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".

2 More Coaches Hired

One problem with waiting to pick your head coach until after you've hired your General Manager is that there are alot fewer head coaches available when you're finally ready to make a decision.

Consider that Sam Vincent, Billy Donovan, Marc Iavaroni, and now Jim O'Brien have been hired in the past week, and that's four fewer horses on the coaching carousel now.

Hey, it could be that Lenny Wilkens wasn't interested in any of those fellows, anyways, and that odds-on favorite Sam Presti would like to bring his San Antonio associate PJ Carlesimo to take the job. If that's the case, then no problem.

But if it's not, and if Presti isn't the candidate and if PJ isn't, either, then, well, the Sonics are going to find themselves sorting through the clearance rack after the draft is over.

And considering that this coach will play a big factor in how Kevin Durant perceives the Sonics, that's not an appetizing proposition, now is it?

Kobe

It's the question every fan of every team in the league wondered this morning after hearing about Kobe Bryant's "Trade Me" declaration on Stephen Smith's radio show.

So, Sonic fans, are you interested in Kobe? Would you be willing to deal Ray Allen and a couple of picks to get him? In all likelihood, it would require Allen, one of this year's #2s, next year's #1, and another player, such as Damien Wilkins or Earl Watson to make it happen. Even then, I don't know that the Lakers would go for it, keeping in mind that a lot of GMs got itchy trigger fingers today.

It would make for an interesting lineup, for sure:

C-Oden
PF-Wilcox
SF-Lewis
SG-Kobe
PG-Ridnour

or

C-Milicic/Swift
PF-Wilcox
SF-Durant
SG-Kobe
PG-Ridnour

Personally, while the initial excitement over adding a guy who can score like Allen and play defense, too, is tempting, I don't know that it makes the Sonics tremendously better. You could argue that Kobe is Ray's better or equal in all phases of their games, and he's on the right side of 30 as well. But Kobe's tendency to dominate the ball, which wouldn't be a great atmosphere in which for either Oden or (especially) Durant to grow.

It's worth discussing, though.

No Iavaroni

The oft-mentioned possibility of Phoenix assistant Marc Iavaroni taking over the reigns in Seattle has been shot down by the news that Memphis has snapped him up to be their head coach.

This further cements the possibility of the Sam Presti/PJ Carlesimo combination becoming the duo Lenny Wilkens selects.

Unless, of course, he decides the Lenny Wilkens/Lenny Wilkens duo is even better.

[Side note: Jack McCallum at si.com reports that the Grizzlies had considered the Suns' Dave Griffin for their GM job, but Phoenix wants Griffin to remain until after the draft. If that's true, then there's little or no chance of him working in Seattle, either, since Wilkens has made it clear publicly that he wants to have the GM (not necessarily the coach) in place pre-draft.]

It's All Gaard's Fault

Apparently, if the Sonics leave town, you can place the blame squarely on the shoulders of KIRO-TV's Gaard Swanson.

Yes, the man with too many vowels offended Clay Bennett by stating to an Oklahoma City station "nobody cares about whether the Sonics stay in Seattle." (The quote is courtesy of the The Oklahoman, a paper owned by Mr. Bennett's wife, with a tip from a commenter). Mr. Swanson's quote was held up by Mr. Bennett as an illustration of how the Seattle area is apathetic about retaining the Sonics.

You know how when you pull up to a four-way stop and there's no one else around, and you just kind of slow down but never come to a complete stop? In the Northwest it's called a "California" stop, but I've also heard it called an "Oklahoma" stop.

I guess when Mr. Bennett said he intended to use 12 months to explore the situation here and look for alternatives, he meant an "Oklahoma" 12 months, which is really 7 or 8 months.

I suppose I should reserve judgement and toss aside this rhetoric as just, well, rhetoric. And that Mr. Bennett is just saying all of this to ratchet up negotiations with the state so that an arena deal gets done in time for October. And, if all of that comes to pass, most of this talk will be water under the bridge when we're sitting in our $125 seats in the third level with binoculars watching Kevin Durant dunk on Greg Oden as the Sonics cruise past the Blazers for their sixth straight NW Division Title.

