No Quarter

At supersonicsoul, we're all about righting wrongs. You could say it's our Mission Statement. Our Paradigm. Our Core Value. We could say that, except none of us work in an office, and the guy at the corner store looked at me kind of funny when I asked him what his Mission Statement was, so I'm kind of fuzzy on the concept now.

In any event, last night on Fox 13 (I think their Mission Statement is "Our Anchors Are the Most Likely to Appear in Soft-Core Porn Within 7 Years"), they ran a piece on the new State of Washington quarter, and how this pressing bit of business is currently being studied by the Washington State Quarter Commission (Mission Statement: "Wasting Your Tax Dollars in an Efficient Manner").

Well, the designs they came up with are so lame I almost thought a Canadian team designed them. Seriously, a fish? Was lumberjack already taken? How about a bag of granola? Why don't we just put a latte and confirm all the dumb stereotypes the rest of the country already has about Washington?

Well, as per our Mission Statement, I'm righting the wrongs. Shown below are my 2 nominations for the new state quarter. They may be poorly done, but that's not my Mission Statement, so I don't really care.

Bruce Bowen: Moral Crusader

"There are a lot of people in the league who have lost a lot of respect for him. People are starting to see he's not so clean."
-Bruce Bowen, on Ray Allen

Um, yeah, okay, Bruce. I shouldn't slag Bowen too much, in that he came clean and owned up to his responsibility in the Spurs' loss to the Sonics on March 26th, when he and Allen got into a tussle and Bowen kicked Sugar Ray in the back. Bowen's kick prompted a technical and - later, thanks to a phone call from Allen to Stu Jackson - a $10,000 fine. Still, for Bruce Bowen to comment on another player's lack of cleanliness is somewhat silly.

Whatever the case, tonight's game should be more than the typical season-ending fare one would expect from a team out of the playoffs. The Sonics are ... well, they're not exactly on fire, but with four consecutive wins, they're at least moving from the "Low" part of the burner to around 5 or 6. The Spurs, meanwhile, are questing for playoff positioning, so the game means a huge amount to S.A.

Oh, and did I mention that Bob Hill still doesn't mail Gregg Popovich a Christmas card? Should be some kind of fun in the Alamo tonight. Top matchups:

1. Allen vs Bowen (natch)
2. Wilcox vs Duncan
3. Hill vs Pop
4. Frodo vs the Wee Frenchman
5. The Rim vs Brent Barry (sorry, couldn't help myself)

Luke and Earl

There was considerable talk around the time of the Earl Watson trade that this move was going to spur Luke Ridnour to greater heights; that the reason he wasn’t playing to the level people expected this season was because he lacked adequate motivation, unlike the past two seasons when Antonio Daniels was there to spur him on.

Well, has adding Watson made a difference? Let’s take a look.

For simplicity’s sake, I’ve marked the cutoff point as March 1st, even though Watson’s first game in a Sonic jersey came on February 28th. Actually, I did this because I’m too lazy to add up all of Ridnour’s stats from the beginning of the year through February 20th; it’s just too darn hard. It’s a lot easier just to take his numbers on a monthly basis.

Anyway, it’s a relatively small sample size (18 games) to look at, but the numbers do show some intriguing insights.

1. Luke Ridnour is having a terrible April. If you include the March 31 game against the Lakers when he went 0-for-8, Frodo has shot 15-for-43 in his last five games, which isn’t great even for 3-point range, let alone inside the arc. While his assist figures are still admirable, he’s been turning the ball over way more often this month than normal.
2. Overall, Watson’s arrival has put of an offensive push into Luke’s game, specifically the passing game. After averaging between 8.9 and 9.7 assist per 48 minutes for the first four months, Ridnour jumped out to 11.3 assists per 48 in March, without a corresponding increase in turnovers. That’s a great sign.
3. His three-point shooting is as inconsistent as ever. Here are Luke’s numbers per month from 3-point land, percentage-wise: 23, 31, 33, 16, 41, 14. That’s borderline Jason Kidd circa 1995. As a reference, here’s Earl Watson’s numbers this season: 33, 43, 39, 40, 39, 53. Much better, obviously.
4. Luke’s steals and points per 48 minutes are essentially unchanged.

But back to the point of the story: Has Watson’s presence made any difference in Ridnour’s game? The honest answer: No, at least beyond a decrease in minutes. Obviously, it will take more than 18 games to tell us the impact the one point guard has on the other, but from this vantage point it is clear that Watson is outperforming Ridnour, and that Watson’s arrival has not coincided with an improvement in Frodo’s game.

Whether Ridnour will continue to improve on his own just from maturity is unknown, and of that his detractors should take heed. However, it seems to be clear that adding Watson to the equation is not making difference.