #10, Mo Sene (83)
Jazz, #14 Ronnie Brewer (1,174)
Sonics, #40, Denham Brown (0)
Jazz, # 46, Dee Brown (94)
Jazz, #47, Paul Millsap (1,220)
Sonics, #53, Yotam Halperin (0)

2007
Sonics, #2, Kevin Durant (1,624)
Sonics, #5, Jeff Green (840)
Jazz, #25, Morris Almond (13)
Jazz, # 55, Herbert Hill (0)

Basically, in the two years of 2005 and 2006, while the Sonics were picking up Petro, Gelabale and Sene, the Jazz picked up Deron Williams, CJ Miles, Ronnie Brewer, and Paul Millsap. You want to know the difference between the Sonics sitting home waiting to see where they’ll be playing next year and the Jazz throwing down with the Lakers on national tv? It’s 2005 and 2006, and especially 2006.

All of which is to say, thank God Troy Weaver is on our side now, rather than helping the Jazz get any stronger. Nice work by Sam Presti to add someone like Weaver in an assistant GM position, and let’s hope he brings some of that draft-day magic to the Sonics this year.

11 comments:

Anonymous said...

This draft is going to be a HUGE opportunity for the Sonics. With 2 #1s and 4 #2s, it's going to take the combination of Presti's wheeling and dealing and the new guy's drafting skill to make something happen. No excuses.

Anonymous said...

Well, here's the current rendition of my 2008 NBA Mock Draft.

http://realgm.com/src_checkdraft.php?draftid=193534

With Robert Swift most likely headed elsewhere -- no matter the slight, albeit possible chance that he'll have a breakout year next season in the vein of Chris Kaman -- Johan Petro developing as a power forward rather than a center, and Mouhamed Sene downright finished as an injured bust, the Seattle SuperSonics ought to select a defensive-minded pivotman (e.g., Robin Lopez) with its lesser first-round draft pick.

Also, the following are a few trade proposals and, in turn, a primitive roster construction for the 2008-2009 season.

TRADE PROPOSAL #1

FROM HOUSTON & TO SEATTLE
SG Bobby Jackson

FROM SEATTLE & TO HOUSTON
PG Earl Watson

http://tinyurl.com/2l3n6g

TRADE PROPOSAL #2

FROM CLEVELAND
PG Eric Snow

FROM MINNESOTA
SF Marko Jaric
PF Mark Madsen

FROM SEATTLE
PG Luke Ridnour
C Mouhamed Sene

TO CLEVELAND
SF Marko Jaric
PF Mark Madsen

TO MINNESOTA
PG Luke Ridnour
C Mouhamed Sene

TO SEATTLE
PG Eric Snow

http://tinyurl.com/4bzc8j

2008-2009 ROSTER

SEATTLE SUPERSONICS
C: Nick Collison
C: First-Round Draft Pick (e.g., Robin Lopez)
C: Second-Round Draft Pick (e.g., David Padgett)
PF: Chris Wilcox
PF: Johan Petro
PF: Donyell Marshall
SF: Jeff Green
SF: Damien Wilkins
SF: Second-Round Draft Pick (e.g., Courtney Lee)
SG: Kevin Durant
SG: Bobby Jackson
SG: Second-Round Draft Pick (e.g., Shan Foster)
PG: First-Round Draft Pick (e.g., Derrick Rose)
PG: Second-Round Draft Pick (e.g., Kyle Weaver)
PG: Eric Snow

I'd like to move Chris Wilcox for a shooting guard, too, since Jeff Green and Kevin Durant have obviously been stuck playing out of position.

Yet, with that P.J. Carlesimo captaining the ship like a inebriated drunkard, Green and Durant will be embarrassingly misused for another season of "evaluating" by the coaching staff.

Anonymous said...

Man, I sure hope we land Derrick Rose. Not much interested in Beasley--a hyper-talented but undersized and undermotivated power forward is not what this team needs. He seems like a best-case Derrick Coleman, worst-case Tim Thomas kind of player...

