BOTH DEALS DONE

The Sonics completed two deals today; the first was a 4 team 9 player deal in which the Sonics received Earl Watson, Bryon Russell and a 2nd round pick. Denver received Ruben Patterson, Charles Smith and Reggie Evans, Porland recieved Voshon Lenard and Brian Skinner and the Kings get Vitaly Potpenko and Sergei Monia.

The Second deal has Flip Murray going to Cleveland for Mike Wilks.




UPDATE 10:09 AM DEAL NOT DONE--- Hold your horses. There are a lot of moving parts in the Earl Watson to Seattle deal. The players need to give approval which can be read as the agents need to give approval. There are trade kickers involved on Patterson’s contract.
This is still likely to happen, but it is not done and it still needs some items to fall into place.
The Flip Murray situation is a bit more in flux then I had thought. The Sonics are still working a deal for Flip, but none of them are done. The Sonics are looking to receive a 2nd round pick in the deal.


UPDATE 9:15 AM WATSON A SONIC--- As we suspected the deal is a three-way deal with Earl Watson coming to Seattle and Reggie Evans going to Denver with Vitaly Potapenko going to Portland. The Nuggets will also get Rueben Patterson and Voshon Lenard will be moved to Portland.
Seattle will also move Flip Murray before the deadline. His destination is currently unknown.
This is a very good move for the Sonics. They are a better team with a deal. This is basically a free agent signing for the Sonics. This is the replacement to Antonio Daniels that the Sonics didn’t fill in the off-season.



LATEST UPDATE AT 7:36 AM --- The Sonics goal today is to split Reggie Evans and Flip Watson in two different deals. At this moment it seems likely that will get done. The Earl Watson trade is still hot with Reggie Evans and Vitaly Potpaenko going to Denver. This could be part of a multiple team deal with Rueben Patterson moving from Portland to Denver and one of these pieces, likely Evans ending up in Portland.
The Sonics had discussions with the Utah Jazz this morning but that deal is no off and the Sonics have another move percolating that involves Flip Murray.



UPDATE 12:15 AM --- According to my sources the Sonics are willing to pick up the contract on Earl Watson so the Sonics Flip Murray and Vitaly for Watson deal is still a possibility. There are other combinations in that deal that have been discussed. Flip Murray did not play last night which is a clear sign the Sonics plan to move him. The Sonics plan to have more conversations with Utah on Thursday morning about a deal that they have been working on. Details are unclear, but the names Milt Palacio and Matt Harpring have been mentioned around the league. The Sonics also made final checks with Indiana about Anthony Johnson and Toronto about Jose Calderon as of late last night neither was willing to budge.
Elsewhere around the league the Carlos Boozer talk seemed to be heating up and Denver has looking for new trading partners after missing out with New York. Some of these conversations included a deal with Portland


LATEST UPDATE – 3:44 PM-- The Sonics are continuing the talks with the Nuggets amongst other teams. Through my sources I have learned that one of those teams is the Utah Jazz. The Jazz have three guards Deron Williams, Keith McLeod and Milt Palacio. The word is the conversation involves Palacio and Matt Harpring. Both of those players are free agents at the end of the season. It is unclear what the combination of players Seattle would need. Utah continues to work very hard on a Carlos Boozer deal.

11:35 AM UPDATE – The Knicks move with Orlando puts the Sonics back on the Earl Watson map. The conversations with the Nuggets were all but dead and have now recommenced. The Sonics are hoping to do the deal for Watson with by trading either Flip or Reggie with Vitaly and then moving the other piece in a separate deal.

UPDATED AT 11:15 AM --
LATEST NEWS -- According to my sources the Knicks and the Magic have completed a deal. The Knicks will receive Steve Francis and the Magic will get the contract of Penny Hardaway and Trevor Ariza. The big news here is that the particulars from the Knicks are different then anticipated. The Magic turned down Jamal Crawford because they wanted the expiring contract of Hardaway.

This makes things very interesting in regards to what the next domino will be. This eliminates the Kevin Garnett talk. This leaves Portland without the ability to clear their cap with a deal with the Knicks. It also leaves the Nuggets without an avenue to clear the out Kenyon Martin.

So what is the next move? This may put the Sonics back at the forefront of teams able to make moves.

Hee is what teams want to get done by tomorrow.
· The Nuggets want to move both Earl Watson and Kenyon Martin
· The Blazers want to clear cap to be able to sign Joel Przybilla
· The Sonics are interested in a back-up point guard
· Minnesota is looking to make waves
· Atlanta is talking about the
· Cleveland is willing to move Drew Gooden
· Golden State is looking for a big
· Houston is going to move Derek Anderson
· The Jazz are trying to move Carlos Boozer and the Lakers are interested.




Here is the latest of what I am hearing …

SONICS MOVES
· The Denver Nuggets have told the Sonics that they will do the Earl Watson deal to the Sonics for Flip Murray and Reggie Evans and a contract if everything else falls apart. The Sonics would likely have to take Bryon Russell as well. The Nuggets are in the midst of numerous conversations around the league including New York and Orlando most prominently. The Sonics may turn this down by the end of the day. The Sonics are very concerned with the contract that Watson signed, he is badly overpaid, but at the same time they are looking for someone to push Ridnour and Watson could be that guy. That is the internal debate in Sonics land

· The Sonics and the Chicago Bulls have had conversations about Chris Duhon for Reggie Evans. The Bulls are all over the map at this time and there is no deal that is imminent. The Sonics would probably rather do this deal then the Denver deal if Chicago buys in. According, to some sources the Bulls are unwilling to move Duhon.

· The Sonics have also had conversations with the Toronto Raptors for Jose Calderon and the Pacers for Anthony Johnson. The Raptors have no interest in moving Calderon and the Sonics and Pacers are having a hard time getting the numbers to add up.

· According to sources, the Wolves and the Sonics had conversations about Marko Jaric however, the Sonics went cold on the conversation.

· Ideally, the Sonics would like to hold onto Danny Fortson and Vitaly Potapenko because their contracts would be valuable pieces to trade along with their draft pick if the right deal came about.

REST OF THE NBA
· Don’t dismiss the Kevin Garnett talks with New York. KG has lost the fire that he used to play with and Minnesota is open to moving him. However, they are very concerned about taking back bad contracts. Therefore, the realgm.com rumored deal of Penny Hardaway and Channing Frye makes sense because the Wolves would be getting rid of the albatross of Garnett’s deal without taking back too much baggage.

* The Utah Jazz are actively shopping Carlos Boozer. According to most people in the league they believe that Jazz GM Kevin O’Connor is doing the leg work for a deal this summer.

· The Denver Nuggets are trying to move Kenyon Martin. Martin and Karl don’t click and the relationship in not salvageable.

· Numerous reports have the Magic and the Knicks close to culminating a deal for Steve Francis to New York that would include Rainer Beach product Jamal Crawford going to Orlando

· The Blazers deal of Ratliff and Miles to New York for Penny Hardaway is supposedly very close. However, the recent Garnett discussions have this on the back burner.