Sene a mistake? + Spurs Preview

The Seattle Times Sonics Notebook has a quote from Coach Carlesimo talking about the coming increase in minutes for Mouhamed Sene. Sene has shown almost nothing in a little over a year in the NBA, but the Sonics knew that he was raw and might take several years to develop. The Sonics have deservedly taken alot of heat for drafting big man projects the last three years, but take a look at the 10 players taken after Sene:

Pick Player

11 JJ Reddick

12 Hilton Armstong
13 Thabo Sefolosha
14 Ronnie Brewer
15 Cedric Simmons
16 Rodney Carney
17 Shawne Williams
18 Oleksiy Pecherov

19 Quincy Douby
20 Renaldo Balkman

Not exactly a murder's row. Of those players, Brewer was buried on the Utah bench last year, but has really broken out this year, Balkman is a nice energy player for the Knicks, and Quincy Douby gave the Sonics trouble in their game with Sacramento earlier this season. That's about the entire impact of the players the Sonics might have concievably drafted instead of Sene. I don't think you can mark this one down as a big loss when compared to who the Sonics could have had.

Now drafting Robert Swift (#12) over Al Jefferson (#15)...now that was a mistake.

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Everyone knows the Spurs are good. They are the obvious favorite to win their 5th championship of the Duncan era, and are blistering the league so far with a 11-2 record (I guess you could say the Spurs have been as good this year as the Sonics have been bad. The Spurs big three are playing at an all-star level right now, led by Manu Ginobili who has been out of this world so far, with a MVP-like PER of 30.49. The only other player over 30 is Lebron James. This is the 4th year in a row that Ginobili has played at an all-star level, but he's due his odd substitution pattern (Ginobili is a 6th man), and his low minutes (27.5 mpg this year), he doesn't put up the numbers or have the cache necessary to get to the all-star game, let alone MVP award contention. Tony Parker and Tim Duncan have played up to their usual high standards, and as such we might be looking at a blowout. Based off of PER, the Spurs have 3 of the league's 16 best players. They've played together for years, and will have every advantage possible against the Sonics.

The Spurs rank 3rd in the league in offensive efficiency (107.7 points for every 100 possessions), and 4th in the league in defensive efficiency (allowing 98.2 points for every 100 possessions) which is a deadly combination for Spurs opponents. The Spurs have a reputation as a methodical team, which is back up by the numbers, as the Spurs play at the 3rd slowest pace in the game (as opposed to the Sonics who play at the 2nd fast pace). They rarely turn the ball over (3rd best turnover rate), while the Sonics love to give the ball away (4th worst turnover rate). You get the idea. As Colin Cowherd would say "They're just better." Sorry. I think he's obnoxious too, but its a good quote.

So, can the Sonics win? Of Course! This is the NBA, and anyone can have a bad night. The Sonics play at home, but that hasn't been that much of an advantage thus far, as their actually scoring less and allowing more points at home. So much for a young team being energized. Expect a Spurs win.

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

11/25/2007 Sunday NBA picks

San Antonio (-9) over Seattle

Toronto (-4) over Chicago

(Yesterday 0-3, 14-13 overall) The Lord Giveth, and the Lord Taketh Away

Sonics Lose: 98-93

The Sonics played a huge 4th quarter, pulling to within a one point with less 55 seconds left after trailing the entire game, but in the end it wasn't enough. The Nets were just good enough to make the plays needed to pull out the game, while the young Sonics fell short again after a valiant comeback. It's not a terrible loss or anything, and if the Sonics have a chance to win every game in the 4th quarter, they'll start winning more than once every 7 games. As it is, the Sonics fell to 2-11.

Green is Good: Jeff Green is quickly becoming one of my favorite Sonics. Green didn't get the start, but he played great, scoring in double figures for the 3rd straight game and matching his 14 points with with 14 rebounds. This was also his 2nd consecutive double-double. Green brings a lot of energy to the floor, and is a very intelligent basketball player. He's beginning to take advantage of mismatches. The Net's are a nice matchup as they don't have very good post players to guard him, but at the same time, he had to guard some of the Net's perimeter scorers, specifically Richard Jefferson and Vince Carter. He wasn't great, but was able to box out and he gets to a lot of loose balls. Green played 33 minutes and was 6-10 from the field. His one weak point was turnovers as he led the team with 4 (tied with Earl Watson and Delonte West).

