Davis

There has been considerable speculation this off-season regarding erstwhile Pacer free agent Dale Davis joining the Sonics' roster. His agent, Chubby Wells, even told David Locke that DD had narrowed his choices to Seattle and Detroit, a claim which I found to be bogus at best.

Well, here's a quote from Wells in the Detroit Free-Press on Sunday regarding the situation:

"Detroit's the front-runner," Wells said. "Everything is stuck right now as we wait for Michael Finley."

With Finley seemingly a lock to be headed for Miami (as the same article mentions), it certainly seems that the likelihood of Dale Davis wearing a Sonic jersey is, to borrow a famous line, somewhere between slim and none, and slim just left town.

Adios to "The Omen"?

According to several sources, Damien "The Omen" Wilkins has signed an offer sheet with the Minnesota Timberwolves:

Published reports in Seattle said the Wolves' offer is for five years and $15 million for Wilkins, 25, who only has one season of NBA experience.

"Damien is someone that we believe has tremendous upside," Wolves General Manager Jim Stack said. "He continually improved throughout last season, and he became a significant contributor for Seattle during the playoffs."

Wilkins caught the attention of new Wolves coach Dwane Casey when he was the Sonics' associate head coach last season.

(from the Star Tribune)

According to NBA rules, the Sonics have seven days to match the offer. Does anyone think the Sonics will pay that kind of money for a guy who averaged 6.3 points a game? More importantly, does anyone think they should?

Well, let me throw my foam-based hat into the ring and say yes, they should re-sign Damien. Do I think he's worth 3 Mil a year? Based on his basketball skills, no. Wilkins flashed some moments of brilliance last year, looking at times like D-Mase with a jump shot, but it was mostly while performing mop-up duty at the end of a game—if the Sonics weren't willing to re-sign Jerome James based on his 15 minutes of fame during the playoffs, then they probably shouldn't reward "The Omen" for his 1.5 minutes of garbage time glory.

Re-signing Wilkins isn't about his talents on the basketball court, though, or even about Wilkins himself—it's about morale. After losing Casey, Nate, Jerome, and Antonio in the course of two months, the Sonics need to do something immediately to stop the hemorrhaging, and if that means forking out $3mil a year for 25-year-old with "potential", then I'm all for it. (Hell, we're probably still paying Ibby more than that!)

It's time for Wall-Walk to make some kind of peace offering to the fans and take one for the team. Damien Wilkins isn't the answer to all of the Sonics ailments, but it sure beats bleeding to death.

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?