Pardon the P.J.

From ESPN:

P.J. Carlesimo, new head coach of the NBA's Seattle SuperSonics, will be the "Five Good Minutes" guest this afternoon on Pardon the Interruption. Carlesimo will take time out from NBA Summer League action in Las Vegas to discuss the Sonics and other NBA topics with co-hosts Michael Wilbon and Dan LeBatard on today's program. Pardon the Interruption will be aired on ESPN at 5:30 p.m. ET / 2:30 p.m. PT (re-aired on ESPNEWS at 6:30 p.m. ET / 3:30 p.m. PT).

Nick Wants His MTV

If you ever wondered what Nick Collison watches on television, well, why?

But if you ever did wonder, Lang Whitaker at si.com compiled a list of Collison's favorite MTV shows.

Tune in tomorrow when we find out the pre-set stations on Luke Ridnour's car radio.

Lewis S&T Done

Florida Today's John Denton reports that the sign and trade involving Rashard Lewis has been accomplished, and the Orlando Magic will hold a press conference at about 10 am Pacific time to announce it.

Lewis will wind up making $126.4 million over six years in the deal, which sends a second-round pick Seattle's way (nice), and a trade exception worth about $17 million (fantastic).

There may be some casual fans who will react to this deal and say, "Huh? We gave up Rashard Lewis for a 2nd-round pick and some salary cap thingy? That sucks, man!"

Well, it doesn't suck. It's flipping terrific. Why Orlando went along with this is beyond me, unless they were pressured into it by Lewis and his agent. If I'm Orlando, I'd much rather pay out five years and $90 million than six years and $126.4 million. Plus, now they lose a second-round pick.

For casual fans who don't get it, the trade exception gives us the same bargaining power as a Theo Ratliff contract, without having to actually pay the bloated salary. It's really a valuable tool, and Sam Presti did the right thing in making it happen. Kudos to the Sonics' front office for pulling this off.

It hurts to lose Rashard, who was a great player for the Sonics and one of the best players in team history. He never missed extended periods of time with mystery injuries, you never heard him complain about minutes, and he worked on his game for all nine years in a Sonic jersey. Good luck in Orlando, Mr Lewis, and thanks for your efforts here in Seattle.

Green, Gelly, Petro

The Sonics are two games into their summer league schedule, and it’s obviously far too early to start analyzing trends or make any useful judgments. No one seriously thinks that Kevin Durant is going to shoot 20% from the field this season, and no matter how bad the point guard situation looks right now, it’ll get better when either Ridnour or Watson get their shot at running the floor.

So I thought it might be better just to take a look at three players in particular from Monday’s game. With all the attention paid to Durant, here’s a look at Mickael Gelabale, Johan Petro, and Jeff Green.

PETRO
Johan catches more than his fair share of flak for his at-times abysmal performance as a big man. Lumped in with Robert Swift and Mo Sene as the Teen-aged Triumverate of Trepidation, Petro has been less than great for the Sonics in his brief career. But as a late first-round pick, that’s to be expected.

After a lousy performance against Dallas on Friday, I thought that Petro was much better against New York. He still gets outhustled by the other players, and his hesitancy on offense can make him wait too long to shoot, but overall I would say he performed decently. Does he take too many 15-footers for a big man? Yes. His ugly bank shot from about 10’ in the second quarter was a brick worthy of Olden Polynice, but his first jumper from the free throw line showed a nice touch. He obviously still needs to work on his aggressiveness in the paint, and to be more assertive at all points of the floor, but as a backup center playing 10 to 15 minutes a night, he’s not a disaster.

GELABALE
It’s a joy to watch this guy. His hops are fantastic, he can run like a point guard, he hustles at all times, and he’s exactly what every winning team needs coming off the bench. He picked up 3 steals in only 24 minutes, and he seemed to be involved in almost all of the Sonics’ transition opportunities (not that there were many, but still). At one point, he forced a 1-on-3 fast break when he really should have pulled the ball back, yet because of his strength he was able to draw two foul shots when it looked as though there was nothing there.

Only one final question: Is his hair longer than Renaldo Balkman’s?