Go West!: Delonte West was an impact player again, scoring 17 points and being the focal point on offense. West is excellent in the fast break game, and is learning how to work the pick and roll, the bread and butter play for most NBA teams. It was nice to see West put together consecutive strong games, maybe Coach Carlesimo will start to look at starting West. I like West's energy coming off the bench as well, but at some point, he is going to need to get consistent minutes and know that he isn't a few bad minutes of being yanked for another 30+ minutes of 'Watson-time'. West was confident and shot the ball 14 times, a season high for him. Playing against a familiar foe (he played the Nets 4 times a year with the Celtics before this season) might have given West added confidence.

KD on D: Kevin Durant, was taken to school by the Jefferson/Carter combo, as the pair took turns teaching the rookie a lesson on defense. Hubie Brown certainly didn't shy away from mentioning it. Aside from being abused on defense, Durant again struggled shooting the ball, going 4-12 for 12 points. But when the chips were down, Durant came up big, with a monster slam and nailing a contested three on consecutive possessions in the 4th quarter. I'm still waiting for Coach Carlesimo to get him some easier looks, but I know he'll figure it out. He's too good not to.

Crunch time lineup: West, Durant, Wilkins, Green, and Thomas. Wilcox has been the Sonics' best player this year, but Coach Carlesimo stuck Thomas in for crunch time, and it wasn't a bad decision. This was a game the Nets won with experience, constantly making the smart play to win the game. Thomas has that effect on the Sonics, and essentially always make the correct play, whether fouling to stop a fast break by pulling on Richard Jefferson's jersey, or making Jason Kidd go to the line to earn points the hard way.

Saddle Up: The Supersonics have tomorrow off, before facing the defending champion San Antonio Spurs on Sunday. While I don't expect a win, it will be interesting to see the Sonics match up with their template. As everyone probably knows by now, Clay Bennett wants to model his franchise after the Spurs, and as such he pilfered Coach Carlesimo and front office up and comer Sam Presti to lead the Sonics. I'm sure there will be some emotions on Sunday.

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Saturday 11/24/2007 Picks

Dallas (-4.5) over Milwaukee
Denver (+4.5) over Houston
Boston (-6.5) over Charlotte - I know this is a trap, but I can't help it. There is no way Boston
won't win by 7.

(Yesterday 4-0, 14-10 on the year) I knew I would make it back.

I hope KD ate 20 pounds of Turkey last night...

...because I know I did. As NBA action picks up after a league wide off day (Thanksgiving remains a NFL day), the Seattle Supersonics try to get back in the win column vs. the New Jersey Nets (5-7). While the Nets seem to be having a slightly down year by their own high standards, Vince Carter returned to action on Wednesday, stopping a 6-game losing streak. On the season, the Nets are 5-2 with Carter, and 0-5 without. So the Sonics will get a full-strength Nets team, eager to climb out of the small hole they are in due to Carter's early season injury.

The Nets are of course led by their Big 3 of Carter, Jason Kidd and Richard Jefferson (averaging almost 25 ppg this year). The Nets have had a variety of different starters in the frontcourt, but expect Sean Williams, Jason Collins, and Nenad Krstic (if healthy) to play a lot of the minutes. Krstic's knee isn't healthy, so I wouldn't expect him to make a big impact. Collins is big, averages 0.6 ppg game. He plays almost 20 minutes a game. That is indescribably bad. In fact between Krstic's injury and Collins' transformation into a mannequin, one might think that the Net's frontcourt would be devoid of talent. One would be wrong. The Net's have a giant X-factor in Sean Williams, the 17th overall pick in the draft. Williams slipped because of character issues (he was kicked off of the Boston College team midway through the season), but he's a shot-blocker/athlete extraordinaire, averaging 2.2 blocks per game in under 20 mpg. His 40 minute averages are excellent, and his 19.24 PER would lead the Sonics (albeit in lower minutes than most league leaders). The Sonics dependence on jump shots should neutralize Williams somewhat.

The Sonics have now had 3 off days to recuperate from their 5-game road trip, and I'm sure Coach Carlesimo will come back with some different looks. The starting lineup will likely include Green, Wilcox, Wilkins, Durant, and Watson, but if he wanted to give West the start it wouldn't surprise me.

