Presti and Sheppard

Since the two GM candidates seem to be Sam Presti and Tommy Sheppard, I thought we ought to take a look at their draft records. Now, it’s not entirely fair to either guy to do this, in that neither Presti nor Sheppard had the final say in who their franchise selected, but it is interesting to see who they’ve pulled out of the draft while they’ve been employed.

SHEPPARD: Jarvis Hayes, Steve Blake, Peter John Ramos, Andray Blatche, and Oleksiy Pecherov.

PRESTI: Tony Parker, Robertas Javtokas, Bryan Bracey, Johan Salmons, Luis Scola, Randy Holcomb, Leandro Barbosa, Sergei Karaulov, Romain Sato, Beno Udrih, Ian Mahinmi, Damir Markota.

Just from that brief glimpse, you have to give Presti a huge advantage. Sheppard’s big “find” has been Jarvis Hayes, and that’s not exactly something you post on your resume. (Note to those that will mention the Wizards’ drafting Devin Harris; the Mavericks actually drafted Harris, they just had the Wiz do it for them). Presti, meanwhile has produced Udrih, Parker, and Barbosa – all from the bad end of the rounds.

We’ll take a look tomorrow at the trades the two candidates have been involved in, just to shed some more light on the guy responsible for the future of the Sonics.

But before I quit for the day, I’d like to throw my two cents in that a GM’s drafting skills are what sets him apart. In today’s league, the best way to improve your team for the long-term is through the draft. Because of salary issues, it’s almost impossible to continue adding free agents to fill holes, you have to find guys in the draft. As much as we skewer Rick Sund and the Sonics, finding Collison and Ridnour in one draft is an exceptional example. There’s no way the Sonics could have gotten players like that through free agency at the salaries they were being paid.

On the flip side, piling up “projects” like Petro and Sene have the opposite effect, especially when you’re paying those projects close to $4 million a year to sit on the bench.

Sonics to name Presti GM today?

According to several sources, the Seattle Sonics will introduce Spurs wunderkind Sam Presti as the new General Manager today. About. Freaking. Time.

San Antonio Spurs assistant general manager Sam Presti should receive an offer in the next day or so, and president Lenny Wilkens is staying in touch with prospective coaching candidates and keeping them abreast of the situation.

According to several NBA sources, Wilkens had informal conversations at the league's pre-draft camp in Orlando last week and told a handful of candidates that the Sonics intend to hire a GM this week and begin formal coaching interviews next week.

One team source, who spoke on the condition of anonymity, said Seattle's short list includes former Indiana coach Rick Carlisle, former Minnesota coach Dwane Casey and Spurs assistant P.J. Carlesimo.

(from today's Seattle Times)

If that's truly the list of coaches the Sonics are chosing from, it would at least be an improvement over the Two Bobs.

What Not To Buy

Is there a man in North America who would knowingly let his friends know he was reading this book? Can we put the over/under at sales to men at 3, including Doug Christie?

Good Lord, I am so glad the Sonics dealt this fool and his wife away before he had a chance to get in a game in the green and gold. The idea of the Christies being a fixture at Sonic events for the next 20 years would be enough to make me drive Clay Bennett's moving vans.

Can You Say Key Arena?

From the Charlotte Observer:

The Charlotte Coliseum came crumbling down Sunday into a pile of stone and concrete, the final remains of the once-popular sports and entertainment facility. Hundreds of spectators started lining up a couple hours before the 10:30 a.m. blast, where demolition crews used about 550 pounds of explosives to knock down the 19-year-old building.

Now, I want you to pay close attention to the final four words in that blurb. "19-year-old building."

What does that say about our country, our mentality as a people? That within 2 decades of its completion, after spending millions of dollars on an edifice that houses athletics performed by millionaires for the profit of billionaires, paid for by taxpayers in a nation where hundreds of millions go without adequate health care, where we cannot find the money to adequately house the destitute, what does that say about us?

I know the money for the Sonics' proposed arena doesn't come out of the mouths of the poor, at least directly. And I know that as a citizenry we don't have to be ashamed about spending money on entertainment. But when the majority of that citizenry says they don't want to spend money on another building, when our elected officials - who ostensibly represent us - say they don't want another building, how can we look in the mirror after spending $500 million on another sports facility, knowing full well that the "Best By" date on these complexes is somewhere in the neighborhood of 20 years?

What does it say about us?

Supersonics Bumpersticker of the Day

Courtesy of Beau Fredericks.

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!).