GREEN
From draft day huh? to present day yes! That’s Jeff Green. Easily the MVP of the Sonics on Monday, Green had two nice dunks, including the highlight-reel one over Nate Robinson in the first quarter. He showed nice range on his jump shot and was rewarded with a lot more opportunities on offense than on Friday. His up-fake off an offensive rebound in the second quarter drew a foul and a compliment from Walt Frazier, and deserved it. Green may be only a rookie, but he looks ready to play steady minutes in the NBA. As he gets stronger, he’ll be a nice piece for the Sonics to have on their front line. All you Hoya fans who said I was dead wrong on this guy on draft night – my apologies. You were right and I’ll be eating a crow sandwich all year long.

Sadly, those two bright spots were overshadowed by some lousy offense from the Sonics. It has become obvious that quicker point guards are killing the Sonics, as first Dallas and now New York have burned Seattle repeatedly by getting into the paint. On offense, the Sonics’ big men aren’t getting the ball where they should to be effective, and that falls on the shoulders of the point guards.

Still, that’s not a big problem in the long run. It doesn’t matter how many games the Sonics win in the summer league, it just matters that Durant, Green, and the rest get a better taste for the NBA.

More Dowdell

I'll be putting up a more in-depth piece later, but in reading about Zabian Dowdell (I know, get over it, Pete; bear with me, though), I came to find out that he has two older brothers who played college hoops, as well as a younger sister who plays for South Florida.

That's interesting, sure, but not all that interesting. Probably half the guys in the summer league (shoot, maybe 3/4) have brothers or sisters who played collegiately.

What was more interesting to me is that one of Zabian Dowdell's older brothers played at the University of Maine. His name?

Jermaine Jackson.

No, it's not the same Jermaine Jackson who's suiting up for the Sonics in the summer league, but don't you think it's kind of strange that Dowdell's lined up next to a guy with the same name as his brother, who also plays guard, and who also is about 6'5". Kind of weird, right?

Durant's Shot Still Not Falling; Sonics Lose Again

Okay, take a deep breath, everyone. We're two games into meaningless summer league action - a league where Jelani McCoy can lead the league in rebounds, Milt Palacio can lead in assists, and Marcus Banks can lead in points.

In other words, don't get too worried when a guy who was named all-everything as a 19-year-old freshman has only hit 9 of his first 37 shots from the field.

If you missed last night's affair, you can watch the nba.com archive here. I'll try to write up a more in-depth report later in the day, but for now a couple of quick hits based on watching the game ...

- Johan Petro showed a marked improvement over his first effort.
- Still love to watch Gelabale play. The guy was just born to be a sixth man.
- If you haven't seen Jeff Green's thunderous dunk over Nate Robinson, you missed out. Do yourself a favor and watch the highlight package at nba.com so you can see it. Green also played much better last night.
- Zabian Dowdell - while still looking like a rookie - looked much better after getting his feet wet on Friday night. As I always say, I need more Dowdell, baby.
- As Kevin Pelton noted at supersonics.com, Durant is effective thus far at drawing fouls because of his quickness. This is an underappreciated ability; and one that people like Karl Malone or Adrian Dantley, used to their advantage. While those two didn't use the quickness factor so much, the ability to get to the line 8-10 times a night consistently is the difference between averaging 14 points a game and averaging 18-22 points a game. It also means fewer 7 point nights for the rookie.
- Julius Hodge sure fell back to earth after that first game, didn't he?

Summer League, Game Two

Another Summer League tilt tonight, and this time it’s the Knicks. Like every team in the Vegas League (motto: “Trying as hard as we can to train your young players while simultaneously seducing them with every evil known to man”), the Knicks have a multitude of Who’s That? guys, with a few Oh, I Know Him folks.

In the latter category, you’ll find Nate Robinson, of whom, as every New York newspaper will tell you, we Seattlites are in lust for even more than our flannel shirts, beards, cups of cappuccinos, and laptops. In fact, we’ll trade every player on our roster just to get the opportunity to bask in all 5’9” of Nate’s glory!