And I suppose that continuing to berate Clay Bennett serves no purpose than to irritate his seemingly thin skin. After all, it is difficult at this point to determine where the truth lies - is he truly this frustrated, or is it just posturing?

But I can't help but being a little bothered by Mr. Bennett's continual complaining about the situation here. Yes, the city and state are obstinate in getting a deal done, but he had to have known how difficult the situation was when he entered into it, did he not? Did he really think that Howard Schultz was an oveslick city incompetent and that all this situation needed was a shrewd cowboy from Oklahoma to git 'er done? That the region would just rubber-stamp whatever proposal he threw at them in slobbering love-fest to honor a team that had just held them up for a similar ransom 10 short years ago?

Sorry, but I just do not buy it. I'll wait to reserve judgement until the situation is resolved one way or another, but at the moment, it sure appears that Mr. Bennett's trip to Seattle was truly an "Oklahoma" stop.

Sonic News Aplenty

With the draft camp close at hand, all sorts of rumors are floating about the Sonics' future. To wit:

-A league insider tells the Times' Percy Allen that the reason Lenny Wilkens is taking so long to hire a coach is because he wants to hire Lenny Wilkens to be the coach. I can't imagine this is true - Lenny wouldn't be that deceitful, would he - but it still makes me shudder.

- Kerry Eggers in the Portland Tribune says the Blazers' Kevin Pritchard intimates he likes high-risk, high-reward players more than low-risk, low-reward players. If that means he's taking Durant, I've got no problem with that. Pritchard also indicated that Durant is the more NBA-ready, at least offensively. "Kevin is going to come in and score points right away, probably 20 a game."

-Frank Hughes is optimistic that the Sonics will re-sign Rashard, simply because they can offer him a six-year deal and other teams cannot.

-Trenton Hassell tells Mark Madsen the same thing I've been thinking: He'd rather have the 2nd pick than the first. “Because you can’t go wrong with the 2nd pick….I’d hate to be the GM that had to choose between Greg Oden and Kevin Durant.”

How Much

If you follow the Sonics like we do, you know that Greg Oden more than Kevin Durant precisely fits the team's needs. Of course, the Blazers know this, too, and even though they'd be better served with Durant than Oden - at least with the present roster intact - they're not dumb enough to help the Sonics out.

So, if you're running the Sonics (and, at the moment, you may as well be), how much ransom do you give Portland in exchange for the #1 pick? I'm surprised I haven't heard anyone discuss this yet, but it's worthy topic of consideration.

Salaries always make these sorts of deals difficult, but because the #1 and #2 picks are both worth so much, we're not at a wide impasse. I'll make the first bid:

Sonics offer the #2 overall pick and the first pick of the 2nd round in exchange for the #1 overall pick.

Is that a ridiculously poor offer? Would both 2nd round picks make it more equitable? Should we be including a #1 in the future into the deal? I'd be curious to hear what Blazer fans think of the idea (well, except for those running the draftkevindurant site; I love you guys!).

2nd Round Questions

I’ve been thinking quite a bit about the direction the Sonics should take with their two second-round picks. One player who intrigued me was Brandon Rush, who, naturally, decided last week to stay in Kansas for another season, reasoning that another good year at KU would ratchet his selection number up a few spaces.

Honestly, I’m really not all that thrilled about picking Aaron Gray (although I’ll admit he was fantastic in Buck Rogers), and the point guards available at that point in the draft just don’t strike me as helpful to this roster. At first glance, the best option for the Sonics seemed to be a combo guard a la Antonio Daniels, something that Rush would have fit well.

But it got me to thinking, “What about Mickael Gelabale and Damien Wilkins?” Which further led down the path to, “Which of those two guys had a better season, and who are we better off with going forward?”

Those are two tough questions, but let me throw out a couple of things first:

1. Damien Wilkins made some huge improvements in his game this year, improvements that were lost amidst the gloom of the 06-07 year. First, he continued his remarkable free throw transformation, improving from 62% his rookie year to 84% last year to 88% this year, good for 9th-best in the NBA. Second, he shot 41% on 3PA, easily the best mark of his career. Considering he had never cracked 30% going into the season, that’s an incredible improvement.

