Sonics in disarray
SEATTLE – Ray Allen gathers his teammates at midcourt after every game for a brief postmortem. And as the losses mount for the SuperSonics, an evident rift among his team is widening.
“The teams that do the best job of putting personal agendas aside are the successful teams,” Allen said. “It’s not easy. That’s why it’s hard being a good teammate, but everyone has that choice.”
At last year’s All-Star break, Seattle was the talk of the NBA, a whopping 20 games over .500. Allen and Rashard Lewis were lauded at the annual midseason gathering in Denver for their talent and leadership.
The 180-degree turn this season is just as startling. Seattle surpassed its loss total from last season before the middle of February.
The Sonics are 20-34 after Tuesday night’s loss at San Antonio. And as Thursday’s trade deadline approaches, Seattle is trying to rid itself of disgruntled pieces that meshed so well a season ago.
First dispatched was forward Vladimir Radmanovic, who balked at a six-year, $42 million offer from the Sonics last off-season and instead signed a one-year tender with the club. Struggling and wildly inconsistent, Radmanovic was dealt to the Los Angeles Clippers for forward Chris Wilcox, who had fallen out of favor with the Clippers.
Radmanovic will be a free agent at the end of the season and general manager Rick Sund said indications were he would not re-sign with the Sonics. His departure is expected to be just the start.
The acquisition of Wilcox leaves a surplus of power forwards and could spell an end to the Seattle careers of Reggie Evans and Danny Fortson. Once a starter, Evans now idles as the last man on the bench. Fortson, battling injuries, hasn’t played since Jan. 6.
Center Vitaly Potapenko and guard Ronald Murray also have seen their roles diminished, creating a rift between a core group – Allen, Lewis, Luke Ridnour, Nick Collison, Robert Swift, Damien Wilkins and Johan Petro – and the others.
It’s a disconnected unit that looks nothing like the team that won 52 games and the Northwest Division title a season ago.
“Everyone has to do their job,” Allen said. “Everyone has to buy into it and believe in what we’re trying to do regardless of who’s playing and who’s not.”
Since Bob Hill took over as coach on Jan. 3 after Bob Weiss was fired, he’s noticed how the players will get along just fine off the court, but rarely communicate to help each other on the floor.
Most notable is the Sonics’ silence at the defensive end, where they are the worst in the NBA, giving up nearly 107 points a game. Hill inserted a new system after taking over and believes the Sonics are improving, even though statistically they were slightly better under Weiss.
Hill noted that typically it takes a full season for a new defensive system to be embraced and take effect. But the short-term results have been disappointing – the Sonics are 7-17 since Hill took over.
“Sometimes when a team doesn’t talk it’s because they’re not sure yet,” said Hill, also hoping the team will acquire a backup to point guard Ridnour. “What we’re trying to do is change in the middle of the season, which is very hard. You have to give them a lot of credit, because they have tried and they’re better at a lot of things.”
Radmanovic has suggested that some of the problems plaguing the team this season were present last year, but hidden behind the cloak of Seattle’s surprising success.
“Winning makes everything easier and sometimes things that are wrong you don’t even notice them,” he said. “When you’re losing some things just show up.”