Please. The Sonics want Nate Robinson about as much as the Knicks do. I’ll let you read between the lines on that one.

Anyways, alongside the Mighty Mite are Renaldo Balkman and Randolph Morris, who would have been a first round pick last month if the Knicks hadn’t swiped him from college earlier this year.

Better yet, Olu Famutimi is listed on both teams’ rosters. From what I understand, it’s part of his agent’s plan to get him listed on all 30 rosters at some point this summer with the hopes that someone will forget that he’s there, he sneaks into the opening day roster, and then it’s all gravy from there. It’s really the American Dream for the 21st Century if you think about it – fame by association. If you think about it, there’s a little Olu Famutimi in all of us, isn’t there?

But enough about the flippin’ Knicks. How about the Sonics tonight? Well, Mickael Gelabale is supposed to be around after spraining an ankle and he should be a big help in providing some stability to the offense, which looked as erratic as could be expected in Friday’s opener. Unfortunately, Gelabale doesn’t play the point, where the Sonics were sorely lacking help on Friday. Here’s to hoping supersonicsoul favorite Zabian Dowdell was able to watch some Mo Cheeks classic video over the weekend and puts forth a better effort on tonight. We’re pulling for you, Little Z!

Elsewhere, Gary Washburn lists some possibilities for the vacant assistant coach positions for P.J. Carlesimo and informs us that Robert Swift has added a machine gun to the ever-growing artwork collections on his right and left arms. Watching Swift on the bench on Friday, he’s definitely bigger (270? Wow), and his hair might even be longer than before. Hard to believe he used to look like this. Quite frankly, if Swift broke his left leg and rolled up and down the court in a wheelchair, he’d still be an improvement over Sene and Petro. Man, did those guys stink it up on Friday or what?

As always, the game will be “broadcast” on nba.com (here’s the link). Game time is 7 pm. Hey, it’s going to be hot as hell today in Seattle (and Vancouver, as well), so why not grab yourself a nice glass of something cold and avail yourself of the best the internet has to offer?

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.

Durant gets 18; Sonics lose

Seattle Supersonics rookie Kevin Durant gets his first whiff of the NBA.

Start the Michael Jordan comparisons, because if by classic MJ you mean a guy who's going to put up 20 shots to score 20 points, that's what you saw in Las Vegas tonight. Kevin Durant looked fantastic at times in a 77-66 loss to Dallas in the Las Vegas Summer League.

He put together a beautiful up-and-under move, nailed a fallaway jumper from the baseline, and took it hard to the hoop without any payoff. Overall, he finished 5-of-17 for 18 points, including 7-of-9 from the line. Julius Hodge, alternating between point guard and off guard, was the only other Sonics in double figures, grabbing 14 points and 10 boards in a solid showing.

Sadly, much-beloved Zabian Dowdell was horribly outclassed by Jose Juan Barea, whose name was voted "Most Likely To Be Confused With a Chilean Poet" by his graduating class. Barea went around, between, and seemingly under the Sonics all game, totalling 14 points and 9 assists in about 25 minutes of action. Jeff Green, while he racked up 8 fouls with only 7 points, looked strong on defense at times, but nowhere near as talented as Durant on offense. But then again, how many rookies look as talented as the Promised One?

All in all, it was your typical summer league Turnover-O-Rama, filled with mistakes, fouls, turnovers, and the like. Thankfully, the #2 overall pick seemed to be worthy of the admiration he's been receiving in his nascent NBA career.

Goodbye, Lenny

I was putting together a notes thing for Monday, and I came across on Gary Washburn's blog. As expected, Lenny Wilkens has resigned his position with the Sonics.

Partial quote:

"My passion for this city and this franchise has never wavered, but I feel that my position within the organization did not develop the way that I thought it would."

It would be easy to make a snarky comment about Lenny and the way things went at the end of his 2nd tenure with the club, but let's take the high road and say thanks to Lenny for putting the effort he did, both this time around and (more importantly) the first time, when he led the Sonics to Seattle's only pro sports championship.

