Seattle Sonics fire Hill, "reassign" Sund

"They fired ME?! But, I'm BOB HILL, damnit!"

From the Seattle P.I.:

The Sonics fired coach Bob Hill and reassigned general manager Rick Sund on Tuesday afternoon.

Team chairman Clay Bennett made the announcement in a statement sent to media outlets. Bennett and Sonics vice-chairman Lenny Wilkens will lead the search for a new coach and GM, the statement said.

Sund, who has a year remaining on his contract, will serve as a consultant next season.

"Bob Hill and Rick Sund are fine individuals of excellent personal character and are basketball men through and through," Bennett said in the statement. "They were both extremely helpful to us during the challenging year of transition."

The Sonics completed their season Wednesday with a 31-51 record. Only four NBA teams had fewer victories.

No big shocker here. The only surprise is they didn't do it four months ago. (Of course, that would have meant the owners were interested in winning in Seattle which, obviously, they weren't.)

Worst Drafts

The lottery is drawing closer, and with it comes rampant speculation on who the Sonics should select.

I thought it makes a great opportunity to review the Sonics’ draft history, specifically the worst drafts in team history. I also thought it would be a good chance to mention Billy Paultz in an article for no good reason whatsoever.

Here you go:

1970: With a first-rounder and two seconds you’d think the Sonics could do better than Jim Ard, Jake Ford, and Pete Cross. Sadly, the Sonics pass up John Johnson, Geoff Petrie, Jim McMillan, Calvin Murphy, Tiny Archibald, Billy Paultz (The Whopper!), and Dan Issel.

1972: Again, the Sonics have a first and two seconds, and, again, they come up empty, unless you consider Bud Stallworth, Joby Wright, and Brian Taylor as significant acquisitions. Taylor had a decent career in the ABA, but he never played a game in Seattle. (On a side note, the draft lasted for 14 rounds; the Sonics didn’t get anything in the other 12 rounds either).

1975: The Sonics reach for Frank Oleynick with the 12th pick of the first round. Oleynick’s sole claim to fame was attending Seattle U. Maybe the Sonics figured they could save on airfare. Also available at that pick were: Ricky Sobers, Joe Bryant, Kevin Grevey, Gus Williams, World B Free, and Dan Roundfield.

1978: Coming off a berth in the NBA Finals, you couldn’t expect much in the draft, but considering that of the five guys the Sonics picked, only one of them (Ralph Drollinger, UCLA) even played in the league, and Drollinger’s “career” consisted of six games played, well, that’s not much of a draft, folks.

1981: “With the fifth overall selection in the NBA Draft, the Seattle Supersonics select ...” Danny Vranes? Considering the Sonics could have wound up with Tom Chambers, Orlando Woolridge, Rolando Blackman, Kelly Tripucka, Danny Schayes, Larry Nance, Danny Ainge, or Eddie Johnson (the good one), that’s just lame.

1994: With an upper-echelon pick for the first time in a while, Seattle goes for Carlos Rogers with the 11th pick. Of course, they could have had Jalen Rose, but who had heard of him?

2004-2006: We will not mention these seasons.

Rumors

- According to the Oregonian, the Blazers will pursue Rashard Lewis this summer. But wait, it gets better! The only way the over-the-cap Blazers can make the deal happen is to move Zach Randolph's Roseanne Barr-sized contract. Do the Blazers really expect the Sonics to 1) help them to acquire a young all-star (Lewis) and 2) help them to rid themselves of a guy who stopped at a strip club on the way to the airport for a funeral? Really? If I'm the Sonics' GM, I'd hang up the phone somwhere between "Zach" and "Randolph."

-The ever-reliable Sam Smith passes along that Sund and Hill are likely out the door (!) and that Clay Bennett is interested in acquiring some of the talent in San Antonio's front office. Oh, and Sam also mentions the sun is expected to set in the west tonight. And that the Sonics might be interested in PJ Carlisemo, because, you know, he did so well in the NBA the first time 'round.

-Gary Washburn is predicting a new coach this week in his blog. And that Bob Hill is having hernia surgery in San Antonio this week. It's unknown if the surgery will be more or less painful than what Hill went through this year.

-Frank Hughes thinks Rick Adelman would make a good choice for the head coach. I think a small part of me just died.

I don't care what anybody else says. The only serious candidate for the Soncis should be the (hopefully) soon-to-be-unemployed Rick Carlisle. The guy's resurrected a franchise before (Detroit) and he can do it here. The Sonics don't need an offensive wizard to help them. They need someone who will convince all the guys on the roster to play defense, and they need someone who commands their respect. Adelman and PJ both fail on those counts, Carlisle doesn't.