In most cases, I would fully expect a Net's win, but the 3-days off gives a nice window for the Sonics to make some improvements. I'm picking the Net's but I'll have a live Blog of the game later tonight, so maybe I'll switch my pick midway through the first half.

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
John Hollinger has an excellent article dissecting Kevin Durant's difficulties. Check it out. Despite Hollinger's rep as a 'stat' guy he does some nice old-school scouting here and points out Durant's three main problems which can be summarized like this:
1) Durant has terrible shot selection (duh)
2) Durant isn't creating shots for teammates or himself(He has the lowest pure point ratio in the NBA. That is he is the worst player in the league at creating shots. This was shocking.)
3) Durant isn't rebounding

I've talked about 1 and 3 at length, but point 2 was shocking. These problems are obviously related, we don't like Durant's shot selection because he isn't getting any easy shots to bump up his shooting %, and he isn't getting any easy looks because he isn't getting out on the break or getting garbage points off of offensive boards. Hollinger doesn't come out and say it, but I think the solution to a lot of his problems would be to move Durant off from the perimeter and give him some easier looks and mismatches inside.

I'm a game or two away from calling the Durant at shooting guard idea a disaster.

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Orlando (-9) over Charlotte - like money in the bank
Boston (-7.5) over LA Lakers
Utah (-6.5) over New Orleans ( No Chris Paul+No Tyson Chandler)
New Jersey (-3) over Seattle - sorry.

(3-1 on Wednesday, 10-10 overall...Back to .500!)

Since the Sonics are one of 4 teams off today...

I thought I would throw in a few thoughts and picks for tonight.

Bill Simmons, ESPN's lead dog and one of the best NBA writers in the business (note: I didn't always have to qualify the previous statement by adding 'NBA', but add me to the list of people who are more than a little tired of the Patriots crap), broke down the Western Conference. Here's what he had to say about the Sonics:

14. SEATTLE SUPERSONICSPreseason prediction: 25 wins (14th)Revised prediction: 18 wins

Speaking of depressed fans, here are the Sonics! They could be watching Kevin Durant learn the ropes from Ray Allen and Rashard Lewis right now -- instead, he's the overmatched crunch-time scorer for a rebuilding young team that's bolting within the next three years. You have to feel for Seattle fans, who want nothing more than to drink a celebratory triple, nonfat, soy latte while wearing their new $100 Durant jersey that they're terrified to buy until somebody announces the team is staying. On a personal note, I don't believe any former NBA champion should ever be allowed to move. This should be in the NBA bylaws and everything. You win a title, you stay in that city forever. Done and done.
Anyway, here's what I don't get: The best five Sonics are Durant, Chris Wilcox, Jeff Green, Damien Wilkins and Delonte West, an athletic unit that would work for SmallBall because Wilkins, Green and West rebound better than their sizes. According to 82games.com, they've played only nine minutes together this season. Whaaaaaaaat??? This team is crying out for SmallBall! Why play Durant at 2-guard when you could force mismatches by playing him at the 4 against everyone but the Knicks? It's not like the other guys give them a better chance to rebound and defend. For instance, they played a conventional lineup in Charlotte last weekend, lost by 16 points and got outrebounded 60-38. What do they have to lose? I wish Don Nelson could take this team over for two weeks.
Reason No. 12,806 why I love the NBA: Watching Durant drain a buzzer-beating, off-balance 3 in double-OT to beat Atlanta on Friday. It wasn't just that Durant came through in his ninth NBA game, it was how easy he made it look -- in end-of-the-game situations, he'll always be able to shoot over his defender because of his ... (hold on, give me a chance to sedate Jay Bilas) ... (wait, just another second) ... (OK, we're good, he's down) ... incomparable length. We haven't seen the last of the Durant buzzer-beaters this season. I'm predicting a 30-footer with a hand in his face by March 15.