90 Minutes & Counting

Well, about 90 minutes left until the Kevin Durant Era begins. If you're interested in watching the game, you can click here for the live webcast on NBA.com. Scroll down about 1/3 of the page to the line just below the Sonics' schedule, then click and away you go. (NOTE: You'll have to sign up with nba.com, which is a free service. From what I understand, the games are free on the internet. For now.)

Until the game starts, you can check out some more Durant info here, here, and here (is it me, or does the last one eerily seem like something you'd play at his funeral?). You can also watch some Jeff Green highlights here.

Not sure who will be in the starting lineup for today's game. I'm guessing:

C: Johan Petro
PF: Green
SF: Durant
SG: Julius Hodge or Mickael Gelabale
PG: Zabian Dowdell

How many dunks for Durant this afternoon? 0, 1, 2, 3, 4, or more? Correct answer wins a free subscription to supersonicsoul.com!

So You Say You Want a Revolution

In honor of Kevin Durant and Jeff Green kicking off their rookie seasons tonight (as well supersonicsoul.com favorite Zabian Dowdell), I thought it might be a good idea to toss out a team compiled of the best rookies in franchise history.

C: Jack Sikma, 1977-78. 11 points and 8 boards and named to the all-rookie team.
PF: Bob Rule, 1967-68. Perhaps the greatest rookie season in team history, Rule averaged 18 point, 9.5 boards, Rule made it to the all-star game the next year.
SF: Xavier McDaniel, 1985-86. The 2nd-greatest rookie season in team history, X was the true rookie of the year, not Pat Ewing, as every Sonic fan will tell you.
SG: Art Harris, 1968-69. A forgotten Sonic, Harris scored 12.4 points per game in the Sonics’ second year of existence.
PG: Dennis Johnson, 1976-77. DJ lost out on rookie team honors to John Lucas and Ron Lee (go Ducks!), but his 9.2 points, 4 boards, and 1.5 steals make him thismuch better than Gary Payton’s 1990-91 season.

Bench:
Gary Payton, 1990-91; Dana Barros, 1989-90; Al Tucker, 1967-68; Pete Cross, 1970-71; Tom Burleson, 1974-75; Leonard Gray, 1974-75; Bruce Seals, 1975-76; Derrick McKey, 1987-88.

I made a couple of interesting mental notes when compiling this list. The first is that the Sonics have not had a rookie make a real impact since Gary Payton, more than 15 years ago. Guys like Desmond Mason, Rashard Lewis, or Luke Ridnour have all eventually become good players, but not in their rookie seasons. The Sonics have also traded away their fare share of rookie talent, including Bobby Jackson, Bobby Simmons, Corey Maggette, Doug Christie, and, of course, Scottie Pippen (ouch).

It’s also interesting to compare the Tom Burleson and Leonard Gray draft in 1974 to the situation the Sonics are in now. Burleson was a huge get for the Sonics: a 7’2” center from NC State fresh off beating UCLA and Marquette for the NCAA title. The 3rd pick in the draft, I think it’s safe to say that were he coming out in 2007 rather than 1974, Burleson would have received as much hype as Durant or Oden (in fact, that year’s draft class of Bill Walton, Marvin Barnes, and Burleson is a good comparison to this year’s).

Burleson’s rookie year was solid, if unspectacular, and he followed it up with 16 points and 9 boards his sophomore season. From there, his career spiraled downwards, culminating with a devastating knee injury that eventually forced him out of the league before he turned 30. Gray, like Jeff Green, was the second choice of the Sonics that year, and, like Green, he was a tall forward, a terrific human being, and the glue of a great college basketball team (sadly, Gray died in 2006 at only 52 years of age).

And yet, neither Burleson nor Gray had the careers that either expected. Both were out of the league far sooner than they would have hoped, and neither led their teams to anything of significance, although the two did help pull the Sonics to the second round of the playoffs in 74-75.

These days, thanks to the internet and television, everything is hyped beyond belief. Kevin Durant is the greatest player since MJ. Oden is a franchise-saving center. We forget that great players have emerged from college before, and will again. Tonight in Las Vegas, two great rookies will try to help pull this franchise from an abyss. Will they succeed where great players like Burleson and Gray failed?