Hughes Dishes

A day after the Zags choked away a seemingly insurmountable lead to UCLA, West Virginia gave up a 3 after they seemed to have guaranteed overtime, and Duke fell to LSU, White America is most likely in mourning this Friday. If I was a black man, I would tread very lightly today.

But that aside (and, really, why does anyone from this side of the Cascades even root for Gonzaga?), Frank Hughes of the TNT had an interesting piece over at hoopshype.com where he took questions from readers. Okay, the Q&A is now nearly a week old, but, still, where else can you find out that:

1. Flip Murray was the least media-friendly member of the Sonics
2. Rashard Lewis is the most frustrated player on the team

Pretty good stuff. Hughes is a bit of a headline-grabber with his articles, but he still seems to work hard at getting Sonic news.

(Our pal, Jeff at Celtics Blog, also has a great piece on this year's draft: apparently it's really going to suck! -Paul)

Dance-off? Dance-off!

The Sonic Dance Team continued its miraculous voyage to a championship with a stirring 59-41% victory over the Houston Rockettes.

Many will look back on the 2005-06 season as a sad one, fraught with trades, injuries, firings, and disappointments, but, I, for one, will relish the memories of the Sonics Dance Team posting double-digit triumphs over a myriad of opponents. In joining the Heat in the Final Four, the Dance Team has shown that you can never underestimate the heart of a champion, or pictures of women in bikins.

Buck Wild

Well, it was back to the old ways last night for Ridnour/Watson, as Bob Hill went with Earl Watson for the fourth quarter (they actually played together for a couple of minutes mid-way through), and the Sonics came away with another win, despite an off-night from Sugar Ray.

What can you say about Chris Wilcox that hasn’t already been said? The guy has been flat-out amazing since his arrival in Seattle, and the only man more excited about his performance than us has to be his agent. For crying out loud, Wilcox has probably made his unborn grandchildren rich by his performance the past few weeks. After all, if Jerome James and Calvin Booth can get 5-year deals based on a week’s worth of average performances, how much does The Beast get for playing near-All Star-like for a couple of weeks?

For all the Ridnour-bashing of the past week, you have to give him credit for posting a strong +11 last night, for nailing all 8 of his FTs, and for dishing out 10 assists (his third double-digit performance in four games). Face it, people, the man can run an offense; if we could get him to trade places with Watson as he runs back on defense, we’d have one of the three best PGs in the league.

All in all, a stellar game for the Sonics.

Kinged

Luke Ridnour was out to prove something last night, and he was successful, but not in the way he hoped.

Fresh off some somewhat stinging comments to the local media regarding his dissatisfaction with sitting in the 4th quarter of games, Frodo was given the opportunity to be The Man last night as Earl Watson sat out with a throat injury. How did the Young Duck react?

By going 2 for 10 from the field and scoring as many points in 33 minutes as Mike Wilks did in 15 (six). Oh, and did I mention he was -17 while on court? I didn't? Well, now you know. Or that the Sonics went on a 9-0 run when Wilks entered at the end of the 1st quarter? Or that they went on an 8-3 run when he sat in the 3rd?

Luke, feel free to test the free agent waters, because the tide is beginning to turn against you in this town.

Boo-Hoo Baggins

Frodo during happier, hairier times.

Not one, but two local papers are reporting today that Sonics guard Luke Ridnour is unhappy in Seattle. It seems Frodo doesn't think the arrival of Earl Watson and the subsequent improvement of the team adds up to good times:

"It's tough because I went on such a good stretch and [was] feeling so good, just playing and playing pretty well and then something like that happens," Ridnour said after Monday's practice at the Furtado Center. "I still played well, but it's tough to go through. (from the Seattle Times)

O.K., Luke, but tell us how you really feel:

“It sucks,” Ridnour said. “It is frustrating, and especially when I felt that I have played well for a long time now, and just like that, even when I played well, it hasn’t mattered, I still haven’t played. It has been tough. I am trying to stay focused and stay positive because it always comes back around. But it has been tough, I am not going to lie.”

