Potato

"Say hello to Mr. Elbow!"

The Sonic roster continues to take shape. According to Frank Hughes, Seattle is close to signing the Potato to a $3 million deal, although the number of years are not specified. Considering Vitaly isn’t going to get a better offer, I’m thinking it’s a one-year variety.

Assuming Hughes is right, here’s the current roster, with salary (in millions):

Allen, $16
Lewis, $8.6
Fortson, $6.4
Potato, $3
Collison, $1.8
Ridnour, $1.6
Swift, $1.8
Brunson, $1
Petro, $0.7

Those nine players add up to roughly $41 million, still well below the cap. Of course, there are a couple of question marks out there:

1. How much will Allen make this year? His contract is flexible, dependent upon the Sonics’ budget.
2. How much will Radman get? He hasn’t said yea or nay on the $42 mil./6-year deal the Sonics are dangling, so his figure could either be the $3.2 renewal, or the full $7 mil. Personally, I have a feeling he’s going to take a one-year deal and split Seattle next summer. Just a feeling, nothing more.
3. How does the remainder of the roster fill up? Assuming Mateen Cleaves re-signs for the third year of the Flint Experiment, and Radman inks for whatever price, that gives us 11 guys out of the 13 they are required to have under contract. Who are the two missing pieces? Anybody know Tom Chambers’ number?

CBA

There’s nothing shaking on the Sonic news wire, so I thought I’d take a quick look at the new CBA and see what interestings items popped out.

In addition to the much-discussed salary cap, and, of course, the ruling to prevent high school players from entering the draft, I found two pieces of interest to non-financial wizards such as myself (if you’re interested in a fantastic analysis of the new CBA, I suggest you read Dan Rosenbaum’s blog).

1. Active rosters are still at 12, but instead of phantom injuries, players will now be called “inactive.” Call me crazy, but I always liked how guys like Jon Sundvold would get strained oblique muscles in time for the Dale Ellis’ of the world to return from the DL. Now, they’ll just de-activate the Sundvolds and there won’t be any more “injuries.”

2. Players with less than 2 years of experience in the NBA can now be sent to the Development League without losing rights to said player. Would have been nice to have this option last year for ol’ Swifty. Assistants can also be sent to the DL to help develop players – or if the head coach found out they were assisting things they shouldn’t have.

Schedule

Well, the schedule’s out, and it looks like the networks have taken an interest in the Sonics. The Supes will be on ABC once (Sun., Mar. 12 vs the Lakers as Sugar Ray and Colorado Kobe throw down at the Forum ... er, Staples Center), ESPN 4 times, and TNT 7 times.

One good thing about the schedule? The Sonics won’t play a team that won a playoff series last year until December, when they take on the Pacers in the 16th game of the season.

One bad thing about the schedule? Think the early January 2006 trip to Indy, Chicago, Detroit, New York, and Philly is bad? Try this mid-February ’06 jaunt on for size: Milwaukee, Minnesota, San Antonio, Atlanta (phew), Orlando, and Miami.

Let’s hope Seattle isn’t locked in a tight race with the Nuggets or Wolves heading into that trip.