The Boys are Back in Town
Posted on Monday, September 4th, 2006 at 6:51 am by Brian Robinson
As September begins informal player scrimmages at the Furtado Center look to increase in both intensity and frequency with an influx of Sonics players from around the country.
Over the past two months Nick Collison, Luke Ridnour, and Robert Swift have been fixtureat the Furtado Center. Working alone or with coaches they have both drilled and played in games against a variety of competition. I know that Swift has also participated in Pro-Am games in the Rainier Beach area and attended by Seattle area basketball alumni such as Jason Terry, Jamal Crawford, Nate Robinson, and Donald Watts.
Begining tomorrow they will be joined by an increasing number of their teammates who will participate in voluntary scrimmages that have become a September fixture in Seattle. Tomorrow both Noel Felix and Mo Sene should be available to play. While I have not confirmed their arrival date I understand that next week will also see Ray Allen return from Conneticut, Rashard Lewis from Houston, and Earl Watson from LA. According to one source I spoke with Damien Wilkens may have arrived over the weekend.
I have always felt that having players reside in the communty over the summer, and train together in the offseason is extremely valuable and credited these workouts for our strong start two seasons ago. Last season projected starting center Robert Swift admittedly spent most of the summer at home in Bakersfield, CA and returned in poor shape to start the season. This year the 21 year old player spent nearly the entire summer with the Sonics coaching staff working on his game and conditioning. It will be interesting to see how he holds up during these scrimmages.
Unfortunately the regular media has done a poor job in covering these scrimmages and giving the hard core Sonics fans some news they can use during the slow summer months. SonicsCentral.com has requested, and expects to recieve permission to be in regular attendance at the workouts so we will let you know who is looking good going into the season.
September 4th, 2006 at 7:08 am
having infos about who’s playing good in the scrimmages would be very good !
Thanks for the good work
September 4th, 2006 at 10:22 am
The News Tribune sucks!!!!!!!!!! Frank Huges should retire!!!!!!!!!
Thanks for the coverage this off-season boys. You, and frequent camping trips have made this summer pass quicker than ever. GO SONICS!!!!!!!!!!!
September 4th, 2006 at 2:21 pm
Hey, the *News-Tribune*’s not that bad; what’s more, it looks like an award-winner next to the Seattle papers.
September 4th, 2006 at 4:21 pm
“Last season projected starting center Robert Swift admittedly spent most of the summer at home in Bakersfield, CA and returned in poor shape to start the season”
Thats interesting - I personally criticized Weiss for not giving Rob more consistent run early, but it sounds like there might have been some lessons to be learned. Glad to see Rob has turned it around and worked hard this off season. Having Petro and Sene around probably adds some increased motivation to return ready to claim the spot.
Re: luke/nick/rob - Its just good news to hear that 3 players who need to make more of an impact this season in order for the team to be successful are really working hard. Hopefully the rest have been practicing as well.
September 4th, 2006 at 4:33 pm
I believe that Rob came back last summer in mid to late august. He got injured in camp and feels that if he’d been better condition the injury may not have happened. This year he worked out like a beast.
Weiss was really to blame. Terrible. Hill has also been in town all summer with the exception of a 2 week vacation in August.
September 4th, 2006 at 7:19 pm
This group seems so much more dedicated to winning than last year’s squad did. Even though only a few faces have changed, the impact that Wilcox, Watson, and Hill have had is amazing.
I’m jealous of you guys, though. This is the time of year that my kind of fan loves the most…it’s when the days are so slow that you get the juiciest player tidbits.
September 5th, 2006 at 6:38 am
Interesting news out of Denver, Reggie Evans gets a five year deal? I’m going to assume he’ll sign for something along the lines of 5 and 20 as much more than that will put the Nuggets into Lux Tax land for the season and with all the injury problems they have on that roster waiting to happen I can’t see why they’d go over that threshold for a guy whose at best thier fourth big man, more than likely 5th.
Crazy.
September 5th, 2006 at 7:04 am
5 and $20 is just too much money for a guy who was still sitting there with no offers at this point in the offseason. Did the Sonics offer him 3 and $15 last year or am I wrong on that one?
September 5th, 2006 at 8:12 am
2 and 10 with a third year player option I do believe. Chalk that one up as another one I’m glad the player didn’t sign.
September 5th, 2006 at 9:06 am
Stupid signing for the Nuggs, great story for an undrafted free agent. $4 mil isn’t much money in the big scheme of things, but why would you sign a guy with zero offensive skills other than grabbing sack to a 5 year deal.
Orlando has Bo Outlaw doing the same job for vet minimum.
