Mcmillan’s Comeback May Give Seattle A Lift

It’s somewhat frightening, and perhaps a little presumptuous, to think that the 39-12 Seattle SuperSonics can actually get exponentially better. But, as popular veteran Nate McMillan returns to the court against the Portland Trail Blazers tonight after not playing all season following knee surgery last summer, the Sonics seem to think that, despite their already impressive season, they can increase their talent level and decrease their ability to be beaten.

“I just think Nate makes everybody on the team better,” Sonics coach George Karl said of the 33-year-old guard who was activated off the injured list Tuesday and will play for the first time this season in a 7 p.m. game at KeyArena against Portland.

While the Sonics have run off to their best start in franchise history as well as the best record in the NBA, McMillan has become almost an afterthought.

He can be seen around the Sonics, practicing on his own, lifting weights, doing sit-ups on the locker room floor before games, participating in shooting drills and the occasional three-on-three game. But up until recently, it has been virtually impossible for McMillan to feel a part of the Sonics, if for no other reason than being injured and unable to contribute is very much like being isolated on a desert island.

McMillan hasn’t played since Game 3 of the Sonics’ first-round playoff series win against Phoenix on April 29, 1997, ending an injury-plagued campaign in which he played only 40 games during the regular season. But now, after a few weeks of running full-court scrimmages with teammates and feeling as minimum an amount of pain as possible considering the bones in his right knee are scraping together, he will don his Sonics uniform for the first time this year and for the last stretch of his 11-year career, since he is retiring after this season - and get back to doing what he loves most.

“It’s been a long time,” McMillan said. “It’s time. I’m just going to make the best of it.”

McMillan and Karl have drawn up a tentative schedule in which McMillan will play every other game, a plan that will give McMillan rest for his knee but also allow him enough games - 18 - to get ready for a postseason run.

Still, both men concede the schedule may be tossed in the circular file as soon as their competitive juices get flowing.

“Coach Karl wants to win,” McMillan said, “and he is going to play the guys who can help this team win. If I am in pain, I probably should be in a suit. But just as if I was a coach and I looked down my bench, I want to go with the guys who can give me something. If he feels I can give him something, he is going to play me. That’s the way it should be. And, knowing myself, if it is the next game after I play, I’m not going to tell them, ‘Coach I’m not supposed to play tonight.’ I’ll be ready in case something does go down.”

Still, that is assuming McMillan is not going to muddle the delicate chemistry this team has found so easily and has fought so hard to maintain. It doesn’t take much to wreck something so special.

Karl said he hopes McMillan will be able to play some point guard and allow Gary Payton to roam free at shooting guard. Karl wants McMillan to defend big shooting guards and smaller small forwards. He said he envisions McMillan playing most of his minutes alongside Greg Anthony and Dale Ellis.

But Payton, for one, said he could not even remember the last time McMillan played, much less predict what he will bring to this team.

“We don’t know how Nate is going to play,” Payton said. “You can’t say Nate is going to play like Nate played two years ago. I can’t tell you (what is going to happen) until Nate starts playing and he is contributing to us. Right now I can’t tell you.”

But McMillan’s game is not one in which he needs to dominate. He won’t come in and take 15 shots - his career high is 24 points - or make crazy passes. With career averages of 6.1 points, 6.3 assists and 4.1 rebounds, he is a subtle player, the kind you barely see on the court, but when the game is over has contributed heavily to the win.

Notes

The Sonics placed rookie James Cotton on the injured list Tuesday to make room for McMillan, who was then activated. Cotton suffered a strained calf muscle in warmups Saturday night.