“It is something I have to pray a lot about and see where I want to go." (from the Tacoma News Tribune)

Well Frodo, maybe if you spent less time worrying about What Jesus Would Do, and more about What G.P. Would Do, maybe you wouldn't be sitting on the bench in the fourth.

Goodbye Mr. Fizz

It's back to the D-League for you, Mr. Fizz.

The Sonics decided not to renew the 10-day contract for former lottery pick (4th overall!) Marcus Fizer. How sad is it to get cut by the Sonics?

In happier news, it appears The Hardest Working Man in Green and Gold may be getting an extended tryout for next year.

And, back to the crappy news, it seems Flip Murray suddenly remembered how to play ball. Great.

Well, at least we still have the Huskies and Zags, right? (Oh man, I hope I didn't jinx them. Nooooooo!)

Watson and Ridnour

There was a lot of talk when the Sonics acquired Earl Watson as to how his arrival would impact Luke Ridnour. Frodo’s had the best year of his career this season, but there was a concern among many that he was playing too many minutes (of course, according to some people who read this site, two minutes is too many minutes for Luke, but I digress).

I thought I would take a look at the brief run of Watson-Ridnour to see how it has affected Ridnour’s game. Is he playing better? Making more turnovers, or less? Shooting more conscientiously? How many hypothetical questions can I ask before you become annoyed and start reading bowling.com?

The one area of Ridnour’s game which has changed the most since Watson’s acquisition is 3-point shooting. Prior to this season, Ridnour was an acceptable option from long-range, but this year he was off, never rising to more than 33% in any month and bottoming out at a Lloyd Daniels-like 15% in February.

Enter Earl Watson. This month, Frodo has been draining long-range jumpers to the tune of 43%, a remarkable number. That ties in with fewer minutes and fewer attempts, which leads one to believe that Ridnour is being more selective in his shot attempts, and therefore more successful.

Another area of improvement is turnovers. After turning the ball over once every 17 minutes for most of the season, that figure has shrunk to one turnover every 22 minutes, a 30% improvement. Again, I think this can be attributed to fewer minutes and a reduction in fatigue. Concurrently, his assist figures are up slightly on a per-minute basis, to the point that this month he posted the best per-minute assist numbers of his career.

As for defense, it’s hard to tell. 82games doesn’t break down +/- figures on a daily or monthly basis (geez, guys, how hard could it be, there’s only 300-odd players to crunch numbers for), but it’s worth noting that Frodo’s +/- has been mostly minus lately, despite the Sonics recent spate of wins. Obviously, Earl Watson can do many things, but improve Frodo’s defense is not one of them.

On the whole, I’d say it’s pretty obvious that the Watson trade has improved Ridnour’s game. Has he improved enough that he merits starting for the near future? As an Oregon grad, a proud Duck fan, and a UCLA hater, it pains me to say no. Watson is clearly outplaying Ridnour right now, and it seems obvious to me that the Sonics play better with Earl than Luke running the show. If Frodo is willing to come off the bench for 20-some minutes a night, I think he’d be a great fit. But as a long-term starter for this team, the Sonics seem to be better off with Watson.

Schadenfreude

From the "Sucks To Be You" Department, the Nuggets have gone from having too many point guards to not having enough in the space of about 1 month. Earl Boykins, the Mighty Might who serves as Andre Miller's caddy - and the reason why the Nugs thought they could offload Earl Watson on the Sonics without missing a beat - has broken his hand and could be out for up to 5 weeks (according to Dr. George Karl). All of which means that Howard Eisley will now have to be taken down from the cabinet in Kiki Vandeweghe's office, dusted off, and inserted at the beginning of the 2nd quarter in Denver's next game.