Karl, Kroenke and Mark Warkentien are running that team into the ground.
September 5th, 2006 at 10:17 am
I don’t remember offering Reggie $5 per. I remember offering $3 per, and his agent asking for $5 per. I still would have liked him at $3 or $5 per for a couple years before the Wilcox deal. We were division champs with Reggie starting at PF. Flip and Vlad were so redundant on the roster, but Reggie fit in. We needed at least one rebounder. Hopefully we have that now in Wilcox, and our C’s improve as well.
September 5th, 2006 at 11:14 am
With Kenyon and Nene on board with lucrative deals already, giving Reggie $5 million as your third-string power forward is poor cap management (Unless you plan on moving either Kenyon or Nene, or you don’t think one or both can stay healthy for an entire season). And with their current salaries, moving either Kenyon or Nene seems almost impossible. This is great for both Reggie and the Sonics.
September 5th, 2006 at 11:40 am
My memory is close to what green n gold said. I thought the Sonic offer was 3 years $10 million.
I found this quote from Frank Hughes last August
“Fegan says Evans is worth about $5.5 million a year. The Sonics say he is worth about half that. This one could get ugly. And it may last all the way up to training camp, if not longer.”
September 5th, 2006 at 11:47 am
“I still would have liked him at $3 or $5 per for a couple years before the Wilcox deal. We were division champs with Reggie starting at PF.”
I didn’t mind Reggie as a spot minute player. I despised him as a starter for many reasons, but most of them can be traced to Nate McMillan’s inability or unwillingess to dictate matchups as a coach. I felt that Nate was overly obsessed with his rotations and lineups to the point where he often second guessed himself at the expense of an important matchup or retreated to the comfort zone of playing small rather than put his best 2-way players on the floor as much as possible. He was a very reactive coach instead of being proactive, not a good recipe for success at the NBA level.
There is a school of thought that starting lineups don’t matter. I don’t subscribe to that notion and I know many players don’t either. For them starting IS a big deal. I think that Nate’s often ridiculous starting lineups ended up being a big reason why that team imploded the next year. Marginally talented role players like Reggie Evans and Jerome James started buying into the hype and their agents wanted them to get paid like starters.
Back to Reggie, he played the situation for all it was worth, so good for him. But he’s a matchup player, kind of like a left handed pinch hitter in baseball, only useful in certain situations. That’s a lot of money to pay for a player like that. $4 mil a year could have bought them a better shooter (Chucky Atkins for example) which I think we can all agree is what they need desperately. Mike James would have been even better if they had the cap room …
September 5th, 2006 at 11:50 am
Another speculation:
From SeattleTimes.com
Quote:
Sund declined to comment on the specifics of the contract talks, but according to league sources, the Sonics have extended Evans a multi-year offer worth about $2.5 million in the first season. The contract would be slightly more than the five-year, $12 million deal Mark Madsen received from Minnesota.
However, another source with knowledge of the negotiations said that Seattle’s offer is a three-year deal exceeding $10 million.
September 5th, 2006 at 11:50 am
I believe Jerome James was offered 3 years, $15 million…luckily Isiah was there to offer more.
September 5th, 2006 at 12:03 pm
Nate balanced starting lineup offense from perimeter, defense/rebounding from interior. That made sense and he also wanted to win the bench matchup. He was more a system coach than a think on his feet, a hundred adjustment for small gains coach like Karl was. I can see merits to each. Maybe Nate wasnt confident enough yet to go that way. He also as a player wwas a glue guy, a defensive guy. Often part of a bench that kept or increased leads, and he maybe wanted to recreate that.
September 5th, 2006 at 12:40 pm
“I believe Jerome James was offered 3 years, $15 million…luckily Isiah was there to offer more.”
Jerome was never offered more than a one year deal with a team option for a second year. There was no chance they were going to have him on another long term deal.
September 5th, 2006 at 9:38 pm
I understand that Ray and Rashard are there now too.
Noel got there today. And Sene is on his way.
September 5th, 2006 at 10:02 pm
I hope Noel will hang out a bit. I’ll probably see him on Friday if they’re working out. If not I’ll call him to see if he wants to get together over the weekend.
He’s a cool guy. I know that all these NBA players get hit up with people wanting to hang with them a lot, but we’ll get to know each other better this season so hopefully he won’t think I’m just following the ballplayers around.
September 6th, 2006 at 12:30 pm
So, will Wilcox be part of these scrimmages as well? I didn’t see his name mentioned at all.
September 6th, 2006 at 1:36 pm
These type of workouts are voluntary until training camp starts. I haven’t heard of Wilcox arriving soon or anything yet … maybe Brian has.