Seattle Sonics fire Hill, "reassign" Sund

"They fired ME?! But, I'm BOB HILL, damnit!"

From the Seattle P.I.:

The Sonics fired coach Bob Hill and reassigned general manager Rick Sund on Tuesday afternoon.

Team chairman Clay Bennett made the announcement in a statement sent to media outlets. Bennett and Sonics vice-chairman Lenny Wilkens will lead the search for a new coach and GM, the statement said.

Sund, who has a year remaining on his contract, will serve as a consultant next season.

"Bob Hill and Rick Sund are fine individuals of excellent personal character and are basketball men through and through," Bennett said in the statement. "They were both extremely helpful to us during the challenging year of transition."

The Sonics completed their season Wednesday with a 31-51 record. Only four NBA teams had fewer victories.

No big shocker here. The only surprise is they didn't do it four months ago. (Of course, that would have meant the owners were interested in winning in Seattle which, obviously, they weren't.)

Worst Drafts

The lottery is drawing closer, and with it comes rampant speculation on who the Sonics should select.

I thought it makes a great opportunity to review the Sonics’ draft history, specifically the worst drafts in team history. I also thought it would be a good chance to mention Billy Paultz in an article for no good reason whatsoever.

Here you go:

1970: With a first-rounder and two seconds you’d think the Sonics could do better than Jim Ard, Jake Ford, and Pete Cross. Sadly, the Sonics pass up John Johnson, Geoff Petrie, Jim McMillan, Calvin Murphy, Tiny Archibald, Billy Paultz (The Whopper!), and Dan Issel.

1972: Again, the Sonics have a first and two seconds, and, again, they come up empty, unless you consider Bud Stallworth, Joby Wright, and Brian Taylor as significant acquisitions. Taylor had a decent career in the ABA, but he never played a game in Seattle. (On a side note, the draft lasted for 14 rounds; the Sonics didn’t get anything in the other 12 rounds either).

1975: The Sonics reach for Frank Oleynick with the 12th pick of the first round. Oleynick’s sole claim to fame was attending Seattle U. Maybe the Sonics figured they could save on airfare. Also available at that pick were: Ricky Sobers, Joe Bryant, Kevin Grevey, Gus Williams, World B Free, and Dan Roundfield.

1978: Coming off a berth in the NBA Finals, you couldn’t expect much in the draft, but considering that of the five guys the Sonics picked, only one of them (Ralph Drollinger, UCLA) even played in the league, and Drollinger’s “career” consisted of six games played, well, that’s not much of a draft, folks.

1981: “With the fifth overall selection in the NBA Draft, the Seattle Supersonics select ...” Danny Vranes? Considering the Sonics could have wound up with Tom Chambers, Orlando Woolridge, Rolando Blackman, Kelly Tripucka, Danny Schayes, Larry Nance, Danny Ainge, or Eddie Johnson (the good one), that’s just lame.

1994: With an upper-echelon pick for the first time in a while, Seattle goes for Carlos Rogers with the 11th pick. Of course, they could have had Jalen Rose, but who had heard of him?

2004-2006: We will not mention these seasons.

Rumors

- According to the Oregonian, the Blazers will pursue Rashard Lewis this summer. But wait, it gets better! The only way the over-the-cap Blazers can make the deal happen is to move Zach Randolph's Roseanne Barr-sized contract. Do the Blazers really expect the Sonics to 1) help them to acquire a young all-star (Lewis) and 2) help them to rid themselves of a guy who stopped at a strip club on the way to the airport for a funeral? Really? If I'm the Sonics' GM, I'd hang up the phone somwhere between "Zach" and "Randolph."

-The ever-reliable Sam Smith passes along that Sund and Hill are likely out the door (!) and that Clay Bennett is interested in acquiring some of the talent in San Antonio's front office. Oh, and Sam also mentions the sun is expected to set in the west tonight. And that the Sonics might be interested in PJ Carlisemo, because, you know, he did so well in the NBA the first time 'round.

-Gary Washburn is predicting a new coach this week in his blog. And that Bob Hill is having hernia surgery in San Antonio this week. It's unknown if the surgery will be more or less painful than what Hill went through this year.

-Frank Hughes thinks Rick Adelman would make a good choice for the head coach. I think a small part of me just died.

I don't care what anybody else says. The only serious candidate for the Soncis should be the (hopefully) soon-to-be-unemployed Rick Carlisle. The guy's resurrected a franchise before (Detroit) and he can do it here. The Sonics don't need an offensive wizard to help them. They need someone who will convince all the guys on the roster to play defense, and they need someone who commands their respect. Adelman and PJ both fail on those counts, Carlisle doesn't.

