Official Seattle Supersonics Thread

[Sauru]

i hope they stay in seattle, they could have a bright future. well, i guess if they stay or move they have a bright future. if they land the top pick(which i know it early but it looks like they will have a good shot at it) and durant and green improve they could have one of the hotter young teams in the league next season.

[Silas]

My hatred for Clay Bennett grows exponentially daily. He promised he didn't buy the Sonics with the intention to move them to Oklahoma but he did exactly that.

If they move, their popularity and legacy with both diminish. They have so much history in Seattle, from the Payton-Kemp powerhouse in the 90's to the Freddy Brown-Gus Williams Championship team of 79.

I'm convinced Clay Bennett is the reason Lenny Wilkins, who was formally President of the team, stepped down.

They have absolutely nowhere to go but up. They have the young savior they've finally been searching for all these years. Just as things seem to look bright in the future, they decide to pull the rug out from underneath Sonic fans.

To move a team from such a great NBA city with such great history would be a travesty, and I would dedicate my life to advocating the hatred of Clay Bennett.

They say there is still hope though. Apparently now the Washington legislature knows that Bennett is serious they're willing to renegotiate some things, and the Seattle Mayor has said he's going to do everything within his power to keep the team here, but who knows how much that will actually do.

I just keep up hope, it'd be such a killer if they left.

[Lamrock]

Up by 20 at the half against the cold Heat despite Wade's return. I wouldn't be shocked if they blew it though.

[Silas]

They did get their first win, they definitely sent a message to the heat, who had Wade back. The Heat look far from good so far this season. What was interesting is that Durant had a fairly poor game and they managed to still win. Wilcox and Wilkins, as well as Collison all played very well.

They didn't relinquish any leads, thank god. I was looking through the stats, the Heat never led the entire game.

Good job for them, maybe they'll be able to keep this up who knows.

Oh and just a reminder, 4 Sonics on the all star ballot, if anyone wants the Sonics to stay in Seattle, they must be voted for.

[J J]

maybe they'll be able to keep this up who knows.

lol, there is a slight chance of 2% of that happening.

[Lamrock]

I can see the Sonics keeping this up,the one win in every nine games thing, with the last game in the season deciding if their win total hits double digits or now.

But on a more serious note, I will vote the Sonics into the game, even though the players nominated suck.

[Silas]

The only one having an off year is Wally, Luke just hasn't gotten any PT yet but once he does and PJ realizes he's ten times better than Watson, he'll start to play better.

[Silas]

How about the Sonics! Winning in double OT with a Durant fadeaway 3-pointer. Obviously Damien Wilkins was the man of the night, 41 points! It is funny though, Durant is getting all the credit for the game because he hit the winner.

Damien looked incredible that game, he was hitting everything. I always thought he was underrated, and he made be the leading scorer on the team when the season is over, but he has trouble consistently making his shot, though he doesn't have trouble consistently shooting the ball.

[Sauru]

that kind of bothered me silas. the hype machine was moving full speed ahead on durant cause he hit the winner and wilkins was mentioned as a side note.

[Silas]

Yep... The FSN Northwest coverage was all about Damien Wilkins, but the National Coverage was all about Durant.

[Carmo]

I'd just like to point out that Sene is averaging 57.6 boards per 48 minutes....hands down best rebouder ever.

[Silas]

I'm really interested to see what happens to that guy. He'll come in sometimes and get like four blocks in two minutes, then other times he'll come in and do jack squat, then other times he'll come in and hit an incredible hook shot for a guy that isn't supposed to know how to play offense. His development is confusing as heck, especially when he doesn't do much in the D-league.

[Lamrock]

Although the Sonics lost, it was a good game tonight. Even though he choked twice in the final minute, I wish they would start Delonte West. He might be my favorite Sonic right now.

[Silas]

Kevin Durant is having a terrible couple weeks, he's shot 4-13ish for about six games in a row it feels like.

Look at his state line the last six games for field goal attempts:

4-12 - 12pts
2-8 - 11pts
3-12 - 16pts
8-18 - 21pts
6-16 - 18pts
4-13 - 10pts

That's 34% fg over the last six games, ouch.

[Lamrock]

Right now he looks like a 2002 Antoine Walker.

[mvpshaq32]

....Or a current Mcgrady whose FGM/FGA is similar,
7-20 - 19pts
6-19 - 15pts
9-20 - 26pts
4-14 - 12pts
12-31 - 35pts
8-23 - 20pts

[Its_asdf]

On a positive note for the Sonics, Green gets 14 rebounds in back to back games. The guy's a stud for sure.

[J J]

Durant's overrated. For me, the Sonics will be better if Kevin is the #2 option on offense rather than the leader.

