Game Thread: Seattle Supersonics @ Golden State Warriors

[AbdicatedReign]

More Gelabale, please.

[OzThunder]

durant gets such easy assists when he tries. When he tries too hard he starts to force shots and drives when he should stay to his passing game...he could be like lebron, taking the easy shots/ dunks and finding the passes. When the game wasn't on the line in the 1st and 4th he dished out an easy 4 and 3 assist quarters.

gelabale is so solid. excellent jump shot and pretty smart player

jeff green is really starting to play with confidence and it's great. 21 shots tonight, hit 10 of them and grabbed 9 boards. Its no so much how many points he scored but that he has the confidence to go in hard and put the ball up now. Thats exciting

[D5150]

uh, collisons d is not the biggest problem on that end of the court. at least the guy can contribute in other areas. the guards can not stop dribble penatration. that is a problem. collison had 7 defensive rebounds and 2 blocked shots. he is not the problem.

[elbowthrower]

Collison is actually a pretty good defender. And at least he boxes out.

I can't believe that inbounds pass w/40 seconds to go. They call timeout, set up the play, and Petro makes a horribly soft inbounds pass that gets stolen. 4 point swing right there.

And if the Sonics score on that play, it's a 4 point game w/30 seconds to go.

[djthesonicsfan]

At least D Marshell found his game jersey.

[elbowthrower]

At least D Marshell found his game jersey.

That's about all he found. I know he won't expect to play much and he's new to the team, but gawd he was bad.

[KA_G4040]

I was at the game tonight, I had jalepano's thrown at me for wearing my green and gold. The refs sucked really bad. Ridnour was awful eventhough his stats were pretty good. I wish we could play Gele Green and Durant together. The more and more I see Rid the more I wish we could have traded him last summer to atlanta.

[elbowthrower]

I was at the game tonight, I had jalepano's thrown at me for wearing my green and gold. The refs sucked really bad. Ridnour was awful eventhough his stats were pretty good. I wish we could play Gele Green and Durant together. The more and more I see Rid the more I wish we could have traded him last summer to atlanta.

It looked like the Sonics got the wrong end of a lot of no-calls. The most glaring example being Davis hacking Gele across the arm, nowhere near the ball, and getting the "steal".

[Sweezo]

I didn't see the whole game, but I thought Luke looked great leading the break in the first half. They looked great and in control when I was watching the game. Of course, I fell asleep on the couch and missed the part where we lost the lead and summarily lost, so...

[Yoshi2kx]

KD did a pretty good job on Davis for most of the third quarter when he was on him


good to see him finally play one complete half (as in minutes)

[BBen]

uh, collisons d is not the biggest problem on that end of the court. at least the guy can contribute in other areas. the guards can not stop dribble penatration. that is a problem. collison had 7 defensive rebounds and 2 blocked shots. he is not the problem.

You're correct. He just looks lost playing man and gets beat off the dribble time after time and resorts to fouling. My opinion of course.

Edit: Since we mostly play zone I should say "looks lost when he's one on one defensively".

[D5150]

well i am not too worried about weather my 6 foot 9 250 pound power forward can guard guys off the dribble. and collison didn't exactly resort to fouling guys last night, he was called for 2.

what i am concered about is the inabillity of the guards, especially the point guard, to stop dribble penatration. that is what really killed them last night.

jay bilas was right, the chair i am sitting in just scored on ridnour.

[wiff]

I went to bed last night during the third quarter (feeling sick). So I missed that last part of the game. But what I did see.....

Monta Ellis had 30 points off of mostly layups. Can somone please give that guy a hard foul? He didn't even take a three point attempt. Which means Luke got used.

Luke has no confidence right now. He missed two free throws. He has a wide open 10ft jumper and he makes the hard pass to Wilcox.

Durant I thought did a decent job keeping up with Davis. I liked seeing him pass up a 3pts shot for an easier 2pt shot. Once again Durant displays his passing abilities but everyone else around the league simply considers the guy a chucker.

For the most part Gelly did a decent job bring the ball up. He dribbled it out of bounds once. But I can live with that considering how depleted the Sonics were. The more I watch Gelly the more I wonder if the Sonics need Weaver.

At least the game was entertaining.

[BBen]

We don't need help at the sf position definitely. I would love to see Durant move to SF, Green to PF and give Gelly some time at SG with the main unit (and his buddy Petro). Otherwise we need help at both guard positions. While I write this I wonder if Green could bulk up enough to actually be able to have power at the PF position.

[TheUrbanZealot]

We don't need help at the sf position definitely. I would love to see Durant move to SF, Green to PF and give Gelly some time at SG with the main unit (and his buddy Petro). Otherwise we need help at both guard positions. While I write this I wonder if Green could bulk up enough to actually be able to have power at the PF position.

Well I have no qualms with Durant at the 2. I DO have qualms with Durant not murdering every other 2 guard not named mike dunleavy in the post.

