Northwest Upheaval

Has one division ever gone through so thorough a transformation in the span of two months as the Northwest Division has?

Think about the players who have arrived or departed since June:

Ray Allen, Rashard Lewis, Greg Oden, Kevin Durant, Kevin Garnett, Al Jefferson, Zach Randolph

And those are just the big-name guys. The list doesn’t include Chucky Atkins, Ryan Gomes, Kurt Thomas, Wally Szczerbiak, Delonte West, Jeff Green, Channing Frye, Stevie Francis, Taurean Green, Steve Blake, James Jones, Theo Ratliff’s contract, Corey Brewer, Derek Fisher, Morris Almond, Jason Hart, Juwan Howard, or Mike James.

And that’s just since June! Here’s a quick rundown on what has transpired since the NW Division flamed out with the Jazz’ loss to the Spurs in the Western Conference Finals what seems like 7 years ago.

DENVER
The Nuggets took a breath after picking up Allen Iverson mid-season, looked around, and decided, “What the hell, we’ve got Melo, AI, and Camby. The rest of our division hasn’t done squat since the mid-90s, why should we do anything?” Denver added Chucky Atkins, watched JR Smith get involved in a horrific (and fatal) car crash, let Steve Blake walk away, and now hopes that the Atkins/Iverson combo will be able to defend guards taller than 6’2”. Good luck with that.

UTAH
Was last season a fluke? Hey, I’m not one to bet against Jerry Sloan, but when the highest-paid guy on your team (AK47), is publicly sparring with your head coach, that can’t be good for your future. The Jazz added Morris Almond and Kyrylo Feseneko in the draft, picked up Jason Hart to replace Derek Fisher, signed Ronnie Price, and may send Dee Brown away. In other words, they’re sticking with Carlos Boozer & Co., thank you very much.

PORTLAND
Whew. Let’s see, they add Channing Frye, Greg Oden, Taurean Green, Josh McRoberts, Steve Blake, Rudy Fernandez, and Petteri Koponen, and deal away Zach Randolph, Dan Dickau, and Freddie Jones. Got all that? Paul Allen’s hiring of Kevin Pritchard looks pretty good from here, and I’m guessing Nate McMillan will have quite a bit of fun beating up on the Sonics this year. Call me crazy, but a healthy Greg Oden puts the Blazers right there with Denver and Utah for the best in the Northwest.

MINNESOTA
Let’s assume the Garnett deal is consummated this week. The Wolves will have added Al Jefferson and the rest of the crapola, picked up Corey Brewer, traded Mike James for the always-reliable Juwan Howard (?) ... and extended Randy Wittman for the wonderful job he did of guiding the Wolves to a 12-30 record down the stretch last year. A lot of people will criticize Kevin McHale, but I love the guy. After all, if it wasn’t for McHale, the Sonics would probably be guaranteed to finish in the basement this year.

SEATTLE
Like Portland, the Sonics keep nba.com busy updating their roster page. Gone are Allen and Lewis, incoming are Durant, Green, and Thomas, not to mention Wally World and Delonte West. This season is probably a write-off, and there are likely a couple of trades still to come as Sam Presti attempts to remake the roster. 35 wins is the best the Sonics can hope for this year. That, and the team to stick around past next spring.

Sonics still working on Sign-and-Trade for Rashard?

According to "Florida Today" (!), the Sonics are still trying to work out a sign-and-trade with the Orlando Magic for Rashard Lewis, who announced his intentions to bolt town last week:

ORLANDO - Hoping to clear enough salary-cap space so they can retain center-power forward Darko Milicic, the Orlando Magic continued sign-and-trade negotiations Friday with the Seattle SuperSonics.

The Magic have already convinced small forward Rashard Lewis, 27, to sign with a five-year, $75 million deal with them on Wednesday. Now, Orlando is looking to maneuver so that it can hang on to the 7-foot Milicic to fortify the frontline.

Keeping Milicic is of importance because the Magic have only Dwight Howard, Tony Battie, Pat Garrity and James Augustine along the frontline.

The Magic are trying to peddle the expiring contracts of Carlos Arroyo ($4 million), Garrity ($3.8 million) and Keyon Dooling ($3.5 million) to the Sonics. They are willing to sweeten the deal by including one or more future first- and second-round draft picks.

Read the rest here.

I can see why the Magic would like to do this, but it would mean half the Sonics roster would basically be over-paid stiffs. Granted, it would pay off huge in 2008 when all the contracts (except Wally World's) expire, but it would effectively make this year's squad a poor man's Pittsburgh Pisces.

The Return of (the other) Nate?

With the imminent arrival of The Texas Tornado, trade rumors are swirling around the Sonics' Rashard Lewis. One of them involves the New York Knicks and two former Seattle prep stars:

According to NBA insiders, the Knicks could make the Sonics a sign-and-trade offer for Lewis that could include Seattle natives Nate Robinson and Jamal Crawford.

