The struggles of this team are very blatant. As I’ve stated previously, the defense is simply atrocious. Statistically speaking, they have the 4th worst defense in the NBA, allowing 105 points per game, not to mention the second to worst point differential (trailing only Minnesota) at 8.2 points. The offense has needed to step up and support Kevin Durant in games. Durant’s struggles are noticeable as well, as his shooting percentage has dropped below 40%. Earl Watson has displayed his displeasure with the team, citing playing time as a key issue on his mind. Was P.J. Carlesimo the right hire at head coach? Absolutely. How about Sam Presti as GM? You bet ya. But with the trade deadline looming, the Sonics need to make some adjustments to a very young team (average age is 25). Kurt Thomas has an expiring contract which could look pretty to some teams, and Earl Watson could serve as a valuable chip to a team needing a veteran PG. What transpires in the coming weeks will definitely have an impact on the season, and possibly on the future of the team.

My biggest observation from this weekend is simple:  the Sonics need a secondary scorer to compliment Kevin Durant.  With Luke Ridnour’s injury not progressing, the Sonics are relying on Earl Watson and Damien Wilkins to score along side Durant.  To me, neither is capable of producing enough to take the pressure off of Durant.  As Jeff Green slowly works his way into the starting lineup, maybe he can play second fiddle to Durant.  Right now though, the Sonics are in dire need of acquiring another scorer to help this team out.   

As for the rest of the Sonics, things are looking good for the supporting role players.  Chris Wilcox, the teams second leading scorer, is also the teams most efficient scorer at 52% from the field.  Wally Wally is fitting in well at the 6th man position.  The thing that concerns me is who is playing at the point.  Is Earl Watson really the answer?  Luke Ridnour has been injured most of the time this year, and I think Delonte West is better coming off the bench.  It’ll be interesting to see if the Sonics make a few moves to acquire another PG before the deadline.  They have some nice pieces to move (Watson, Damien Wilkins), so we’ll see what offers, if any, they receive.   

The Sonics open up the new year in Phoenix, a game in which Durant hopes to be back from the injured finger he aggravated in the loss against the Sixers on New Years eve.  The Sonics resolution should start and end with one word: defense.  The Sonics are giving up almost 105 points a game, while only scoring 98.  Usually, you have to score more than your opponent to win.  That needs to be fixed.  In the 31 games played in the 2007-2008 season, the Sonics gave up 100 points more than 20 times.  Of those 20 games, the Sonics lost 17 of them.  Understandably, this is a young team that is still learning and developing.  Hopefully, they can be fast learners.  The pressing need for another scorer is another issue.  Just think how good Durant could really be if he had a Ray Allen or Rashard Lewis next to him.  Again, this can be addressed with a trade, but we’ll wait to see how that plays out.  Also, the development of Jeff Green and the return of Luke Ridnour should help this a bit.

Looking forward to 2008, the future for the Sonics looks optimistic.  Kevin Durant should get better and better, as will this youthful team.  Playing in the Western Conference, the schedule doesn’t swing in the Sonics favor.  But that could be just what they need.  Tough competition to get this team playing at a higher level.  We’ll see if they start 2008 off right with a win tomorrow night at Phoenix.   

-Kevin Durant, Chris Wilcox, Damien Wilkins lead the team in minutes played, with Jeff Green, Delonte West, and Nick Collison also getting significant minutes. This is important because it shows that P.J. is dedicated towards helping the team’s future.

-Kevin Durant, the #2 overall pick in the draft, has been as good as could be expected. He is quickly developing into a top-flight NBA player. He is scoring at a 20.6 ppg clip. Durant’s rebounding numbers are low for a player his height and with the amount of minutes he is getting. Expect him to develop that aspect of his game over the offseason, when he will have time to bulk up and become a tougher inside player.

-Durant’s shooting percentages are decent, and I bet those numbers will go up in the future when the Sonics surround him with other scorers. His free throw percentage is right where it needs to be, but his three-point percentage is a little low for a player of his shooting caliber.

-Chris Wilcox is hitting his potential, and it is a sweet thing to see. Injury-prone and immature were adjectives that could have described Wilcox in the past, but now, in his seventh NBA season, Wilcox has figured things out. He has played in every game, and is averaging a career-high 14.1 points a game. He is also contributing nearly 8 rebounds a game. It seems as if this is a classic example of a big man taking awhile to develop his game.

-Jeff Green and Nick Collison have pretty similar numbers and are both valuable role players. I do not know that either has the talent to be All-stars, but if they continue to mold their respective games so that they are nightly contributors on both ends of the floor, they will have long careers. I could see Green playing the role that Battier does for the Rockets.

-As for Robert Swift, the man is still very young, but it is not looking good for the Sonics and their number one draft choice from 2004. He is in his third year, but he remains a mystery because of his constant injury problems. He has only played 5 games this year, and has not played in over a month. Only 22 and being a big man, it may be wise to hold on to him and hope that he develops like Wilcox did. However, if he is sitting on the sideline every game, it is impossible for him to develop.

