More Dowdell

I'll be putting up a more in-depth piece later, but in reading about Zabian Dowdell (I know, get over it, Pete; bear with me, though), I came to find out that he has two older brothers who played college hoops, as well as a younger sister who plays for South Florida.

That's interesting, sure, but not all that interesting. Probably half the guys in the summer league (shoot, maybe 3/4) have brothers or sisters who played collegiately.

What was more interesting to me is that one of Zabian Dowdell's older brothers played at the University of Maine. His name?

Jermaine Jackson.

No, it's not the same Jermaine Jackson who's suiting up for the Sonics in the summer league, but don't you think it's kind of strange that Dowdell's lined up next to a guy with the same name as his brother, who also plays guard, and who also is about 6'5". Kind of weird, right?

Durant's Shot Still Not Falling; Sonics Lose Again

Okay, take a deep breath, everyone. We're two games into meaningless summer league action - a league where Jelani McCoy can lead the league in rebounds, Milt Palacio can lead in assists, and Marcus Banks can lead in points.

In other words, don't get too worried when a guy who was named all-everything as a 19-year-old freshman has only hit 9 of his first 37 shots from the field.

If you missed last night's affair, you can watch the nba.com archive here. I'll try to write up a more in-depth report later in the day, but for now a couple of quick hits based on watching the game ...

- Johan Petro showed a marked improvement over his first effort.
- Still love to watch Gelabale play. The guy was just born to be a sixth man.
- If you haven't seen Jeff Green's thunderous dunk over Nate Robinson, you missed out. Do yourself a favor and watch the highlight package at nba.com so you can see it. Green also played much better last night.
- Zabian Dowdell - while still looking like a rookie - looked much better after getting his feet wet on Friday night. As I always say, I need more Dowdell, baby.
- As Kevin Pelton noted at supersonics.com, Durant is effective thus far at drawing fouls because of his quickness. This is an underappreciated ability; and one that people like Karl Malone or Adrian Dantley, used to their advantage. While those two didn't use the quickness factor so much, the ability to get to the line 8-10 times a night consistently is the difference between averaging 14 points a game and averaging 18-22 points a game. It also means fewer 7 point nights for the rookie.
- Julius Hodge sure fell back to earth after that first game, didn't he?

Summer League, Game Two

Another Summer League tilt tonight, and this time it’s the Knicks. Like every team in the Vegas League (motto: “Trying as hard as we can to train your young players while simultaneously seducing them with every evil known to man”), the Knicks have a multitude of Who’s That? guys, with a few Oh, I Know Him folks.

In the latter category, you’ll find Nate Robinson, of whom, as every New York newspaper will tell you, we Seattlites are in lust for even more than our flannel shirts, beards, cups of cappuccinos, and laptops. In fact, we’ll trade every player on our roster just to get the opportunity to bask in all 5’9” of Nate’s glory!

Please. The Sonics want Nate Robinson about as much as the Knicks do. I’ll let you read between the lines on that one.

Anyways, alongside the Mighty Mite are Renaldo Balkman and Randolph Morris, who would have been a first round pick last month if the Knicks hadn’t swiped him from college earlier this year.

Better yet, Olu Famutimi is listed on both teams’ rosters. From what I understand, it’s part of his agent’s plan to get him listed on all 30 rosters at some point this summer with the hopes that someone will forget that he’s there, he sneaks into the opening day roster, and then it’s all gravy from there. It’s really the American Dream for the 21st Century if you think about it – fame by association. If you think about it, there’s a little Olu Famutimi in all of us, isn’t there?

But enough about the flippin’ Knicks. How about the Sonics tonight? Well, Mickael Gelabale is supposed to be around after spraining an ankle and he should be a big help in providing some stability to the offense, which looked as erratic as could be expected in Friday’s opener. Unfortunately, Gelabale doesn’t play the point, where the Sonics were sorely lacking help on Friday. Here’s to hoping supersonicsoul favorite Zabian Dowdell was able to watch some Mo Cheeks classic video over the weekend and puts forth a better effort on tonight. We’re pulling for you, Little Z!

Elsewhere, Gary Washburn lists some possibilities for the vacant assistant coach positions for P.J. Carlesimo and informs us that Robert Swift has added a machine gun to the ever-growing artwork collections on his right and left arms. Watching Swift on the bench on Friday, he’s definitely bigger (270? Wow), and his hair might even be longer than before. Hard to believe he used to look like this. Quite frankly, if Swift broke his left leg and rolled up and down the court in a wheelchair, he’d still be an improvement over Sene and Petro. Man, did those guys stink it up on Friday or what?

As always, the game will be “broadcast” on nba.com (here’s the link). Game time is 7 pm. Hey, it’s going to be hot as hell today in Seattle (and Vancouver, as well), so why not grab yourself a nice glass of something cold and avail yourself of the best the internet has to offer?