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Simmons is generally dead on, though suggesting the Sonics should have kept Rashard Lewis when Orlando was willing to pay $100+ million for a guy who doesn't consider defense to be worth his time is laughable. He can make an argument about Ray Allen, though its too early to call that trade either way. Jeff Green is looking pretty good to me.
Durant absolutely needs a chance to play some time at either of the forward spots. How many power forwards can keep up with him? At least let him try vs. some teams. I talked about how the Sonics need to start getting Durant some easy shots yesterday, and what better way than to match up with with some burly power forward and let Durant take him off the dribble? Plus it would take away one more player from protecting the rim. The reason why this hasn't happened is that Coach Carlesimo is committed to defense (as evidenced by Earl Watson's minutes the first few games of the season), and Durant would get abused from time to time. But obviously the KD-Shooting Guard experiment isn't working. Let's try something new.
I should also note that Simmon's best 5 players and my best 5 players from a few days ago differs only by having Green in for Collison. It's obvious who the best five are to anyone but Coach Carlesimo. When you are 2-10, you can experiment a little.

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
A number of websites are posting their Rookie Watch, a list of the top 10 rookies so far this year. As one can imagine, these lists vary wildly depending on what hallucinogens the maker of the list is on. I don't want to spend too much time on this, but I was mildly outraged that David Thorpe placed Jamarrio Moon above Jeff Green on this week's list. Moon has worse stats than Green despite playing more minutes and being six (6!) years older. I won't slam Thorpe too bad though, as he did say nice things about Green:

"Jeff Green is considered a face-up 4/3, but he is dangerous as a low-post threat. He patiently works to get his hook shot off, and he has great hands. Better yet, he has a nose for the ball and is very comfortable making plays in traffic. This kid is worthy of his top-five selection."

I wholeheartedly agree David. Just bump him up above Moon, Juan Carlos Navarro, and Luis Scola next time. You can make an argument that Green has been better than Al Horford and KD too, but both of those players have had a lot more responsibility pushed on them. And if we go just by PER, Sean Williams of the Nets is blowing everybody out of the water.

His notes on Durant aren't nearly as promising though:

"Seattle's Kevin Durant has the look of a guy focused on style over substance. Works for marketing, but not in the win column."

and

"2. Kevin Durant, SonicsIn Seattle's past five games, KD has attempted 16 3-pointers and grabbed just 12 rebounds in almost 33 minutes per game. That is an inexcusable stat for an athletic and tall guard who played so hard in college."

I agree. It's time for both KD and the Sonics coaching staff to step it up.
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
NBA Picks:

Dallas (+2) over Houston
Atlanta (+8) over Miami
Cleveland(-5) over Minnesota
Orlando(+5.5) over San Antonio

(2-1 for last picks (11/14), 7-9 overall)

Losing: Not So Fun

As the Seattle Supersonics fell to 2-10 yesterday after a 125-108 loss to the Memphis Grizzlies (for the 2nd time this season), I was thinking about what to write. A lot of times it is tough to find positives out of another loss, but with a team as young as the Sonics in what can clearly now be called a rebuilding year, you measure a worthwhile year by other factors: player development, team improvement over the course of the season, weeding out the players who aren't part of the future, etc. With that in mind, I'll do a gimmick post, the classic 'thumbs up/thumbs down' rundown of the game.

Thumbs Up: To Jeff Green who earned his first start vs. the Grizzlies and recorded career highs in minutes (31) and rebounds (14). Green added 11 points for his first double-double, and was a monster on the offensive glass snatching 8 rebounds after missed Sonics shots. On the downside, Green shot just 4-12 from the field, and recorded only 1 assist (not usually an issue for a frontcourt player but Green's passing skills from college were especially hyped). Still Green has already turned out to be one of the top rookies in the NBA living up to his lofty draft status. While most expected Green to claim a starting job eventually this season, I think its safe to say he is ahead of schedule. Green is currently averaging 9.8 points per game and his numbers should continue to climb as he is rewarded with more minutes. Green could be a 12-13 ppg scorer his rookie year if he continues to get playing time.

Thumbs Down: Kevin Durant. Durant started his NBA career with a bang, scoring 18, 27, 24, and 27 points in his first four professional games leading a lot of people to believe he was going to be even better than we expected (and we expected alot). Unfortunately, since then Durant has struggled, scoring over 20 just twice, and even more discouragingly, shooting over 38% from the field in just one game. He's managed to balance his extremely poor shooting by getting to the free throw line more (where he converts an outstanding 84%), but he has been unable to balance his dropoffs in other areas, including rebounding , where he is averaging just over 3 rpg over the last 8 games. Almost no one expected Jeff Green to be the better Sonics rookie so far, but that's exactly what their PERs through 12 games say (13.88 to 12.60). It's November, and KD has plenty of time to pick it up, but by playing so well his first four games, he raised everyone's expectations. The worst news is that he appears to finally be losing confidence, taking a career low 8 shots vs. Memphis. We need you KD. Coach Carlesimo: Can you get KD some easier scoring opportunities? Would it kill you? He's only 19 for goodness' sake.