A History of #5

With the Sonics slated to pick #5 in the draft, I thought I’d take a look at the last 20 #5 picks in the NBA Draft:

1. Shelden Williams (Inc.)
2. Raymond Felton (B)
3. Devin Harris (B)
4. Dwayne Wade (A+)
5. Nikoloz Tstchivilli (D)
6. Jason Richardson (B+)
7. Mike Miller (B)
8. Jonathan Bender (D)
9. Vince Carter (A)
10. Tony Battie (C+)
11. Ray Allen (A)
12. Kevin Garnett (A+)
13. Juwan Howard (B)
14. JR Rider (C)
15. LaPhonso Ellis (C+)
16. Steve Smith (B+)
17. Kendall Gill (B)
18. JR Reid (B-)
19. Mitch Richmond (A-)
20. Scottie Pippen (A+)

The grades in brackets are my own, non-scientific grading of each player. You can feel free to disagree with the rankings, and they’re not based on anything more than a cursory look at statistics and my own memory of the players.

It broke down like this:
A’s: 6
B’s: 8
C’s: 3
D’s: 2
Inc: 1

That’s pretty good, on the whole. It means in the past 20 drafts, the #5 pick has yielded a B or A type player 70% of the time. Plus, only two real duds fell to #5 (Nikoloz and Bender), meaning there was a 90% chance the player at least started some of the time and wasn’t a “what a f*&^ing waste!” kind of pick.

The next couple of months will bring more draft goodness, but I thought I’d start off by taking a look at the history. After all, when was the last time you thought about JR Reid?

Las Vegas Sonics

Get ready to read alot more of this stuff this summer.

NBA to study possible move to Vegas

Predict-o-Meter

I thought I’d take a look back at how Chris Wilcox’ season went, based on the predictions I made for him at the start of the year.

In my prediction, I figured Wilcox would play 33 minutes (he averaged 31.5), score 14 points (13.5), average 8 boards (7.7), 2.5 turnovers (1.6), and 3.5 fouls (3). All of that came according to plan, including:

“On the whole, Wilcox should be a plus for the Sonics this season. I expect him to commit too many fouls, enabling Collison to get more PT (fine with me), to be occasionally frustrated with his role in the offense, to put up as many 25/15s as he does 8/6s, and to be generally acceptable as the team’s starting power forward.”

I’d say generally acceptable would apply for Wilcox. Of course, all of that verbiage above didn’t mention his “defense,” which makes sense because his defense this year was unmentionable anyways.

As for other predictions, here’s one that turned out well:

“No, the real breakout guy should be Deron Williams of the Jazz, who’s already putting up solid numbers in the pre-season. If AK-47 is healthy, and Jerry Sloan doesn’t kill someone on the sidelines, the Jazz could be pretty tough this year.”

And one that, unfortunately, was even worse than I expected:

“Total Wins: 37”

It’s pretty sad when you’re pessimism about the team turns out to be optimism.

Not With a Bang, But a Whimper

Well, is that how it all ends, then? Is a Mo Sene missed 15-footer the final play in Seattle Sonics history? Downtown, Gus, Lenny, DJ, X, Tommy, Det, the Glove, the Reignman, Sugar Ray, Rashard ... does it all come down to this?

Nobody can possibly know the future of this franchise, and I mean nobody. In the next three months we’re going to hear five pounds of speculation for every ounce of fact, and it would be wise to keep that in mind whenever some “expert” details what the future of the Sonics is.

One more piece of nostalgia before I go. Last night marked Kevin Willis’ appearance in Seattle for the first time in a couple years. Willis has been plying his trade since the 1984-85 season and I thought you might get a laugh out of some of the other folks picked in the 1984 draft, along with Kevvy Kev:

Sam Perkins. Charles Barkley. Alvin Robertson. Otis Thorpe. Michael Cage. Terrence Stansbury. Vern Fleming. Danny Young. Rick Carlisle.

Hakeem Olajuwon.

Michael Jordan.

Congratulations, Mr. Willis, you’ve outlasted all of them, and you may have outlasted Seattle’s basketball team as well.

