Friday, February 24, 2006

SIMULBLOG FOR SONICS V. MAGIC

Magic 102 Sonics 89 – FINAL SCORE
Sonics may have run out of energy
Poor decisions exasperated the issue
Poor transition defense before fatigue became an issue was the key to the lose
Overall a different energy in this game and the hope is that will be the result of the trades
Rashard was too quiet for a game without Ray


Magic 84 Sonics 78 with 8:18 left in the 4th Quarter
Sometimes this team isn’t very smart. Lewis abused Hill on the opening possession of the quarter drawing two fouls, including Hill’s 4th, and then hit a 3 on the next possession and Seattle was within two. On the next four possessions Lewis didn’t touch and Wilkins did his best Flip Murray impression having three straight possessions end in his hand. Wilkins has a serious turnover issue. He has 6 so far tonight.


Magic 74 Sonics 66 with 1:48 left in the 3rd Quarter
Wilkins showing some real offensive skills
Wilcox continues to play above the rim for the Sonics, He had seven dunks the other night and is on his way again tonight. His quick jumping ability is equaled rarely in this league. Should he start?


Orlando 44 Seattle 39 with 4:39 left in the 2nd Quarter
D-Wilk continues to play well. The question is will he ever be a good enough outside shooter to be a starter rather then just a bench player. If he can start to hit the outside shot with some consistency then the Sonics could consider moving either Allen or Lewis but until then he is a nice compliment.
Sonics are hot offensively in the quarter

Orlando 27 Sonics 17 at the end of 1 Quarter
Very poor first quarter
No offense at all.
I am not sure how much having only 7 players impacted how bad the Sonics were in the first quarter. It is a nice excuse but it really shouldn’t show until the later portion of the game.


Orlando 15 Seattle 13 with 5:27 left in the 1st Quarter
The Sonics have just seven players. Nick Collison has returned to Seattle for the birth of a child. Ray Allen has food poisioning. Roebrt Swift is in Seattle for the nose surgery.
Then all the other guys were traded.
It will be interesting to see Wilcox start. That is probably what he should do.
League rules say a team must have 8 players in uniform so Ray Allen was in uniform for the opening tip on the bench and then went back to the locker-room.
The Sonics transition defense is abysmal. They have allowed Grant Hill to prance down floor on three occasions and meat no resistance. Once he went all the way to the basket the other two times he hit pull-ups

10 comments:

Anonymous said...

hey...with allen not playing tmr, can watson go to miami tonight?

Anonymous said...

Wilcox first few games in Seattle rate above PER 20.

Only 20 big minute players in the league rate that high for the season.

Wilcox contract will be very really intersting depending on how well he does down the stretch.
Some might consider the offense "tainted" as coming on a bad team in track meets but some will take notice and credit the production and envision whether and how it would fit with them.

May give people an alternative to Al Harrington.

comparisons
last year http://www.basketball-reference.com/labs/comp.cgi?I=wilcoch01%3AChris+Wilcox&y1=2005&C=harrial01%3AAl+Harrington&y2=2005&s=r&t=m&submit=Compare

career http://www.basketball-reference.com/labs/comp.cgi?I=wilcoch01%3AChris+Wilcox&y1=&C=harrial01%3AAl+Harrington&y2=&s=r&t=m&submit=Compare

quite similiar on the basic stats

Anonymous said...

Wilcox PER was only 13 to 14 with the Clippers this year / last year so that is a 50% improvement in a small sample. Hope he can keep it up, plenty of room to add to it the performance so far too.

Anonymous said...

One question that might be worth pursuing an answer on is whether Mikki Moore is on a 1 year, 1 year with player option or 2 year contract. Sites disagree and no official answer in news reports at time of signing.

Anonymous said...

Wilcox may get also bidders as an alternative to taking the very large Kenyon Martin contract, another player his stats are very similiar to.

Atlanta and Charlotte seem like teams with needs for another big man in the rotation and money and those places might really interest him too.

Restricted free agent matching rights may very well come into play.

Anonymous said...

As currently constituted the Sonics may have about a max of $8 million in cap room to match with if all other free agents are renounced.

Anonymous said...

Might only be 6-7 million depending on exactly where the cap is set. there is a chance if WQilcox post great numbers that the Sonics might end up in a situation with needing to move someone to free cap to be able to match a high wilcox offer.

The bidding might not get high because most teams have set PF starters they are happy with and so most will offer only backup wages but a few might offer starter money and might get in a bidding war because comparatively the salary level isnt the max level and the young talent is intriguing.

I foresee he will at least get MLE offers. I think he is more intriguing to some than S Swift was.

Anonymous said...

We have full bird rights to Wilcox as well as matching rights. Cap room is not an issue.

Anonymous said...

That's right. I forgot. Thanks for correcting me. But will ownership exceed the cap for Wilcox if it comes to that? If they do then summer 2007 becomes more difficult. But that is the GM game and Sund knows all this and should be able to find a way thru it.

Anonymous said...

so many pieces of the salary cap, when you starting thinking about 0one player's situation you can forget pieces or misapply rules that hit one but not another.