Crawford is owed $35 million over the next four seasons, and the Knicks could add Robinson's contract or that of Channing Frye to come within 75 percent of a new Lewis deal, per rules of the collective bargaining agreement.

Wilkens said Tuesday that the Sonics plan to sign Lewis, who opted out of his contract Friday and will be an unrestricted free agent July 1. To execute a sign-and-trade, the Sonics would have to sign Lewis to a new contract and then trade him.

Read the rest in the Seattle P.I.

As much as I love Nate the Great, is he worth a Rashard? And for that matter, do the Sonics want to add two more small-fry guards to a group that already resembles the cast of Willow? This sounds like more wishful thinking on the part of the Knicks, who have a habit of leaking false trade "rumors".

Glove(s) Off?

It’s all speculation right now, but some writers in the Miami area are predicting that Alonzo Mourning and, more importantly, Gary Payton could be headed for Del Boca Vista after the Heat were swept aside by the Bulls.

Well, if the Sonics are leaving town, it only makes sense for Payton to retire as well. In a perfect world, the Sonics would bring Gary back for one last season in Seattle before he calls it quits. Considering the 07-08 campaign is shaping up to be pretty dismal – what with the moving vans backed up to the Key Arena parking lot and all – would it really be that bad of an idea?

It’s possible the Sonics deal either Earl Watson or Luke Ridnour this summer. Mike Wilks was great in his short stint at the end of the year, but the Sonics could really use a guard with some decent size coming off the bench; why not Gary?

It’s a pipe dream, I know, but Payton remains the greatest player in team history (sorry, Paul, Ray Allen isn’t even close), and it would be a wonderful move for the fans to bring him back to Seattle, if, of course, he’d even want to play here.

But let’s say Gary calls it quits; what will he be remembered for? I don’t mean statistical rankings or playoff wins, I mean what will YOU remember about Payton?

Personally, the enduring images of Gary Payton are many:

-Backing down an opposing point guard the way an old man backs up his Buick – with a “I don’t give a shit what you think, I'm backing this thing up” attitude

-The gum chewing; nobody chews gum harder and with more intensity of Gary Payton

- The defensive posture; the way he cinches up his shorts before he got into position, as if to say, “Alright, motherf$)*#er, let’s go!”

- The way he backpedals down the court after sinking a 3, arms raised jauntily by his side, bent at the elbow, with the intensity of a spring training jog

- The trash talking – always the trash talking, especially when his head tilted slightly to the right as he talked, as if he was trying to get the words to move upwards

But most of all, the winning. Gary Payton – at least in Seattle – seemed to be about winning. It’s not something common to Seattle athletes; we are, after all, home to Edgar, Ray Allen, and Steve Largent. Classy men all, but you never associated in-your-face intensity and attitude to those gentleman the way you did with Gary.

Well, I could go on for paragraphs more, but let’s cut it short. Gary Payton might be retiring soon. What will you remember?

Ray Allen going to All-Star Game, next stop New York?

It's mid-February, which means my favorite time of the year is upon us. No, not Valentine's Day, you weirdos &mdash Trading Time, that magical part of the NBA season where half the teams realize they have no shot at the title and desperately cash in their chips in an attempt to salvage the season.

The Sonics, of course, must be feeling deja-vu, having spent the better part of a decade in "salvage" mode.

The only time one of these February Hail Mary trades actually worked was in 2003, when the Supes traded Gary Payton (whose tank was about three minutes from empty) to the Bucks for Ray Allen. And now, four years later, it's Allen's turn to take one for the team.

One place Ray-Ray has been rumored to be heading is NYC, which would be great except for one thing: the Knicks have no talent to trade:

"To read that stuff about us looking to move Ray is laughable," said Sonics GM Rick Sund. "We've had a disappointing season, but we've had big injuries to guys like Rashard Lewis and Ray. Nobody's called me about Ray because he's not available."

For Sund to pick up his phone to discuss a deal, he wants a hefty price for Allen, seventh in the NBA in scoring at 26.9 ppg entering last night. That would entail a package including a great young player, expiring contracts and draft picks. The Knicks don't have the assets.

"Nobody likes their talent," one Eastern Confernce GM said. "The problem for the Knicks is that they don't have expiring contracts to offer. They got rid of Jalen Rose, so that didn't help their cause."

from the New York Daily News

So, where does that leave Ray-Gun? Should the Sonics ship him off somewhere in hopes he can grab a late-career ring like Payton (while trying to land anything they can in return), or should the team cling desperately to the one thing that will bring people to the game?

UPDATE: Ray Allen was just named to his fourth straight (and 7th overall) All-Star Game. Congrats, Ray!