NW Division Roundup, Part II

More Northwest Division Goodness, (Part I here)

WORST CONTRACT
The reflex answer is to say Danny Fortson, and considering he played all of 157 minutes this year to the tune of $6 million, it’s not a bad answer, it’s just not the right one. Da Fort’s deal expires this summer, and that makes it a good contract for the Sonics. No, for bad contracts, we’re talking long-term deals that teams are going to be regretting for the long term. We’re talking Kenyon Martin’s (4 more years, $59.7 mil) Rock of Gilbraltar contract, so unmovable they’re thinking of anchoring the Queen Mary to it. We’re talking Raef LaFrentz, whose early termination can’t come soon enough for Portland, or Darius Miles’ horrific 3-year, $26.2 million deal. And don’t forget McHale’s Navy: Troy Hudson, Mike James and Marko Jaric, who will pull down between them $64 million in the next four years. But anyone who knows the league knows the worst deal goes to Zach Randolph at 4 years and $61.2 million. At 24 points and 10 boards, Randolph puts up numbers like nobody’s business, but it’s his off-court crapola that makes it such a bad deal. Do you know anyone outside of NYC who’d be willing to take on that deal? I didn’t think so.

BEST SHOOTER
It’s funny, but if you look at the numbers and you didn’t watch any games, you’d probably think Damien Wilkins is the second coming of Jeff Hornacek. The Omen knocked down 41% of his threes and a shocking 90% of his free throws. Considering that in his rookie year he was at 27% and 62%, that’s quite a shock. Still, Damien’s obviously not the best. Ray Allen’s the easy choice, but he didn’t have a great year behind the arc, and he struggled in a lot of late-game situations, which is unusual for him. Brandon Roy emerged as a standout this year, as did teammate Ime Udoka (41% from deep!), while JR Smith, Ricky Davis, and Linas Kleiza all could be considered. But I’m going with Utah’s Gordan Giricek, the Croatian Craig Hodges, who calmly hit 42% of his 3’s and 84% of his FTs. For a guy traded four times in a 5-year career, I’m sure he’ll gladly take the honor.

ALL-ROOKIE TEAM
Yakhouba Diawara, Denver (47/167 from 3), Ronnie Brewer, Utah, 19 points, 2.8 steals per 48, Paul Milsap, Utah, 18 points/14 boards per 48, Brandon Roy, a positively Pippen-esque line of 4 assists, 4.4 boards, 16.8 points in 35 minutes a game, Sergio Rodriguez, for getting mentioned more often on True Hoop than half the guys in the All Star Game, LaMarcus Aldridge, trying to single-handedly make Blazer fans forget Sam Bowie, Randy Foye and his late-game heroics for the Wolves, Craig Smith and his forgotten 26 point, 8 board game against the Sonics as well as his 11 points, 7.6 boards per game mark in the final month. A lot of nominees, but the final five is Roy, Foye, Brewer, Aldridge and Milsap. Hey, is it my fault there isn’t a center in there? What do you want me to do, nominate Saer Sene?

SHOCKING PIECE OF TRIVIA I DON’T KNOW WHAT TO MAKE OF
Danny Fortson is two months older than Kevin Garnett.

BEST FOREIGNER
Lots of “ethnic” flavor in the NW this year (and, yes, I detest that phrase as much of the rest of you; why is being from Asia or Latin America “ethnic” but being from Greece or Italy isn’t? End rant). You can choose from the French Connection of Gelabale and Petro in Seattle, Diawara (France), Kleiza (USSR), and Nene (Brazil) in Denver, Jaric in Minnesota (Yugoslavia, and, no it’s not him), Sergio Rodriguez (Spain), or Giricek (Croatia), Okur (Turkey), and AK-47 (Russia) in Utah. Obviously, AK or Okur are the two best, with the edge going to Andrei Kirilenko, even though he only averaged 8.4 points per game and went from being the Joe Rudi of the NBA to being Gene Tenace in about 17 seconds this year. But I’m going to give the nod to the ridiculous roster the Blazers put together. Somehow, Portland managed to find three guys born in the United States that absolutely nobody believes were born here: Raef LaFrentz, Joel Przybilla and Ime Udoka. Hey, if you’re going to get scrubby American guys to fill out your roster and free up future cap space, couldn’t you at least get guys with names that are easier to spell? Somewhere, Pat Buchanan is advocating building a wall to keep these natives out.

IF THE NW TEAMS WERE PRESIDENTS
Denver: Woodrow Wilson. Lots of promise, but failed to live up to potential. Remains to be seen if the Nuggets will suffer a stroke in the playoffs, causing George Karl’s wife to steward them.
Minnesota: Ulysses Grant. Past glories fail to materialize in new situation, causing leader to continually make bad decisions in attempts to right the ship. Known for corruption (see, Joe Smith and Whiskey Ring).
Portland: Jimmy Carter. Youthful enthusiasm and a desire to rid the taste of the previous administration leads people to think that anything different is, by default, better. It’s not.
Seattle: James Buchanan. The final administration before a massive sea change, characterized by acts that look incredibly dumb in hindsight.
Utah: Harry Truman. Sometimes, hard work and shrewd moves pay off.

