Sonic Youth boom or doom...Gaining Speed and Experience, but still not above .500

OK, the first month of the season is over and the Sonics aren’t turning anyone’s heads, but they aren’t exactly making us hide them either. The Sonics have had a few pleasant surprises and a few bad ones too, but hey, at least they aren’t the Miami Heat. One of the biggest surprises this year has been the emergence of players we weren’t counting on for much.

We expected a lot from Rashard and he has seemed to exceed those expectations, and guys like Desmond who people thought were years away have proved they are ready now, but the biggest surprise has to be the maligned, hated, and often unreliable Vin Baker.

I will be the first to admit that last year I rode Vin Baker like a government mule for his bad play, but I have to admit that the guy has turned it around. I for one never thought Vin Baker could resurrect his career, but I’m a big enough man to go ahead and admit I was wrong, and say Vin Baker is playing hard and fairly well again. I think that admitting when your wrong is a very important thing to do, and I would encourage the person whose favorite Sonics player is riding the bench so much he is sprouting roots (by the way he wears #77) should do the same. I mean Radmanovic looks as bad an OO when he comes into the games, the only difference is that at least OO has the good sense not to shoot.

Yet I digress, my point is still that this slim Vin is hustling, scoring in the post, and giving the inexperienced front court of the Sonics needed points and aggressiveness. If we set aside the game versus the Lakers (where the entire team played like crap), then Vin has become the closest thing the Sonics have to a reliable big man, and he has certainly been a key to the victories the Sonics do have.

This year Vin Baker is hustling, playing with heart, and actually going into the lane instead of simply hoisting up jumpers. I could write an entire column on that phenomenon alone, but maybe the real story has been Earl Watson, who so far has been the most surprising and productive rookie for the Sonics. Earl the “Pearl” has emerged as such a talented backup point that Shammond Williams is now on the trading block, and, from what I hear ... being shopped.

All of these surprising pluses have still not translated into a good record, and the reason may simply be that the Sonics beat themselves, and often when they win they win in spite of themselves. I would love to say that all of the Sonics' wins are due to great team efforts and great basketball, but it simply wouldn’t be true. The Sonics have actually beaten teams about 4 times, but about 4 of those other wins are wins where the other team simply played like crap, and an individual effort by one player (normally GP) carried them to a win. The Sonics team defense is absolutely disgusting, and lazy, and although I see potential in all of the young big men (excluding OO), none of them have played exceptionally well.

The problem with the Sonics defense appears to be the thing I initially thought would ruin the league, but instead has only ruined teams that do it too often ... the zone. The Sonics have ran a hidden trapping zone for almost a decade now, but the fact is that it has always gotten them beat by patient teams that are willing to work the clock and keep passing for a good shot. The problem is that while some thought the allowance of zones would make the Sonics trap better, it has actually made it worse. The Sonics' trapping zone was always a scheme where a man was supposed to come from nowhere and put pressure on the player with the ball, but the Sonics' trap with the zone is some sort of retarded scheme where players guard no one, and then fail to run out at open shooters. It's fine and dandy to double team good players, but the Sonics are either so thick headed or so lazy that they double a guy like Robert Horry and leave guys like Kobe Bryant, Derek Fisher, Lindsey Hunter, John Stockton, and every other decent shooter in the league, wide open. I know the Sonics are inexperienced up front and most nights don’t feel comfortable guarding a lot of guys one on one, but my god, does a guy like Greg Ostertag or Mark Madsen really deserve a double?

The other thing getting the Sonics beat is players pulling disappearing acts on any given night. Everyone in the NBA has bad games, but of the 5 guys the Sonics need to have good nights in order to win 3 to 4 have been disappearing on any given night. The Sonics need production out of Gary, Vin, Rashard, Desmond, and Brent every night to win, but most nights 3 are terrible and the other two are forced to carry the load. This whole phenomenon is why the stats say the Sonics are getting great performances but they aren’t winning. If Vin has 24 one night and 15 the next he is averaging 19, but he had one good game and one mediocre one, and that same thing has been happening with Desmond, Brent, Rashard, and GP to a much lesser extent.

The Sonics are not a bad team by any stretch of the imagination, and they have the potential to be a fairly decent one, but they instead are letting up and down performances, and warped defensive scheme cost them games. The season is young and the Sonics have plenty of time to resurrect it, but if the Sonics are going to save this season they are going to have to play more consistent and aggressive basketball night in and night out.

Goat of the Week: Howard Schultz (or whoever picks the entertainment)

Alright maybe I’m a grouch or maybe I’m just way too picky, but the time-out and half-time shows in the Key have turned into a friggin' three ring circus, and I’m hating every second of it. First we had Squatch, I’m sure some of you love him and find his gimmicks cool and funny, but to me they are just damn annoying, and he rubs me the wrong friggin' way, literally (he actually rubbed my head once and I almost decked him for it.) I mean anyone that does the stupid crap he does has to be another closet Pee-wee Herman, and I don’t want a freak like that within 10 feet of me.

Then we had those fake cars on the screen and supposedly the car that won was from the side of the arena that screamed the loudest. Its fake, its always been fake, and if you scream when they do it you are either gullible, and thus I have some land in Florida to sell you, or you're just such a psychotic fanboy and you think it helps the team, and believe me it doesn’t.

The final straw is when the Sonics started adding guys to the dance team. Fine, one guy busting a move is OK, but now there are 5 and they’re featured more than the women. What the hell is that about? Excuse me the whole point of a dance team is to give the male fans some eye candy while they’re waiting for the action to pick back up, and now we’re somehow watching these N’sync wannabes dance instead of hot college dancer chicks that probably have another job at some strip club in Seattle. Now I’m really just pissed.

Whoever the hell is picking the entertainment is either 12 or a retarded moron that thinks stupid gimmicks make the fans come back, when they’re actually only pissing off the fans that have always came.

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All opinions expressed in this column are solely the views of the author and do not necessarily reflect those of other columnists or staff of Sonicscentral.com