Long time, No post: What I missed in December

So it's been 6 weeks since I posted here, but I think I actually have a pretty good excuse. After graduation, marriage, the holiday season and starting a new job, I had a pretty action packed December, but now I'm back and ready to go. Before catching up to the present month (which hasn't been pretty: the Sonics are 0-6), I'll look back at December, which was a pretty good month for the Sonics. They went 6-8 with wins against Minnesota(x2), Milwaukee, LA Clippers, New York, and Toronto. Now only one of those teams isn't currently in last place in their division (Toronto, a playoff team), but the first step to becoming a good team is beating the bad teams.

So the record was better, which is a tangible sign of improvement. But as far as the secondary signs of improvement...those were not in abundance. The Sonics averaged 97.1 ppg in December, down from 98.8 ppg in November. Which is probably attributable to the Sonics playing at a slower pace (they've fallen to the 6th fastest pace in the league for the season after being #1 in the league earlier in the year), but at the same time, the Sonics allowed the exact same number of points in November and December: 104.2 ppg. So despite playing at a slower pace, Seattle's point differential got worse.

From an individual standpoint, Wally Szczerbiak really broke out in December averaging 14.6 ppg in 26.0 mpg. Wally was a consistent scoring force, getting to double digits in all but two games for the month. He was as deadly as ever from beyond the arc, dialing in at over %40, and making almost 2 three-pointers/game. Kevin Durant was surprisingly consistent, but suffered small dips almost across the board (minutes, points, fg%, steals, rebounds...you get the point). That's not to say he isn't getting better, but we're all still waiting for him to really break out.

After strong starts, Chris Wilcox and Damien Wilkins both cooled in December, with Wilcox's scoring decreasing from to 15.4 ppg to 11.5 ppg. Wilkins' fall has been even more precipitous, falling from 14.0 ppg to 7.4 ppg. Wilkin's fall is at least in part due to Wally's big month, but his production has really fallen off.

Knowing what we know now, (i.e. the 0-6 start to January), it's clear that the big improvement in record for December was masking the lack of actual improvement in the Sonics...a lack of improvement that they are now paying the price for.