Still, they almost beat a very good Utah team last night. They are staying close, and that is what is important. If they were getting crushed night after night, there would be real concern. What we are seeing right now are growing pains, as the Sonics bide their time until Durant achieves greatness.

Durant is much farther along however, than I expected. A reporter covering the Summer league said he looked like a string bean out on the floor. I was expecting a much slighter build, but Durant’s body looks very NBAish. Not bad at all for a 19 year old.

-Kevin Durant is going to be a dynamic player in this league, but he is going to have to put on some weight in order to take the pounding an 82 game season provides. Also, he is going to need another legitimate perimeter scorer to help handle the scoring load. Right now the only other reliable scorer is Chris Wilcox on the inside.

-At point guard, Earl Watson has been a very good distributor of the ball, but his shooting has been downright atrocious. Delonte West may be the future of this team at the point, but he is not does not have the passing skills of Watson. Ridnour has somehow shot even worse than Watson, and his minutes per game reflect his poor play so far.

-The frontcourt is where Seattle is going to win some games this year. Swift has only played three of the five games, but his defense has been very solid when he’s been on the court. Wilcox has been magnificent so far, and he looks like he has turned the corner and blossomed into an every game threat. His scoring, rebounding and field goal percentage have all gone up from last season. With Collison also in the frontcourt, this Seattle team can become very good within the next year or two.

-Of course, the only way this team is going to become very good is to let the young players gain experience and learn how to win games. I am already tired of seeing Wally Sczcerbiak on the court. The more the former all-star plays, the less the youngers players get to learn. I know he is the only real veteran scorer on this team, and he is still a great shooter, but he just makes too many costly turnovers and is not exactly the leader he should be. I hope Carlesimo understands this and plays Jeff Green and Johan Petro more, especially down the stretch. The Sonics are not going to make the playoffs, so they should try to develop as much as possible.

On a night were Kevin Durant did not have his jumper working, Seattle needed to lean on their defense more than ever. So far this season, that has not been a good thing. The Sonics gave up 105 points to Memphis and are yet to hold a team under 100 points this year.

After making a late run in the final two minutes the Sonics trailed by only one point when Noah Lowry missed a lay-up, got his own rebound and buried a three. It was one of 21 offensive rebounds the Grizzlies had on the night, which Sonics coach P.J. Carlesimo called, “atrocious”.

The 0-5 start is beginning to wear on this young team, especially rookie Kevin Durant, who has never had to deal with losing like this before. After the game, Durant said, “I hate to lose, basically. I don’t care if it’s an 82-game season and people say you have to lose - I hate to lose. Period.”

With their next three games against Utah, Detroit and the much-improved Orlando Magic things don’t seem to be getting any better anytime soon. And unless this team learns how to finish a game and play some defense, things won’t ever get any better.

Now move to 2007. The Sonics are sold to an out of state owner who is going about the process of moving the Sonics to Oklahoma City. And again, the league, this time the NBA, is facilitating that move. This is despite the fact that there is a local group offering to buy the team to keep it in the Key Arena, which the city of Seattle is anxious to discuss refurbishing to make everybody who thinks the NBA needs giant distant arenas lined with a shopping and restaurant mall in order to be successful.

We’ll see what happens - but I really expected the NBA to have a preference toward working with the city of Seattle to keep the Sonics here. Apparently, Stern and the NBA simply prefers to push cities around and demand tax dollars for bigger and better arenas, fans and markets be damned.

David Stern is almost as anxious as Clay Bennett to move the Sonics, who have a storied 41 year relationship as Seattle’s first and most successful (and I would argue most beloved) major league franchise to Oklahoma City. The actions of the NBA commissioners office is unconscionable. The league should be at the very least neutral, and would hopefully be on the side of Sonic fans. Instead, we find it in bed with Clay Bennett - to the point that Stern is now in Oklahoma City to honor Bennett’s induction into the Oklahoma Sports Hall of Fame (yeah, I didn’t know it existed either). Read here.

So, as in 1970, it will be entirely up to the courts to force a major league organization to grow a conscience when it comes to running its operations. With Bennett insisting that any offer to refurbish the Key unnacceptable, the city is forced to go to court to force the Sonics to fulfill the terms of its lease at the Key.

Does the city stand a chance? I’m not a lawyer, but I would think that this is very different from a standard lease that a leasee can get out of by paying lost income to the leasor. The Sonics worked with the city to refurbish Key Arena to its specific needs in signing the current lease. An NBA franchise is not like any other business. If a business moves out of a building, the owner can almost always find another one that is pretty much like the first tenant. But Seattle can’t go out and get another NBA team to replace the Sonics. There is a forced scarcity here, which professional sports uses to its great advantage to threaten communities like Seattle to spend tax dollars or lose a precious community asset that cannot be replaced. This has to count for something, when the Sonics go about breaking a commitment it made with the city in getting Key Arena refurbished the first time.