Watson and Ridnour

There was a lot of talk when the Sonics acquired Earl Watson as to how his arrival would impact Luke Ridnour. Frodo’s had the best year of his career this season, but there was a concern among many that he was playing too many minutes (of course, according to some people who read this site, two minutes is too many minutes for Luke, but I digress).

I thought I would take a look at the brief run of Watson-Ridnour to see how it has affected Ridnour’s game. Is he playing better? Making more turnovers, or less? Shooting more conscientiously? How many hypothetical questions can I ask before you become annoyed and start reading bowling.com?

The one area of Ridnour’s game which has changed the most since Watson’s acquisition is 3-point shooting. Prior to this season, Ridnour was an acceptable option from long-range, but this year he was off, never rising to more than 33% in any month and bottoming out at a Lloyd Daniels-like 15% in February.

Enter Earl Watson. This month, Frodo has been draining long-range jumpers to the tune of 43%, a remarkable number. That ties in with fewer minutes and fewer attempts, which leads one to believe that Ridnour is being more selective in his shot attempts, and therefore more successful.

Another area of improvement is turnovers. After turning the ball over once every 17 minutes for most of the season, that figure has shrunk to one turnover every 22 minutes, a 30% improvement. Again, I think this can be attributed to fewer minutes and a reduction in fatigue. Concurrently, his assist figures are up slightly on a per-minute basis, to the point that this month he posted the best per-minute assist numbers of his career.

As for defense, it’s hard to tell. 82games doesn’t break down +/- figures on a daily or monthly basis (geez, guys, how hard could it be, there’s only 300-odd players to crunch numbers for), but it’s worth noting that Frodo’s +/- has been mostly minus lately, despite the Sonics recent spate of wins. Obviously, Earl Watson can do many things, but improve Frodo’s defense is not one of them.

On the whole, I’d say it’s pretty obvious that the Watson trade has improved Ridnour’s game. Has he improved enough that he merits starting for the near future? As an Oregon grad, a proud Duck fan, and a UCLA hater, it pains me to say no. Watson is clearly outplaying Ridnour right now, and it seems obvious to me that the Sonics play better with Earl than Luke running the show. If Frodo is willing to come off the bench for 20-some minutes a night, I think he’d be a great fit. But as a long-term starter for this team, the Sonics seem to be better off with Watson.

Schadenfreude

From the "Sucks To Be You" Department, the Nuggets have gone from having too many point guards to not having enough in the space of about 1 month. Earl Boykins, the Mighty Might who serves as Andre Miller's caddy - and the reason why the Nugs thought they could offload Earl Watson on the Sonics without missing a beat - has broken his hand and could be out for up to 5 weeks (according to Dr. George Karl). All of which means that Howard Eisley will now have to be taken down from the cabinet in Kiki Vandeweghe's office, dusted off, and inserted at the beginning of the 2nd quarter in Denver's next game.

Trades Redux

It’s early, but I thought it would be interesting to see how the 3 trades the Sonics pulled off recently have played out. I know we’re all thrilled with the way Watson and Wilcox have done in green and gold, but how are Flip, Vladi, and Reggie Evans (oh, yeah, the Potato, too) doing in new jerseys?

FLIP MURRAY
Ah, the Flipster. Young Ronald has started 8 of 10 games in Cleveland thus far, averaging 13 points, 2 boards, and 3 assists. However, his increased production is only from increased minutes, as his FG% is the same as in Seattle, and his 3-pt mark has gone from bad (22%) to worse (12%!). Also worth noting: Cleveland is 4-6 since acquiring Murray; they were 32-22 before he showed up.

REGGIE EVANS
Mr. Glass has gone at the boards with alacrity since arriving in Denver, putting up nearly 9 boards a game in only 22 minutes, a remarkable number. It’s clear what he’s up to, though, when you see his 37% FG mark and 43% FT mark: Evans is going Rodman – grabbing boards at the expense of the rest of his game. His 20-rebound game against Toronto notwithstanding, Evans’ negative +/- rating in a Nugget uniform belies his contribution to Denver. The Nuggets are 6-3 since he showed up, though, so he’s obviously not an obstacle to their success.

VLADIMIR RADMANOVIC
Here’s where it gets interesting. Vlade has clearly enjoyed his visit to LA. 49% from 3-point range (!), 7 boards a game, nearly 13 points a night, and, most important to Vlade, 33 minutes a game are all positives. So long as he keeps draining from outside, it’s all good for Radman. But with 89% of his shots coming from jumpers, is this likely to continue? After all, he’s only hit 40% or better from long-distance once in his career, so it doesn’t seem likely he’ll be able to hit 50% for the rest of the year – or the playoffs. His arrival in LA coincided with a 4-game Clip losing streak, but LA has rebounded to post a 6-6 mark with Vlade in tow. The surface analysis says that Vlade’s a great fit for LA, as his outside game complements Elton Brand’s inside prowess. All that said, I think the Clips are plenty glad to have him around. (Although, can I ask a question here? Why is Mike Dunleavy starting something called Quintin Ross at small forward, when he’s got Corey Maggette and Radmanovic sitting on the bench? Okay, the Clips have gone on a 3-game win streak since he did it, but it’s still weird.)

VITALY POTAPENKO
You can look at two ways. 1) The Potato has played 5 minutes for Sac-to since they acquired him from the Sonics. 2) The Kings 7-2 since the Potato showed up. You say tomato, I say Potapenko.

I’ll look at the Sonics’ side of this equation later on.