Whenever I look at Kevin I see a black version of Kirilenko, although AK is way way better than KD.

[---]

Kirilenko is basically the opposite of Kevin Durant.

[Lamrock]

And AK47 is not way better than KD35.

[TheMC5]

And AK47 is not way better than KD35.

AK is vastly superior to Durant in every aspect except shooting. He's a better passer, better defender, better shot blocker, and at this point in Durant's career, he's a more efficient scorer. He just doesn't have Durant's stroke.

Right now, despite Durant's strong game against the Spurs, I think it would be a travesty if he wins ROY. He's been as inefficient as Adam Morrison was last year, he's just gotten more playing time and has the green light to shoot whenever he wants. Pretty much every player in the league with a jump shot could average 18 PPG on sub 40% shooting, it's just that if they did, their coach would bench them.

And I know, I know, it's really early in Durant's career. But for a guy touted as the next dominant scorer in the NBA, his incredibly inefficient start has to be concerning. And judging from the 3 Sonics games I've seen this year, he looks like he has a really bad attitude on offense. He just stands at the 3 point line waiting for a pass. Ever heard of moving without the ball, KD? Maybe run off a screen, or something. It pleased me to see Delonte West hitting Kurt Thomas with more passes than Durant in the Nets game. If you want the ball, work for it. You are not Michael Jordan, or LeBron James, or Kobe Bryant. He's done absolutely nothing to warrant the amount of shots he's been getting so far, which really irks me.

Remember, this is all based off the 3 Sonics games I've seen, which could have just been Durant's worst games. If other, more dedicated Sonics fans have observed otherwise, I would not disagree.

[Silas]

I think he's inefficient, but you're being much too harsh. Morrison had something Durant does not have, a consistent point guard. Earl Watson and Delonte West are both guys who are not great set-up men. Luke Ridnour is great at that, but he has been injured the entire season and thus has not seen consistent minutes. Once Luke Ridnour earns a spot in the regular rotation and the season progresses, I see Durant growing more consistent, still not the right side of 40% most nights, but much better than the low 30% he's been shooting lately.

Furthermore, he does work for the ball, but the kind of thing you're talking about, running around off screens like Rip Hamilton or Ray Allen is not a regular part of the Sonics offense. If you watch their games, you'll notice that that rarely happens with other players. Watch their two main perimeter scorers not named Durant: Wally and Damien Wilkins. What those guys do to get open is push their man down to the block and flair up, sometimes rubbing next to the high post, but they don't run double screens along the baseline like Ray Allen always did. It's an entirely different team than last year.

They try to be a fast break team and as a result when they set up into the offense, they don't have elaborate plays to get perimeter players the ball, and really they don't need any because nobody on their team is "the man" to stop. Defenses don't have to sit down and pick out the one or two players to stop like they had to last year with Ray or Rashard. Damien Wilkins and Wally are not "stop on every play" guys and neither is Durant.

His attitude on offense is far from bad. The only bad thing is what the Sonics try to run as an offense, and their point guard leadership. Kevin works for the ball as much as anyone else on the team (except maybe wally when he's hot), but he's still a rookie and he's learning so you have to have some patience with him, you can't write off every wrong decision as bad attitude and unwillingness to learn and work.

[TheMC5]

Fair enough, Silas. Like I said, I've only seen 3 Sonics games this year, but the thing that stood out for me was Durant's body language when he didn't get the ball. And I never expected him to get the ball, cause he never moved to get open. But again, very small sample size. Maybe he was just frustrated in those games, maybe he was tired, maybe Seattle's offensive sets just suck. I don't know.

And I think you're giving too much credit to Raymond Felton. Despite his 7 APG average last year, he was and continues to be primarily a scoring guard. He's kind of like Stephon Marbury. He picks up assists simply by virtue of how often he has the ball in his hands, not because he's a fantastic playmaker. I'm not saying he's a bad playmaker, but he's no Steve Nash. Hell, he's probably not even Luke Ridnour in terms of making plays for other guys.

[Silas]

You're right, he's not as good of a play maker as Steve Nash or Luke Ridnour (Luke Ridnour is a great play maker, he's just not offensive minded enough and he doesn't play great defense). But, he's still a better play maker than Earl Watson, and as I said, Brevin Knight is a great and consistent play maker and he was responsible for a good portion of the play making duties last season with the Bobcats.

[Indy]

Silas how are you enjoying Jeff Green? I thought that was a pretty ballsy and brilliant pick after trading for that 5th spot. Solid, fundamentally sound player.

Seattle is one of my favorite cities in the world, and I would be extremely sad to lose their team, so I'll vote for Sonics in the all-star game instead of the Toine Walker hype. Actually, that whole scenario with Toine starting has the possibility to be hilarious so I think I'll do that too.