Trades Redux

It’s early, but I thought it would be interesting to see how the 3 trades the Sonics pulled off recently have played out. I know we’re all thrilled with the way Watson and Wilcox have done in green and gold, but how are Flip, Vladi, and Reggie Evans (oh, yeah, the Potato, too) doing in new jerseys?

FLIP MURRAY
Ah, the Flipster. Young Ronald has started 8 of 10 games in Cleveland thus far, averaging 13 points, 2 boards, and 3 assists. However, his increased production is only from increased minutes, as his FG% is the same as in Seattle, and his 3-pt mark has gone from bad (22%) to worse (12%!). Also worth noting: Cleveland is 4-6 since acquiring Murray; they were 32-22 before he showed up.

REGGIE EVANS
Mr. Glass has gone at the boards with alacrity since arriving in Denver, putting up nearly 9 boards a game in only 22 minutes, a remarkable number. It’s clear what he’s up to, though, when you see his 37% FG mark and 43% FT mark: Evans is going Rodman – grabbing boards at the expense of the rest of his game. His 20-rebound game against Toronto notwithstanding, Evans’ negative +/- rating in a Nugget uniform belies his contribution to Denver. The Nuggets are 6-3 since he showed up, though, so he’s obviously not an obstacle to their success.

VLADIMIR RADMANOVIC
Here’s where it gets interesting. Vlade has clearly enjoyed his visit to LA. 49% from 3-point range (!), 7 boards a game, nearly 13 points a night, and, most important to Vlade, 33 minutes a game are all positives. So long as he keeps draining from outside, it’s all good for Radman. But with 89% of his shots coming from jumpers, is this likely to continue? After all, he’s only hit 40% or better from long-distance once in his career, so it doesn’t seem likely he’ll be able to hit 50% for the rest of the year – or the playoffs. His arrival in LA coincided with a 4-game Clip losing streak, but LA has rebounded to post a 6-6 mark with Vlade in tow. The surface analysis says that Vlade’s a great fit for LA, as his outside game complements Elton Brand’s inside prowess. All that said, I think the Clips are plenty glad to have him around. (Although, can I ask a question here? Why is Mike Dunleavy starting something called Quintin Ross at small forward, when he’s got Corey Maggette and Radmanovic sitting on the bench? Okay, the Clips have gone on a 3-game win streak since he did it, but it’s still weird.)

VITALY POTAPENKO
You can look at two ways. 1) The Potato has played 5 minutes for Sac-to since they acquired him from the Sonics. 2) The Kings 7-2 since the Potato showed up. You say tomato, I say Potapenko.

I’ll look at the Sonics’ side of this equation later on.

Danny Fortson: Cyborg Smasher!

Click image to view at full size.

The seemingly illogical ejections. The bonecrushing elbows. The months of chillin' in street clothes at the end of the bench. Finally, the truth behind these and other mysteries can be told in this feature exclusive to Supersonicsoul.

Ladies and gentlemen, in the grand tradition of such timeless classics as "Shaq Fu," Dennis Rodman's "Double Team" and "Michael Jordan's Chaos in the Windy City," we proudly present:

DANNY FORTSON: CYBORG SMASHER.

[At least the cover of it, anyway.]

Wilcox Rocks

Supersonics.com has a little propaganda article about our new favorite Sonic, Chris "Rocks Your Box" Wilcox:

What makes Wilcox arguably the Sonics best finisher since Shawn Kemp was patrolling the paint is not merely the frequency of his slams, but also their ferocity. Wilcox is able to dunk through traffic as well as anyone in the league because he attacks the basket so relentlessly.

"That's my aggressive side," Wilcox said. "I just want to go out there and take everything to the basket strong. Some of the dunks I do miss are because I'm going too hard to the basket. Me, I just want to finish everything; that's the best way to finish is to go hard."

Maybe someone should pass that quote along to The Rash. Or staple it to his forehead.

Everything Must Go!

From the "How to Know When Your Team Is Getting Ready to Can Your Pig-tailed Behind" Department.

Nice to know you, Danny.