Thumbs Up: Sonics Rebounding. The Sonics outrebounded the Grizzlies 48-35, including an 18-10 edge on the offensive glass (thank you Jeff Green). In addition to Green's big game, Johan Petro added 7 in 17 minutes, Chris Wilcox grabbed 6, and Wally Szczerbiak and Damien Wilkins grabbed 5 apiece.

Thumbs Down: Starting slow. The Sonics came out like zombies for the start of both halfs, losing ending the first quarter down by 14, and losing another 10 points in the third. The Sonics aren't good enough to fight back from big deficits, and coming out of the locker room flat is the surest way for a young team to get blown out.

Thumbs Up: Delonte West. I'd be remiss if I didn't mention the Sonics leading scorer. West scored 17 points (including 3-3 from downtown) and added 4 assists in 26 minutes of action. Coach Carlesimo went with the hot hand giving Earl Watson 22 minutes. Watson had a decent night as well scoring 11 points, though he only recorded 3 assists less than half of his season average. With Luke Ridnour out two-four weeks, this is a great time for one of these guys to seize control of the point guard position.

Thumbs Down: Sonics counting stats. As expected in a loss where the outcome was never in doubt, the Grizzlies put up more steals (9 to 5), assists (33 to 20), blocks (9 to 3), hand less turnovers (13 to 16) and had an outstanding night from the field (55.8% overall).

Thumbs Up: The Sonics are done with their 5 game road trip and return home for Thanksgiving. Their next game is a nationally televised battle with the New Jersey Nets.

Thumbs Down: The Sonics had a losing record on the road trip.

Thumbs Up: I correctly predicted the number of wins for the Sonics on the road trip.

Numbers Breakdown: 11 games into the season

What we know, 11 games into the season.

The Sonics will have at least 3 solid scoring options for this season. We knew/hoped that Durant would be able to score 20 ppg, and he has (+/- a few points). Durant isn't hitting enough shots, but he's still a consistent scorer who is already drawing a lot of attention from opposing defenses.

Damien Wilkins has made a significant jump, averaging 17.1 ppg, but he has improved in all aspects of his offensive game, shooting nearly 50% from the field, and raising his 40 minute averages across the board. His improvement basically came out of nowhere, as there was nothing in his past that suggested he would make these kind of improvements with increased playing time, but regardless, Wilkins has been one of the best stories of the young season for the Sonics. He has had the best individual game of the season with 41 vs. the Hawks, which led to one of the Sonics' two wins. He's shooting nearly 53% from behind the arc, and he's hitting the boards harder, averaging almost 6 per game.

The third part of the Sonics triumvirate, is the athletic big man, Chris Wilcox. Despite averaging only 31.5 minutes per game, Wilcox is averaging career highs in points (16.2) and rebounds (8.1). Wilcox will easily be a 20/10 guy if he got the requisite 40 minutes per game. As I said in my last post, I'm not sure what is holding back Wilcox's minutes. Luckily he's not holding back, and is the Sonics strongest post presence.

Anyone who's watched a Sonic game this year could guess that Durant, Wilcox, and Wilkins are the three leading scorers for the team. But I wonder how many people would guess that the Sonics number 5 overall draft pick, Jeff Green was the 4th leading scorer, at 9.6 ppg along with 4.6 rpg. Green has been getting it done in 21.4 minutes. It's going to be difficult for Green to break into the starting lineup this year, as the forward positions are being manned by Wilkins and Wilcox (perhaps Green's play is one reason Wilcox's minutes have been limited), but he's making the most of his chances, and has shown steady improvement. Later in the year, I wouldn't be surprised to see the Sonics go to a lineup with Wilcox at Center, Green at Power forward, and Wilkins at Small Forward, putting the best players all on the floor at the same time.