More to come on Thursday ...

Northwest Division Roundup, Part I

The league switched to six divisions a few years back, and I think we can all be forgiven if the affinity for those divisions hasn’t grown as quickly as, say, the affinity for Eva Mendes.

I can feel the old Pacific Division as an entity; Suns, Lakers, Blazers, Sonics ... but the Northwest Division? Doesn’t have a feel to it, not yet anyway.

Well, here’s one way to rectify it. Let’s recap the glorious 2006-07 season with a Year in Review for the Northwest Division, where two teams made the playoffs (Utah, Denver), and three others raced as fast as they could towards a lottery pick. It’s a strange group of teams, but there’s a lot of talent here. Just quickly, the NW has the NBA’s best shooter (Ray Allen), best fantasy player (Garnett), most dynamic scorer (Iverson), best one-name player (Nene), best midget (Boykins, okay, he’s in Milwaukee, but I’m counting him anyway), best shot-blocker (Camby), most inappropriate name (Boozer, Utah), and the worst guy averaging 24 points a game (Zach Randolph). It’s the Northwest Division, folks, what more can you say.

COACH OF THE YEAR
Um, gee, you think Jerry Sloan deserves the honor? His competition includes a guy who seemingly was fired last August (Bob Hill), the Billy Martin of the NBA (George Karl), a guy who’s record after two years with his current team is 53-111 (Mac-10), and a guy so white and gritty, Kevin McHale can be forgiven for mistaking him for a former teammate (Randy Wittman, who, by the way, is now 74-132 in his illustrious coaching career). Actually, Sloan’s only competition was Dwayne Casey, who compiled a 20-20 mark for the T-Wolves before being canned for making people think that McHale isn’t the smartest basketball mind in all of Minnesota.

SIXTH MAN OF THE YEAR
Here are the nominees from each team: Earl Watson, Seattle; Matt Harpring, Utah; Randy Foye, Minnesota; Travis Outlaw, LaMarcus Aldridge, Portland; JR Smith, Denver. Not a bad group, but I think Matt Harpring is the smart choice. He might not get the boards that Aldridge does, or the steals like Outlaw, but Harpring puts the ball in the hole often enough to deserve it, and, unlike Smith, he actually gives passing interest to the non-shooting part of his game. Plus, he got to the line as often as Rashard Lewis, despite playing 400 fewer minutes. That has to count for something.

MOST DISAPPOINTING POINT GUARD
Now we’re getting to the meat of this division. Really it boils down to two teams and five guys: Watson and Ridnour from Seattle (hereinafter known as WAD), and Hudson/James/Jaric in Minnesota (TroJam). WAD gives you horrible 3-point shooting combined with infighting, all at the price of $7.8 mil this year and $38 mil in the next three years. TroJam gives you three guys earning a combined $16 million this season, plus $64 million in the next four years, none of whom shot better than 42% this year or averaged more than 3.6 assists per game. Worst of all, Seattle’s third-stringer, Mike Wilks, might be better than all five of them. In the end, the award has to go to Marko Jaric, who was signed to a huge, six-year deal before last season and instantly became the worst guy under a six-year deal in the entire league, non-center division.

BEST REBOUNDER
You’ve got the Brazilian and Camby over there in Denver. You’ve got Collison (a surprising 8.2 boards per game) in Seattle. You’ve got Boozer in Utah (11.8), Randolph in Portland (10.1), and the Big Ticket in Minnesota (12.8). But do you know who got the most boards per 48 minutes this year? None other than the Ball-Grabber, Reggie Evans, who clocked 19.2 boards per 48. He doesn’t do anything else, folks, but the man knows how to rebound. (Side note: Earl Boykins averaged more offensive rebounds per 48 than Ray Allen, JR Smith, Ricky Davis, Randy Foye, or Martell Webster. You read that right.)

WORST FREE THROW SHOOTER
Normally, you’d want to include some sort of minimum attempt requirement, but Joel Przybilla’s “efforts” at the line this year were so shockingly bad they deserve mention. When he wasn’t busy cashing checks or attempting to buy a vowel, Joel managed to nail 10 out of 27 shots. Even Chris Dudley would shudder at that mark. You know you’re bad when a teenaged kid from Senegal (Saer Sene), whose basketball experience rivals Slater’s from “Saved By the Bell” drains a higher percentage than you (56% to 37%). Makes you wonder what the hell Joel learned at Minnesota, and whether he would have been better off joining the Peace Corps and building wells in Senegal.

More to come on Wednesday ...

