Time to start playing for high lottery pick

[dmutombo321]

I had mentioned Calderon a few times and am a big fan of his, but as Spectre rightfully pointed out, we wouldn't be able to afford what it would cost to bring Calderdon in with the salary we currently have on the books and assuming we extend EO50.

Interesting... I must have overlooked that post. Was he assuming we extend Okafor at the $12mil/per figure extended prior to the season? What was his expectation of what it would take to lock up Calderon?

Making wise decisions this off-season will be critical. I fear that if they stand pat and extend Okafor and Felton that the franchise could be re-signed to mediocrity for the following several seasons; With Okafor, Wallace, Felton, Richardson, Muhommad and Carroll all on the books, they will have little to no flexibility to make any meaningful additions. It appears that this might already be coming to fruition if we truly do lack the means to upgrade our talent at point through free agency.

[BigSlam]

Interesting... I must have overlooked that post. Was he assuming we extend Okafor at the $12mil/per figure extended prior to the season? What was his expectation of what it would take to lock up Calderon?.

Jrich is getting $11 per
Crash is getting $9 per
Nazr is getting $6 per
Hammer is getting $4 per

You would have to assume that Calderon would get around $10 per and let's say EO50 lands around $12 per..................

That's a lot of cash!

[dmutombo321]

Yeah, it does look like we

[W_HAMILTON]

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Do you want to trade Okafor?

Okafor suddenly isn't working here either.

It's not about "suddenly" not working.

In Okafor's case, sure. Okafor has "worked here" before, and he's not playing as well as in the past.

Felton isn't suddenly not working here, because in my mind, he's never worked here. He's pretty much the same player today as he was when he first came into the league, and he wasn't good enough then, and he's really not good enough now.

As I've said before, if you all can point out posts from years ago where you were on Okafor's ass the way some of you are on his ass today, go right ahead. If not, it's just another case of what happened to Bickerstaff + Knight, ie, a person does well in this organization and very few, if any, people complain about them, then one of their "boys" sucks, and they look to deflect blame from them, and lump it on someone else.

Again, if Felton is gonna take the freaking 7-year-path-to-success like Billups, get rid of him now, because we aren't going to stick with him 7 years for him to develop.

And the option isn't to trade Okafor, again, he HAS worked out here. The option is to keep a guy that has worked out here before, and look to replace a guy that never has worked out here. Felton has never worked out here, at least not if you expect your PG to run the team and direct a competent offense. This isn't an "oooh, Okafor is sucking, and he's my boy, so I'm going to lash out at Felton!" thing. I've said for years that Felton just didn't have the know-how to run a team like our's -- it's just more obvious this season, because his crutches have been removed, we've added more talent, yet we're more disappointing than ever.

[TheBobcatDan]

This is ridiculous that we're throwing Okafor under the bus. The ONLY and I mean ONLY reason we need to get rid of him is if he is still adamant about making 13 million dollars a season. He's valuable for this team, but not 13 million dollars valuable. If we can sign him for about 8 million, then we need to keep him. Even in his slump, he's still averaging for the season a double double with a steal and 2 blocks a game. That's solid numbers...but for 13 million dollars a year they suck.

[W_HAMILTON]

I am nonetheless disappointed that it appears he wont at least get a fair shake to show what he can do since Vincent insists on running his imbicilic McGinnis-at-the-point lineup. As Fats and Bowen's both mentioned, the season is shot to hell anyway so why not give felton 40 mintues a night to sink or swim and at least keep his numbers respectible to maintain a viable trade value.

That's actually the most telling thing about this whole situation.

Vincent is desperate.

He's not playing for the future, he's trying to do whatever it takes to get wins NOW. Some people said that we are going to stick with him no matter what, but from some of the things Vincent has done and said lately, it shows that he certainly doesn't believe he's a lock for our coaching position.

So, a guy is desperate, maybe fighting for his job, and he's doing whatever he can to get some wins and possibly get off the hot seat.........

...........and he thinks the best way to get wins is by not playing Felton at PG.

That's pretty telling.

[Bowens]

**Speaking of being wrong Slam, I'll give it another month or so before officially declaring an

[fatlever]

from the handful of sonics games i've watched, durant spends 90% of his time on the floor hovering around the 3pt line... much like ammo last year. he'll occasionally drive to the hoop and put the ball on the floor and pull up from 15 feet or so. most of what i have seen though... durant is strickly a jumpshooter this year.

he just needs a year or two to get some muscle and weight before he shifts to playing closer to the hoop.

[Bowens]

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I wonder what the record for consecutive top 10 picks is and if we would be close to breaking it? Not that having that record would be something to be proud of, but it sure would be telling

Atlanta has had a top ten pick since 2000. They traded it away a couple of times, but they were there and that counts. Also I would assume the Clippers had a ton of top ten picks because they've stunk since they moved to California.

[Rich4114]

It doesn't matter how many top 10 picks you have if you don't know how to use them. Look at what the Hawks have done with their picks over the years. We screwed up by not taking Paul on a platter from Portland, but Atlanta could've just went ahead and picked him when their biggest need was a PG.

Look at how some teams have used their draft picks over the years Vs what others have done. Some teams are ALWAYS in the lottery. The Hawks are an example, the Sonics will make an 8th seed appearence every now and then but they're another example. The Warriors were always like that till Mullen showed up and did what it took to put a winner out there. Look at what Portland did? They were the most aggressive in the past few drafts and now they're one of the best teams in the league WITHOUT Oden.

Even if we are drafting the right people, we're not putting them into a system to win, we're also not giving them a proven coach like the other successful teams. This is why Atlanta has sucked for over a decade, we'll probably suck for just as long, and teams like the Sonics and Clippers are perennial failures. We've seen teams turn things around once they got a new GM or coach who can win.... the future is not as bright for us as I once thought it was.