The Sonics and Blazers Blow Up Their Teams Before our Eyes
Other than June 5th, 1977 and June 1st, 1979, June 28, 2007 has got to rank as the best day in Northwest pro basketball history.
The Kiwi & Kangaroo was Seattlest Draft HQ, where Seattlest David, Seattlest me, and our friend Frank kept track of the action and insulted each other.
Since ESPN kept showing "must improve" for each player drafted, (example, Spencer Hawes' "must improve" was rebounding) we came up with "must improve"s for ourselves.
David
Must improve: looking up while dribbling.
Seth
Must improve: making layins.
Frank
Must improve: height.
The excitement came back when the Ray Allen trade was announced, and we began to argue with each other.
Seattlest Seth and David: fully in favor--Ray Allen was a hired gun who led the Sonics to their worst two seasons in 25 years. Plus he's getting old.
But "Hooray!" appears to be the minority viewpoint.
A friend called to tell us: "I'm not saying I don't like it, but I don't understand why you'd get another fuckin' forward."
SupersonicSoul hates the deal: "This was supposed to be a great day for Seattle basketball, a day when the flowers started to blow thanks the fertilizer laid by the previous administration. Instead, I feel like we just traded our b.s. for somebody else's pile of crap."
And so does SonicsCentral: "Needless to say they have absolutely killed my enthusiasm." (really? killed your enthusiasm on a day you got KEVIN DURANT???!!??? Take some deep breaths, boys).
Then, the Portland trade, which we like even more.
Randolph is a points/rebounds machine, but also a turnovers and easy-baskets-for-the-other-team machine. The Blazers get a versatile tweener in Channing Frye and a giant contract that expires in two years in Steve Francis.
Blazers' Edge is not impressed: "There's GOT to be another aspect to this, right? This was the best offer we could get for Zach? Here's my theory: Commissioner Stern comes to KP a month ago and says, 'We're going to rig the first pick for you but you have to help the Knicks.' That's the only thing I can think of right now."
The fans hate these deals. This is to be expected--rabid fans always overestimate the value of their team's players. The national media, on the other hand, loves what the Sonics and Blazers have done. Here's True Hoop's take on the Randolph trade, and, from True Hoop, David Thorpe's take on the Sonics' dealings.
So, just to recap, when the Sonics and Blazers tipped off the 06-07 season, here were the starting lineups:
Sonics: Luke Ridnour, Ray Allen, Rashard Lewis, Chris Wilcox, Saer Sene
Blazers: Jarrett Jack, Brandon Roy, Ime Udoka, Zach Randolph, Joel Pryzbilla
These, we guess, will be the teams' lineups in 07-08:
Sonics: Delonte West, Wally Szczerbiak, Kevin Durant, Jeff Green, Chris Wilcox. (Rashard instead of WallyWorld? Holy crap, that's a quick 5)
Blazers: Jarrett Jack, Steve Francis, Brandon Roy, Lamarcus Aldridge, Greg Oden.
Total speculation, there could be more trades to come. But those are two young teams, both with highly-paid #2s who will go away soon and get replaced, potentially, by veteran superstars. Yum.