If we don't get the top pick, and it looks like we don't have a shot at Rose, maybe we can package that pick with a shitty contract for a legitimate PG or Center. How about our #3pick+Ridnour+Wilkins for Andre Miller? Or #3pick+Sene+Gele for Luis Scola? If we get the #2 pick (and the first pick is sure to be Rose), we can probably do pretty well with a trade (say, #2+Ridnour+Wilkins to the Bucks for Bogut+Villanueva.)

Re: AK1984's trade's I'm pretty sure I prefer Ridnour to Snow, and Watson to Bobby Jackson--Ridnour and Watson are shitty, while Snow and Jackson are shitty AND old...

Anonymous said...

The goal of those trades isn't to improve for next season, it's to shed two bad contracts before the start of 2009-10 while securing another top 5 pick during another lame duck year in Seattle. Those would be the type of moves we should expect from our genius GM.

Anonymous said...

Well, "Howard U," Luke Ridnour and Earl Watson have two years left on their deals, while Eric Snow and Bobby Jackson have expiring contracts. That's the reasoning behind my logic.

Anyhow, I concur that on the surface Michael Beasley looks like he could be Derrick Coleman part deux; nevertheless, he's more inherently talented than Tim Thomas by an astronomical amount. Yet, that notwithstanding, Beasley is projected to be selected first in the 2008 NBA Draft by most teams, with Derrick Rose probably being the main target on the radar of some organizations.

At any rate, Sam Presti shouldn't trade the Seattle SuperSonics' own first-round draft pick -- no matter if it's the first, second, third, fourth, or fifth selection -- under any reasonable circumstance; that's 'cause the franchise is in the midst of a rebuilding process.

Now, with regards to Andrew Bogut, Charlie Villanueva, Luis Scola, and Andre Miller, you've vastly overrated the value of an above-average pivotman, a soft combo forward, an older point guard, and a garden-variety role player.

Due to numerous qualities such as youth, potential, and production -- even if it's technically at a lesser level of competition -- Brook Lopez, O.J. Mayo, Jerryd Bayless, and several other pending draftees are undeniably more valuable than run-of-the-mill veterans like Scola and Miller.

Lastly, for reference, Mickael Gelabale is a restricted free-agent; thus, he may only be dealt in sign-and-trade transactions during this upcoming off-season, which can't occur until long after the 2008 NBA Draft. It's doubtful that Gelabale will be tendered a qualifying offer, though, so that's pretty much a moot point.

Anonymous said...

Syracuse alum here. Something tells me this hire is a move for the Sonics to use their draft picks to acquire Carmelo Anthony.

Anonymous said...

Why, because we don't have enough small forwards already? For crying out loud, we've already got Durant, Green, and Wilkins under contract for next season.

Of course, this wouldn't be a problem if we hadn't decided that using the #5 pick on a guy who's too small to play power forward when we already had our small forward for the next 20 years.

Anonymous said...

Yeah, D.T., I agree that Jeff Green is a combo forward who'll always be stuck as a tweener; that makes him similar to Boris Diaw, which I stated BEFORE the 2007 NBA Draft.

Also, Carmelo Anthony is quite possibly the worst fit for the Seattle SuperSonics. The defensive ineptitude between Anthony and Kevin Durant would, well, put Adrian Dantley and George Gervin to shame.

Anonymous said...

Weaver's Carmelo Anthony link suggests he is something of a salesman / recruiter and I assume he continued that in college. Maybe he can do that some with free agents for Sonics. With his link with Durant they hope he will help with retention too. For how ever long he sticks around.

Anonymous said...

Diaw plays best with Nash and Amare. Amare draws the attention and hits a lot of jumpers and Nash can find Diaw taking advantage of gaps.

Green was best with Ridnour and Wilcox/Thomas. Same deal.

If Wilcox is moved this is a potential hidden cost until another post threat big is found for Green to play off.

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