Nick Collison mans the center position for the Sonics and has been almost exactly average, with 8 points and 8 rebounds per game, and a PER of 13.41, which is right in line with his career average of just over 14. Since he hasn't shown any real improvement in his 4 years in the league, you know exactly what you are getting with Collison now. A solid, average frontcourt player, who's willing to take the abuse of guarding bigger stronger players. Collison is a solid asset to have on the team, and it's niced to see him locked up for a few more years at a reasonable price.

Now comes the diaster, the point guard position. Earl Watson: 8.69 PER. Delonte West: 9.36 PER. Luke Ridnour: 4.34 PER. Through 1/8 of the season, the Sonics haven't had rotation-level performance from the point guard position that is playing 48 minutes per game. Out of the three, Watson is acknowledged as the best perimeter defender, and as such as gotten the majority of the minutes. While West has the most offensive upside, and has in fact played the best (outside of positional defense), Watson has played below his past level, and is likely to improve as the season continues. I'd like to see Watson and West split the minutes equally, with Ridnour basically relegated to a bench role. West could develop into a starting caliber player, so he needs minutes, but Watson is the best option right now.

The only other players of note have been Wally Szczerbiak who has been average apart from his explosion against Sacramento. In fact, he's only scored in double figures 2 other times this season, averaging 9.1 ppg on the season. Kurt Thomas has been injured much of the season, but he will join the big man rotation should he get healthy this season.

End of the Dream (aka the two game winning streak is over)

They are still young, folks, they are still young. After a 2-game winning streak against two of the weaker foes in the Eastern Conference, Miami and Atlanta, the Sonics came back to Earth against the Bobcats in a 100-84 loss in Charlotte. This wasn't really that surprising, especially considering the shocking double-OT victory over the Hawks just the night before, which ended with Kevin Durant hitting his first game-winning shot, a 3-pointer as time expired.

Unfortuneatly for the Sonics, there wasn't much carryover, as Durant again struggled from the field, shooting just 3-12 from the field. But he showed some real grit, and went to work, going to the stripe 10 times and hitting all of his free throws to finish with 16 points. Durant has a lot of trouble shooting the rock this year, but this is the 2nd time he's had a rough shooting night, but still made a positive impact by getting to the line 10 times. For the season, Durant is shooting 86% from the line, in stark contrast to his 38% shooting from the field. If he's going to have such a rough time shooting the ball, he's going to need to have more games like this so that he doesn't become a liability. Not that there's any force on Earth that should keep the Sonics from playing him 30 minutes a night.

Damien Wilkins followed up his 41 point outburst with 19 points on 5-16 shooting with 7 rebounds. Clearly, Damien was still feeling it, as he uncorked those 16 shots on an off shooting night, but its nice to see another scoring option step up. One problem with the Wilkins/Durant combo at the small forward/shooting guard positions. Their opponents on the Bobcats, Gerald Wallace and Jason Richardson combined to go for 50 points on 50% shooting including 5-10 from 3. We know Durant is a liability on defense, but Wilkins is going to have to step it up to help out his young counterpart.

Chris Wilcox put together another really strong game, especially in the first half when he scored 19 of his 24 points. Wilcox also added 9 points, 2 steals, 2 blocks and 2 assists for a nice looking box score. He continued to get it done in limited minutes, playing only 28 in the game. Wilcox has been the Sonics best player this year with a PER of 18.14 through the first 10 games, narrowly edging out Damien Wilkins (PER: 18.13), but continues to play only 31 minutes a game. Wilcox's per 40 minute averages suggest he would be a 20/10 player if he got minutes a player of his caliber deserves. Does he tire easily (he's currently at a career high in minutes per game)? Is Coach Carlesimo under a management-edict to play Wilcox only 30 minutes to suppress his numbers and make it easier to resign him? Is Coach Carlesimo just enamored with the heretofore untapped potential in Johan Petro and M. Sene? Whatever the reason, if the Sonics want to win, Wilcox needs more minutes. Averaging 35 a game for the rest of the season would be a great start.

Luke Ridnour got another DNP as Earl Watson and Delonte Watson combined for 48 minutes of ineffectiveness. I don't think Ridnour is the answer either, but I'm tired of looking at the question. The point guard position must be addressed before the start of next season.

The Sonics now get Sunday off, before finishing their road trip with a game in Memphis. The Supersonics will get the chance to avenge a 105-98 loss to the Grizzlies which also included Durant's 3-17 game (though he did go 10-10 from the line as mentioned earlier).