Oh, the Insanity: Sonics Sputter as Paranoia Strikes
Via True Hoop, the News Tribune's Frank Hughes reports today that the Sonics' organization is "enveloped by a cloud of paranoia, mistrust, distrust and, now, anger."
The lowlights:
--Clay Bennett fired Bob Hill just two hours after Hill returned home from having hernia surgery.
--Bennett didn't have a news conference to announce the firings because he's "mad at the media."
--Bennett believes he was misled about the Sonics' chance of getting an arena--that then-CEO Wally Walker ripped him off (which would be an all-time first).
--The Sonics haven't even interviewed a GM or coach candidate.
Hughes headline asks, "Who's minding the store?" and with good reason.
...the team’s practice facility is a ghost town. There is no coaching staff because Hill was fired and Jack Sikma, Detlef Schrempf, Ralph Lewis and Gordon Chiesa do not know their futures. There are no administrators because Sund was relieved of his duties. Wilkens occasionally spends a day in the office, but that is at the team’s business headquarters overlooking Elliott Bay.
Sonics legend Lenny Wilkens has entered the power vacuum. Sort of.
There are many questions both in the organization and around the league about bestowing so much decision-making power on the 69-year-old Wilkens.Most concerning is that Wilkens never has had to build a roster with a salary cap in mind, which requires not only judging personnel now but projecting how that affects the team and its chances to sign other free agents in the future.
Wilkens also is notoriously circumspect and has declined to use his resources. He recently had a 90-minute meeting with director of player personnel David Pendergraft and head scout Steve Rosenberry, multiple sources confirmed, and spent half the meeting questioning why they drafted Mouhamed Sene last season.
Wilkens never asked for their opinions on players in the June 28 draft, apparently confident that he will make the choice alone, and declined to offer a vision for the future of the team.
