Les Sonics

The dog days of August are upon we writers of NBA blogs. With no signings to report, here's a quick look at how Gelabale and Petro are faring at the 2006 FIBA World Championships.

Gelabale: 9.3 ppg, 3.3 rpg, 62% FT
Petro: 5.3 ppg, 1.7 rpg

Petro had a nice showing against Serbia & Montenegro, posting 8 points in a mere 12 minutes. Likewise, Gelabale's had 1 good game (14 points and 7 boards against Nigeria), and 2 other not-so-good games. Too early to get a good read on the games, but Gelabale's presence in the starting lineup is reassuring, and Petro has done what you would expect out of such a young player.

If you're wondering what the caliber of play is in these games, here's a quote from the AP story of France's win over Nigeria:

"Frederic Weis was the catalyst for France early on."

Um, yeah.

In other news, Eva Longoria's happy Tony Parker got hurt, because it makes it easier for her to root for the American team. Glad that crisis was averted.

Oh, and Ibo Kutluay is still alive. He also scored more points in 30 minutes against Lithuania than he did in his entire Sonic career. I'm guessing signing Ibo to a 2-year contract won't go on Rick Sund's resume any time soon.

X-Rated Action

Supersonics.com has a Q&A with Xavier McDaniel. Here, my all-time favorite Supersonic talks about my all-time favorite Supersonic playoff run:

What's your favorite memory from your Sonics career?

I would say going to the Western Conference Finals against the Lakers - having an opportunity really to beat them, playing four tough games. We lost all four of them. The two in Los Angeles could have gone either way - it felt like Magic Johnson got some calls he didn't deserve. Dale (Ellis) got his shot blocked by Michael Cooper in Game 3. I hit a 3-pointer at the buzzer to lose by one, being down by four. It was a tough series, but it was a situation where we didn't win that many games the year before, we were picked to be the worst team in the league again and we all just came together and meshed. Bernie was the mastermind behind everything. Tom Chambers and Dale were the go-to guys. I was that third go-to guy where, if one of them was slacking off, I could pick it up offensively. We ran a trap defense. I think that was a great year. The only part about that is I'm sad we never built on it. That kind of always spoiled things for me.

Read the complete interview here.

Rotation

It's still early, but here's a quick look at how the minutes may shape up next year for the Sonics.

Player, Minutes
Allen, 37
Lewis, 37
Wilcox, 34
Ridnour, 30
Watson, 28
Swift, 21
Collison, 18
Petro, 18
Wilkins, 15
Sene, 5
Gelabale, 5
Total, 248

Those numbers are obviously subject to change, especially in regard to Swift and Petro, as nobody knows which of those two guys will take over the 5 spot this year (my early vote is for Swift, if for no other reason than his additional seasoning and apparent physical development during the offseason). Plus, it's possible that Ridnour may see his numbers decline as the season progresses and Bob Hill salivates at the idea of Watson's strong defense getting more PT.

Thoughts?