It's an honor to be asked. I'll try my best to answer. It's going to be long, but remember, you asked.
I think there's a number of criteria that have to be considered before one can settle on the right SG for the Sonics. And depending on your opinion on the various criteria, reasonable people can come to different conclusions on who the right SG should be.
Skills - Three point range, defends, good BBIQ, finishes, athletic, can handle at least adequately, 6'5" or bigger.
Character - No douche bags or locker room lawyers.
Intangibles - Needs to be a guy who wants to be part of the Sonics, so count most "I want a chance at a championship" mature veterans out. The Sonics won't be ready to seriously contend for three years, which is way too long for those types.
Contract - One of the reasons the Spurs are successful is that their best guys are paid the most and their worst guys are paid the least. Visa versa for the Knicks. And B Wallace with the Bulls. Duh. K Durant is going to be our best guy. His salary theorectically should grow with the team's success. Everyone else needs to make correspondingly less, or the chemistry thing becomes an issue.
Availability - You shouldn't want what you can't have. It's no use wishing for L James. Plus you figure out when you want to add a guy to the team factoring in expiration of contracts (you don't want five guys to come up the same year) and team need/development.
So looking at team need you can't help but notice we've already got some SGs... K Durant, D Wilkins, W Szczerbiak, M Gelabale & D West (kind of). Do we need any more? When?
IMO the Sonics are set at SG until at least this time next season. That's K Durant starting with W Szczerbiak getting the bulk of the backup minutes. The remaining bits fall to either D Wilkins or D West. And, IMO, M Gelabale's NBA experience is about over so who cares about him anyway?
So there's my answer. I don't think the Sonics need another SG right now. In fact I think we need to get rid of one. Either W Szczerbiak or D Wilkins. I don't think anything will come of the W Szczerbiak to the Cavaliers for I Newble, E Snow & a 1st. I think the Cavs would find a way to get the younger, better, less expensive M Miller before they'd take W Szczerbiak. But stranger things have happened. If I'm Sam Presti I'd do the trade in a minute. However, short of getting a 1st for Szczerbiak I wouldn't trade him now. I'd wait until this time next season when his value will increase due to his expiring contract. Which means D Wilkins is odd man out. Which may drive him to opt out, if he's not used as trade filler. I hope not. He's a good guy. Meets all the SG skill criteria. Not paid too much. But there will be playing time issues for a year if he stays. Too bad. I like D Wilkins as the 8th guy in the rotation.
Having said that I would also try to get another SG. Via next June's draft. A guy that'll sit on the bench for a while and learn the regular slow rookie way. Top targets are Kansas' B Rush, Kansas State's Bill Walker, Oregon's B Taylor & Memphis' C Douglas-Roberts. I specifically don't have WSU's K Weaver listed because he can't shoot. Not that he just can't shoot the three, he's a crappy shooter period. They're called Shooting Guards for a reason. Those dudes have to be able to shoot. K Weaver can't.
But if I had to make a trade, the one guy in the NBA that would be great for the Sonics is Utah's CJ Miles. He's pissed at Utah management over the way they handled his contract last summer, so he wants out. He's young. He would love being a core part of an up & coming group of guys. He really just wants to play. He shoots lights out. He's got size. He defends. And he sits behind C Brewer & K Korver. But Utah knows he's good & won't let him get away for nothing. Probably cost us our 2008 2nd. Which I'd do. Or maybe even the Phoenix pick, which I'd consider.
Guys I wouldn't touch are:
- JR Smith & R Davis because they're ****,
- JJ Redick because he can't defend,
- B Gordon because he's too little to defend & likes to chuck too much and
- V Carter & J Crawford because they're total chuckers.
Guys I'd think about and then decide against are:
- C Maggette because he's going to get paid too much, he's never really won & his 3pt shot isn't that great,
- D Cook, J Crittenton & M Belinelli are SGs with lots of potential, but their contracts come due the same time as K Durant's & J Green's & that would make for salary cap disaster and
- T Seolosha & A Wright because they're not good enough shooters, even if every thing else about them is great.
And that leaves guys I might trade for C Wilcox next season... A Iguodala & L Deng. Ya, right. Like that could happen. But to me that's the question. Could we trade C Wilcox for a SG that's better than having C Wilcox as our PF with K Durant at SG? IDK.
Anyway, there you have it. Probably way more painful than you expected. Sorry about that.
I feel the draft is the best way to answer our need. we have so many picks that we can get a good shooting guard.
) this summer and could walk away if he wanted to.