Green, while he can play multiple positions, is not someone I want to pencil in as a PF. If we were playing the Warriors small ball style, sure. However, we have a little bit more traditional (albeit uptempo) offense, and I want Green to be the ideal swing player. Green, depending on the machup, can play every position on the floor, with his primary being the 3. He is strong, at 6 8 but he is just not bulk/tall enough to handle most PFs in the league. Granted, he has advantages over them too on offense, but I'd rather play closest to his strength.

With that being said, I would love a big interchangeable lineup with Gelly at the 1, Durant at the 2, Green at the 3. All 3 can handle the ball, so that makes up for not having a true PG amongst them. I still would like us use our half-court advantages more. We seem content with running and gunning but we have mismatches in Gelly at the 1 and Durant at the 2, I don't know why we don't milk that...

[wiff]

If a guy like Boozer can do what he does at 6'8" (I know he is listed at 6'9" be he said in Slam recently he is 6'9" on his best day) Karl Malone was 6'9", there are plenty of effective PF's who are/were 6'9". Green isn't as thick as Wilcox but give the guy three years and he's going to bulk up. He has all the hops Wilcox has but he still needs to learn how to shoot(which drives me nuts).

I think it's conceivable to see the starting line up after next seasons trade deadline of....

PG Rose/Bayless
SG Gelly
SF Durant
PF Green
C Petro

Sonics still have to figure out what's going to happen with Wilcox. But honestly I think if you give Green, Wilcox's minutes and position playing the PF he can get you Wilcox's numbers next season.

Wilcox is barely chipping in with 12.7pts, 7rebs and 1.1 dimes in 27 minutes

Green is giving you in 25 minutes 9.1pts, 4.8rebs with 1.3dimes.

That's a difference of 4pts and 2boards

I think Wilcox's numbers are highly attainable for Green next year. Especially if you put him at the 4. Plus Green actually puts effort in on defense.

I hate to say it because I like Wilcox but I can see the addition by subtraction with Chris. Green can be more effective playing the PF spot and not having to show his lack of range. Durant can move closer to the bucket playing the SF therefore being more efficient. Gelly slides into the SG spot if he can keep his confidence rolling. Obviously Rose and Bayless would be far better than Watsnour, and Petro earns the starting spot from here on out.

That starting 5 everyone at least makes an effort on defense too.

Nick, Wilkins, and Watson coming off the bench.

[BenjaminH]

Regarding Ellis getting open layups, I just thought I would note that he routinely seems to do this, even against teams with decent perimeter defense.

Also, I'm not excited about Ridnour, but I thought I think he's shown that he isn't completely worthless. However unlikely it may be, he could still contribute. He really does run an offense well, but has too many other deficiencies.

[D5150]

luke is effective in the open court. when they are really pusing it he can make some things happen. but the half court is a different story. he tends to over dribble and kind of lose control of the offense. the sonics best half court passer last night was durant. and luke's D really is bad. i mean he wasn't even waving at guys as they went by him. he just turned his shoulder and got out of the way. and he gets hung up on screens a lot.

[pr0wler]

I don't see why everyone is so eager to pencil in Gelabale as our SG. Okay, he's not bad for a 2nd year player but I would be appalled if he was cast as a starter in our rotation. He's a versatile PG/SG who I wouldn't mind playing 10-15 minutes a night...but I think the Sonics can do a lot better if they want someone playing starters minutes.

I agree with the other posters about Green playing PF. He actually measured in at 6'9.'5'' at the draft camp if I'm not mistaken, so he is hardly undersized to play the post. I think he's big enough defensively to guard 90% of the opposing PF's, and offensively he has a great all around game.

At this point I agree that Wilcox really isn't that good. He seems like a great player. He's stylish, throws down rim-rattling dunks, and scores just enough to be noticeable. But really, he's averaging less than 13 PPG in over 27 MPG. His defense has always been suspect, but more importantly he hasn't really shown any improvement in a long time. He's been putting him these same numbers for about the last 5 years, so it's not like he's magically gonna improve. If it was his 2nd year in the league I'd be very optimistic but as it stands now I think his game has pretty much peaked. Jeff Green, given Wilcox minutes, could easily average 13 PPG in only his second season. That allows Durant to slide over to SF for a more natural Sonics lineup. Collison continues as a backup PF/C, hoping that one of Sene/Elson/Petro/Swift emerges as a starting caliber player.

[BBen]

I'm lobbying for Gelly as a 2 because he does more than just score. I like a versatile two because we have a scoring sf in Durant. Gelly has nice handles, good court vision and has recently shown that he can put the ball in the hoop when he wants to. Why not give him a shot? He's young and has shown just as much, if not more than Petro and everyone is on Petro's bandwagon. Granted, at 25 he's not as young as Petro, but that's still just approaching peak and who wants a team of a bunch of people not legally able to drink?