More Sonic News

Obviously, the arena and lack thereof dominates the news today. But I saw this in the Boston Herald and it certainly raised my eyebrows:

Boston Herald: "How much [Michael] Olowokandi actually wants to play was called into question this season. According to league sources, he turned down a chance to go to Seattle in January to play more. (The Celtics would have waived him and thus not received anything in return.)"

Would have made for an interesting second half of the season, no? A no-risk proposition for Seattle and Kandi's contract expires at the end of the season (he only made $750K this year). I can't say that it would have made a whole lot of difference in this season, but the fact Sund was looking for a big man certainly refutes the argument that he just sat in his office playing Tetris all season.

Last Dance?

"Clearly at this time the Sonics and Storm have little hope of remaining in the Puget Sound region."

Clayton Bennett

Well, push has finally come to shove, as it were. With the state government's refusal to vote on funding the $500+ million arena project, Clay Bennett has indicated he has finally had enough of dealing with the local legislature, and all indications are pointing towards Oklahoma City. (You can read a much more in-depth view of the situation here and here).

So, what happens next? Couple of things; first, will the Sonics still play here next season? Bennett's purchase agreement included a clause allowing him to move the team elsewhere (read: Oklahoma) should the government fail to produce a new arena, and most speculation (prompted by Bennett's own comments) led everyone to believe that because the team missed the NBA's March 1 deadline to petition for relocation, the Sonics would, at the very least, play the 2007-08 season in Seattle.

However, the Daily Oklahoman's two stories about this situation believe otherwise. As reporter John Rohde put it, "Rather than endure lame-duck status next season in Seattle, Sonics ownership might seek an immediate resolution by buying out its existing lease."

Likewise, Barry Tramel writes, "[The failed deal] means the Sonics' Oklahoma City-based owners could, and almost surely will, campaign to leave Seattle immediately.

"No one is interested in a lame-duck season.

"Not the Sonic owners, not the NBA, not even the city of Seattle, which will posture otherwise to enhance its negotiating status."

Well, that kinda sucks, huh? Obviously, that is speculation on the part of the Oklahomans, but considering Bennett's fingertips are pretty close to the pulse of that paper, one must believe the writers have some insider information.

Naturally, the city of Seattle is less than enthusiastic about seeing the only major tenant at Key Arena split before the lease has run its' course, prompting City Finance Director Dwight Dively to comment that, "If they wanted to leave before [the end of the lease] we would demand substantial financial damages." Substantial meaning tens of millions of dollars.

The elephant in the room, in my opinion, is whether the Sonics were ever truly serious about this proposal. Especially when I read comments such as these:

"The Sonics just have not done that kind of full-court press," said Rep. Ross Hunter, D-Medina, chairman of the House Finance Committee, who opposed the proposal. "I don't know that they're serious."

Hunter was referring to the efforts put forth by Paul Allen when Allen's Seahawks were asking for a new stadium a few years ago.

Honestly, I believe Clay Bennett would have liked to have had a team in Seattle. Financially speaking, the team is more valuable here than in OKC, and when you consider that Oklahoma's stadium isn't ready for prime-time, either, well, it makes you think that Bennett wasn't as conniving as Hunter would lead you to believe.

At this point, as Mike Seely points out at Seattle Weekly, about the only ray of hope is the possibility of a special session of the legislature, called by the governor, to specifically address the stadium issue.

Personally, I don't think it's very likely at all. Unlike the Mariners, the Sonics are not riding a crest of public sentiment. They're not the "Refuse to Lose" 1995 Dream Team, they're the "3-Headed Teenage Monster Center" 2006-07 Nightmare Team, staring the wrong way up at a 31-51 season.

Teams that rally from 15 games back in August behind dramatic 9th-inning home runs and freakish 6'10" starting pitchers get stadiums.

Teams that feature Mike Wilks and Johan Petro do not.

One More To Go

The Bataan Death March that is the Seattle Supersonics 2006-07 season is reaching its end, with only a home game against the Mavs remaining.

With the twin losses to Portland and LA over the weekend, the Supes are sitting pretty in the #5 spot. And yet, I'm having nightmares of this guy. Rick Sund wouldn't pick another inexperienced big man with the first pick, would he?

Would he?

Let's assume it plays out according to the script and the Sonics grab the #5 pick in the draft. Oden, Durant, Wright and Noah go 1-4 (I really think the Suns will go after Joakim). The Sonics could choose from:

Al Horford, Julian Wright, Yi Jianlian, Corey Brewer, Jeff Green, Roy Hibbert, Mike Conley (please, please), Spencer Hawes, and all the other stiffs. Who should they pick? Let's start the ruminations. I'm for trading down and taking either Green or Brewer, then dealing Rashard in a sign-and-trade (possibly combining those two into one deal).