Sadly, the time is coming.
As the losses mount and tempers shorten, and as the Sonics slip further below .500, it becomes clearer and clearer that this is another in a long series of rebuilding years.
The time for trading Gary Payton is approaching.
Nobody who has watched him play for this team for the past 12-1/2 years should want this day to come. Payton is a Seattle icon. He has meant more to this franchise than any player since the 1979 championship team. He has taken the Sonics further than any point guard since Gus Williams.
He is an eight-time All-Star. He leads the Sonics in scoring this season, averaging 21.4 points, and leads the league in assists.
But, barring a blockbuster trade that doesn't involve Payton, the Sonics are going nowhere this year. They probably won't make the playoffs and, if even if they do, they certainly will be eliminated in the first round.
This is an ill-conceived roster. Seattle is a team of clones. The Seattle Raelians.
Their three best young players — Rashard Lewis, Desmond Mason and Vladimir Radmanovic — all play small forward.
Mason has moved to the two-guard, but he isn't one. And Radmanovic is playing power forward, but he isn't a power forward.
They have a jumbo jumble at center — Vitaly Potapenko, Jerome James, Peja Drobnjak, Calvin Booth (remember him?) — none of whom has a post-up game.
They have not one, but two, starting point guards — Payton and Kenny Anderson — who need 30-plus minutes each a night. Anderson, a free agent at the end of the season, wants more time to audition. Who can blame him?
This is a team with issues that isn't playing together and hasn't won in 2003.
This season's Sonics were stuccoed together. It is a roster of redundancies.
This franchise is all about the summer of 2003. It is all about piling up assets so deals can be made in the offseason. The Sonics are about clearing salary cap room for an offseason shopping spree.
Of course they're not going to tell us that. The Red Sea of empty seats at KeyArena would get that much redder if fans thought the Sonics weren't trying to win now.
But they don't look like a playoff team. And even Payton's consistently hard-nosed, full-throttle game isn't enough to carry them against the best teams in the West.
Payton is a free agent at the end of this season. I wish the Sonics would sign him long term, but I think, if they keep him for the rest of this season, they will lowball him next summer at about $8.5 million and Payton will leave, taking the mid-level exception from the Lakers or from San Antonio.
Believe me, even at age 34, a serious market awaits Payton.
It should be noted that Payton doesn't want to be traded. He cares enough about this team that yesterday he called a players-only meeting to talk about what can be done to get the Sonics playing the way they were in November.
He wants to stay in Seattle, but he wants to win here. Frustration is bubbling inside him like lava underneath a volcano.
Instead of trading him, Payton wants the team to get better now, to make a deal for a big man that could make them a playoff contender.
What if the Sonics could package something like Potapenko, Radmanovic and Anderson to Atlanta for Theo Ratliff and other stuff? Or put a package together to New Orleans for Elden Campbell and friends? Or some kind of package to Golden State for Erick Dampier?
If it doesn't make a deal, this team is heading into the second half of a season without hope. And it might as well trade Payton and turn over the team to Lewis, Mason and Radmanovic. It might as well get them a point guard who doesn't need the ball in his hands as much as Payton does.
Lewis is making $60 million. It's time he stopped pouting and started producing every night and not every so often. Maybe Payton's departure would force him to mature.
The Sonics' front office has made so many mistakes since the salad days of 1996. Everything can be traced back to the signing of Jim McIlvaine.
His free-agent signing in 1996 begat the unhappiness of Shawn Kemp, which begat the trade for Vin Baker, which begat the signing of Booth, which was followed by the trade for Anderson, Potapenko and Joseph Forte.
Now this is a team looking toward tomorrow, with an All-Star point guard who wants to win today. Payton deserves better.
Sadly, the time is coming when Seattle should trade him (to Indiana?), when it should take a realistic look at the future, begin preparing for next season and stop kidding us about this one.
****************************************************
I agree 100%....Payton DESERVES a ring...i dont care where he plays.
