Monday, October 03, 2005

EVANS HOLDS OUT + WEISS PLAN

The Sonics had media day this evening. Camp starts tomorrow. Here is a collection of the discussion points at Media Day.

As we reported Friday night on 950, KJR Reggie Evans is holding out until he comes to a contract agreement with the Sonics. According to sources, the Sonics offered a 2 year 5 million dollar contract. Evans’ agent is notorious for tough negotiations. The Sonics are not surprised by this development. Head Coach Bob Weiss said he knows what Evans can do, but they will put heavy focus on defense in the opening of camp and the 4 spot will be won by defense. Defensive rotations have not always been a strong point for Evans.
The 4 position will be the most interesting battle in camp. Weiss says he would like to bring Collison off the bench. He really likes the combination of Fortson and Collison on the floor together. However, Weiss did say that Collison will finish games for the Sonics. He also noted that Collison was far and away the best defensive forward on the team last season. According to Weiss, Collison is shooting the ball great.
Weiss also said in some ways he likes the combo of Reggie and Vitaly better then the combo of Reggie and Jerome James last season, because Reggie and James were two non-shooters.
He also mentioned the idea of starting Vlady Radmanovic as the 4 and playing the way Phoenix did last season.

Bob Weiss main point was that last year’s team was within one shot of pushing the World Champs to Game 7 and they did with a terrible defensive team statistically.
In an attempt to change that he will put heavy focus on transition defense and being a more focused defensive unit.
This will be done primarily in two ways. He says every play in the NBA is built around the 1st, 2nd and 3rd option. His design is to guard those 3 with 5. He talked about a concept of contain, help and help the helper.
They have hired Brendon Malone, a long time NBA assistant to join the staff. Malone has worked with both Hubie Brown and Chuck Daly in his career.
Bob Hill, another new assistant, has also with Brown and Larry Brown. They both bring heavy defensive knowledge.
The defense will be much simpler with just 2 ways to play the mid pick and roll and 1 on way to play the side. The hope is that will improve execution.

Practices will be much more 5 on 5. Weiss will take an idea from Jeff Van Gundy. Before each practice the team will hold a “forum” and then go out and practice which should help the flow and conditioning.

Style offensively will be more focused on a fast break. Weiss felt last year’s focus on the secondary break often got players thinking of where they should go on the second part of the break rather then focusing on how to score in the initial break. Weiss wants the basketball skills to be free to show. On the break he wants penetration and then play basketball.

21 comments:

Anonymous said...

Curry trade the Knicks. Wonder why Seattle couldn't get in on that?
http://msn.foxsports.com/nba/story/4929910

JohnS said...

Sweetney is the steal in this trade. He already has a better efficiency rating than Curry in his second year. My guess is that they move Chandler to center and start Sweetney at PF. That is an absolutely sick rebounding front line. Thomas comes off the bench backing up Deng.

They are the winners in this trade by a long shot, even if they don't get some draft picks.

Anonymous said...

Curry is absolute trash. It's scary some people don't get that.

No defense, no rebounding, no heart....no reason to have him on the team.

Locke said...

A few things here.
Curry is not all that. He is notoriouslty lazy. His numbers are shallow. His defense is awful and his rebounding is minimal.
The Sonics did talk with Curry early in the off-season before the heart issue became a bigger issue.
The Sonics can't trade Vlady or Flip without their consent based on the 1 year tender.

Anonymous said...
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Anonymous said...

Black,

You can't handle the truth black. Sorry.

Anonymous said...
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Anonymous said...

Black,

Evans has been smoking too much crack. We all know the real starting power forward is Collison. He's got better skills offensively and defensively. Even the poll show that he whould start!!!

Anonymous said...
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Anonymous said...
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Anonymous said...
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Anonymous said...

Didn't understand my post?? Would you like me to spell it out for you again????

Anonymous said...

I don't know Why you guys attack black, and I especially don't know why he would respond to it, it is very immature. But, if I had to keep score it would be:

Black - 100
Anonymous - 2

Anonymous said...
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Anonymous said...

Wow you took spanish, I did say something can't you read??

Anonymous said...

but since you missed it and since I'm such a nice guy I will re-post it for you.

I don't know Why you guys attack black, and I especially don't know why he would respond to it, it is very immature. But, if I had to keep score it would be:

Black - 100
Anonymous - 2

you're welcome, read slowly.

Anonymous said...

blanco (white who wants to be black),

Congrats you can repeat what you said five minutes ago!!! You have superior mental capacities!!!

Anonymous said...

No, I posted that due to the fact that you said I had nothing to say, when in fact I did. Gringo.

Anonymous said...

Thanks for the scorekeeping, do you do this as a profession douchebag?

Anonymous said...

Hey it's rosh hashanna can't we all just get along???

Anonymous said...

I swear you guys want the Sonics to suck. It's the only explination.

Wanting Eddy Curry and Rafer Alston. Curry may average 16 a game but he gives up 25. Outside of Jerome James there might not be a worse rebounding Center in the NBA. 5.6 boards a game at close to 7 foot in 28 minutes a game is pathetic. Alston's a head case, him and Fortson on the same team is a horrible idea. Same with Curry and Fortson actually.

PS, the only reason the Antonio Davis and Tim Thomas contracts were added into the Eddy Curry deal was to get around the salary cap issue. With Thomas/Davis involved the two teams were able to get inside the 25% bubble to make deals work.