Opie

Opie all up in Miles' grill. "I'm open . . . seriously!"

In a season full of misery, one bright spot has emerged. Young Robert Swift has taken the reins as Seattle's center of the future, and his play of late has even put him in the role of center of the present.

Swift has averaged - hold onto your seats, folks - close to a double-double the past month, 9.8 ppg and 8.5 rebounds per game. In fact, he's the 16th-best center in the league at rebounds per game during that time.

Now, for most teams, having the 16th-best rebounding center wouldn't be cause for celebration. But the Sonics are not most teams. Since Jack Sikma headed for Milwaukee in exchange for Alton Lister lo, those many years ago, the Sonics have been devoid of a quality man at the 5 spot. Is Swift the answer to our prayers? Well, plenty of other guys have posted great numbers for a month's time (see Fortson, Danny for further reference), so the jury is still out on Swift. But at least he gives us something to get excited about, and isn't that what being a fan is all about?

Back from the dead?

After a kick-in-the-nuts loss to Portland Monday night, the Sonics rebounded with a hard-fought (O.K., ugly) win over the Warriors tonight, 111-107.

Supersonicsoul was in the house tonight, as Chunk took me to the game for a birthday present. As I am old and enfeebled now, it was nice to get out of the house. (Even though I had to pay five dollars for a hot-dog. FIVE DOLLARS!)

Speaking of Supersonicsoul, we are officially back online now. All the files were erased from the server because some idiot (me) thought it would be cool to upgrade to mySQL/PHP and some other web-crap I don't fully understand. Anyhue, all is fixed now and I promise not to break the website again. Probably.

Sonic Talk

Couple of notes regarding the Sonics:

1. Rumors persist that the Sonics are pursuing recently traded Marcus Banks from the T-Wolves in exchange for Flip Murray and/or Reggie Evans. Banks is a 6’2” PG/SG (mostly PG), drafted out of UNLV by the Grizzlies – oddly enough – between two guys named Collison and Ridnour in 2003. He’s been a reserve for his career (if you can call 2 ½ years a career), but he does offer some strength that Frodo lacks. Basically, with Banks you’re getting more rebounds, steals, fouls, and free throw attempts, and you’re giving up assists and a small bit of shooting. Neither Frodo nor Banks are outstanding shooters, although Banks should get some credit for improving his FT shooting this season. Banks has sat on the bench for the majority of the year in Boston, only getting serious minutes for a 3-week span in mid-December to early January. Would he help the Sonics? Well, probably not any more than resident mystery man Rick Brunson.


2. Should be an interesting matchup tonight, as the Blazers take a 4-15 road record into Key Arena. Juan Dixon has really come on strong in the last month, regularly scoring 20 points and putting up a 43% 3-pt mark for the month of January, as well as a 50% mark overall. Obviously, he’s not going to keep up that rate, but I’m not expecting Ray Allen to put an end to it. One other item to note: Steve Blake and Luke Ridnour will stage a “World’s Grittiest Man” competition at halftime. Celebrity judges include Chris Corchiani and John Stockton.

3. Welcome back, Nate.