As the losses mount and tempers shorten, and as the Sonics slip further below .500, it becomes clearer and clearer that this is another in a long series of rebuilding years.
The time for trading Gary Payton is approaching.
Nobody who has watched him play for this team for the past 12-1/2 years should want this day to come. Payton is a Seattle icon. He has meant more to this franchise than any player since the 1979 championship team. He has taken the Sonics further than any point guard since Gus Williams.
He is an eight-time All-Star. He leads the Sonics in scoring this season, averaging 21.4 points, and leads the league in assists.
But, barring a blockbuster trade that doesn't involve Payton, the Sonics are going nowhere this year. They probably won't make the playoffs and, if even if they do, they certainly will be eliminated in the first round.
This is an ill-conceived roster. Seattle is a team of clones. The Seattle Raelians.
Their three best young players — Rashard Lewis, Desmond Mason and Vladimir Radmanovic — all play small forward.
Mason has moved to the two-guard, but he isn't one. And Radmanovic is playing power forward, but he isn't a power forward.
They have a jumbo jumble at center — Vitaly Potapenko, Jerome James, Peja Drobnjak, Calvin Booth (remember him?) — none of whom has a post-up game.
They have not one, but two, starting point guards — Payton and Kenny Anderson — who need 30-plus minutes each a night. Anderson, a free agent at the end of the season, wants more time to audition. Who can blame him?
This is a team with issues that isn't playing together and hasn't won in 2003.
This season's Sonics were stuccoed together. It is a roster of redundancies.
This franchise is all about the summer of 2003. It is all about piling up assets so deals can be made in the offseason. The Sonics are about clearing salary cap room for an offseason shopping spree.
Of course they're not going to tell us that. The Red Sea of empty seats at KeyArena would get that much redder if fans thought the Sonics weren't trying to win now.
But they don't look like a playoff team. And even Payton's consistently hard-nosed, full-throttle game isn't enough to carry them against the best teams in the West.
Payton is a free agent at the end of this season. I wish the Sonics would sign him long term, but I think, if they keep him for the rest of this season, they will lowball him next summer at about $8.5 million and Payton will leave, taking the mid-level exception from the Lakers or from San Antonio.
Believe me, even at age 34, a serious market awaits Payton.
It should be noted that Payton doesn't want to be traded. He cares enough about this team that yesterday he called a players-only meeting to talk about what can be done to get the Sonics playing the way they were in November.
He wants to stay in Seattle, but he wants to win here. Frustration is bubbling inside him like lava underneath a volcano.
Instead of trading him, Payton wants the team to get better now, to make a deal for a big man that could make them a playoff contender.
What if the Sonics could package something like Potapenko, Radmanovic and Anderson to Atlanta for Theo Ratliff and other stuff? Or put a package together to New Orleans for Elden Campbell and friends? Or some kind of package to Golden State for Erick Dampier?
If it doesn't make a deal, this team is heading into the second half of a season without hope. And it might as well trade Payton and turn over the team to Lewis, Mason and Radmanovic. It might as well get them a point guard who doesn't need the ball in his hands as much as Payton does.
Lewis is making $60 million. It's time he stopped pouting and started producing every night and not every so often. Maybe Payton's departure would force him to mature.
The Sonics' front office has made so many mistakes since the salad days of 1996. Everything can be traced back to the signing of Jim McIlvaine.
His free-agent signing in 1996 begat the unhappiness of Shawn Kemp, which begat the trade for Vin Baker, which begat the signing of Booth, which was followed by the trade for Anderson, Potapenko and Joseph Forte.
Now this is a team looking toward tomorrow, with an All-Star point guard who wants to win today. Payton deserves better.
Sadly, the time is coming when Seattle should trade him (to Indiana?), when it should take a realistic look at the future, begin preparing for next season and stop kidding us about this one.
****************************************************
I agree 100%....Payton DESERVES a ring...i dont care where he plays.