2. After sinking 2 3’s in the first three months of the season, Gelabale nailed 4 in March and 5 in April.

3. Per 40 minutes, Wilkins posted better numbers in steals, assists, points, and FTA. Gelly had the edge in blocks and rebounds (he also drew more fouls per shot than Damien). Wilkins also gets off 3 more shots per 40 minutes.

4. Damien Wilkins went to the same high school in Florida as Johnny Damon, Wayne Brady, Joey Fatone, and AJ Pierzynski. Just so you know.

It’s tough to compare the two, inasmuch as Gelabale is a young man from another country with limited experience in the NBA game, while Wilkins is now a 3-year vet, whose father and uncle both played in the league.

Even with his strong numbers, for some reason Wilkins left us wanting this year. But if you really look at the numbers, it seems pretty clear that whoever the Sonics find in the draft, he’s not going to be a huge improvement over Wilkins, assuming Damien maintains something close to his shooting percentage on 3’s next year (which is a big assumption, I know).

As for +/- stats, Gelabale was the clear winner (the Sonics outscored opponents by .3 points while he was in, while Wilkins had a -6.2 mark). Further, his block percentage was double Wilkins’, and he did that without a concurrent increase in fouls committed, a remarkable accomplishment for a rookie player. Because he didn’t handle the ball as much, he didn’t turn it over as much, either.

Of course, the area statistics don’t cover is energy, and Gelly seems to have that in spades over Wilkins. From his hair to his Plastic Man-like body, Gelabale seemed to be at all places on the court when Bob Hill relented to playing him last year. And while his youthful exuberance got him into trouble on numerous occasions, he left fans with some hope for the coming season.

For that reason, it seems like Gelly deserves to get the backup role behind Allen next year. The two big questions will be if he can hit the 3 and if he can play the point. If Mickael can take a lesson from Damien and figure out a way improve his shooting, while also proving he can handle the ball as a point guard, the Sonics will be in good shape for the next few years with Gelly.

Peter Bagge on the Sonics

My good friend (and fellow Ballardite) Peter Bagge has a great new cartoon about Sports Stadium Fever over at Reason. Check it out, then go buy some of his books.

Nuss gets props from Times, call from KIRO

Peter J. Nussbaum, the hardest working man in blog-ness, is featured in not one, but TWO major Seattle media markets today. First, in this morning's Seattle Times, and later (possibly) on KIRO (he was asked to be on tonight, but we're having a hard time tracking him down in the wilds of Canada).

Anyway, imaginary high-fives all around!

UPDATE: Pete also got name-dropped on AOL Sports today!

Lewis Files for FA

Shocking, I know. But just to make it official, Rashard Lewis filed for free agency on Friday (first report goes to KRIV in Houston, Texas). The Times and PI also checked in with stories as well (quick note to Percy Allen at the Times: the 6.6 rebounds per game is Rashard's 3rd-best effort of his career, not his career-high; it's not a big thing, but it does defuse the "contract-year" hype we're going to be hearing in the next couple of months). Not much interesting news, but according to the espn.com story, Lewis' agent, Tony Dutt, commented:

"We've been in contact [with Lenny Wilkens]. We'll probably stay in contact on and off until July 1."

The bidding is expected to reach $15 million per season.

More Ra

It's the story that won't go away, and now even the heavyweights are talking about it.

Rashard Lewis receives first-page treatment from Ian Thomsen at si.com, detailing his possible future homes. According to Thomsen, Orlando and the Bulls are the first options, with New York, Cleveland, Washington, Dallas, Philadelphia, Boston, Indiana, and Portland waiting in the wings.

It's funny, isn't it? The Sonics go all season without making as much as a blip on the NBA radar (what's below a blip, anyways? a bloop? a tick?), and now between Durant's arrival and Lewis' possible departure, we're front page every day.

Count me as a "thanks, but no" on the Darko rumors. Free Darko? Great. Darko Milicic? Not so much. Yeah, he's 7', and yeah, he can block shots, but from what I've seen of Milicic in his games against the Sonics, I'd rather not tie up a big chunk of salary cap space on his "potential." Put it this way: Nick Collison's rebounding numbers (percentage-wise) were better than Darko's this year, and I don't hear anyone clamoring to give Collison a six-year deal worth upwards of $10 mil a season.

Now, Jermaine O'Neal? That's a whole different story ...