Calling the Seattle SuperSonics bad is somewhat equivalent to calling Britney Spears crazy. It’s a no-brainer. And just like you more than likely shouldn’t pick on a celebrity who is obviously going through a mental breakdown, you probably shouldn’t pick on a 9-26 team who is going through rebuilding and wasn’t supposed to do squat this year.
But I am going to.
“Come on man, cut the Sonics some slack. They made great offseason moves over the summer, got rid of their superstars, set themselves up for a great turn-around, drafted Durant and have a great teacher in PJ Carlesimo. How are they doomed?”
You could say that…or you couldn’t. They are doomed because they hired PJ Carlesimo as the head coach. He is the main reason why Seattle is so bad and he may actually set them backwards. I’m guessing the combination of not being a head coach for 8 years and spending 5 years under Popovich made people forget just how bad he really is. Honestly…the guy has never been a winner. He’s almost the Zach Randolph of coaches. His NBA head coaching record coming into this year was 183-222. Why on earth would you hire someone who is nowhere near a proven winner and has a history of stubbornness. In college…you can be stubborn. In the NBA, especially around veterans they are going to tune that out pretty quick. Seattle is slowly turning into one of those teams who stop listening to their coach. Here’s the proof from an AP article on last night’s game at New Jersey:
“The Sonics played an emotionless game against the Nets, with the bench sitting sullen and player not rising from their chairs to cheer on their teammates following positive plays.”
“After the game, two reporters from the Scranton, Pa., Times-Tribune, Carlesimo hometown newspaper, approached Sonics reserve Wally Szczerbiak and asked him to talk about Carlesimo. Szcerbiak replied: “I’ll pass, guys.”
He told the Seattle Post-Intelligencer: “We’ve got good quality guys in this locker room; I wouldn’t say a bad word about anyone in this locker room.”
Something isn’t quite settling right. The guys aren’t cheering each other on but it’s obvious they like each other. Obviously it could just be the losing setting in but the Sonics are so far from a team it is not even funny. As a head coach Carlesimo is as stubborn as they come and always has been his whole career. He may have a great mind and may have been great as an assistant in San Antonio..but he should never be a #1 guy. In Portland he never got good Blazer teams out of the first round. No coincidence that after he left our worst season was 49 wins with Dunleavy. His struggles in Golden State were well-documented to the point that Latrell just choked the hell out of him. And now he is doing just as poor in Seattle.
Remember he was brought in to be a teacher to a youthful Sonics team. But what exactly has he taught? His rotations have been fluctuating up and down all season, one of the major reasons the Sonics have been struggling. And not only struggling but a reason why that locker room is far from harmonious. How do you explain how a guy like Damien Wilkins going from starting the first 29 games and being the #2 scoring option to playing in between 10-15 minutes for four games and then playing 30 minutes the next? Or Wally World’s minutes going up and down with no rhyme or reason. Or how about the point guard situation…a complete waste of Delonte West and Luke Ridnour. By the way, I almost guarantee if someone else was coaching that Ridnour would be back by now.
They’re supposed to be teaching Durant and Green the way of the world…but I’m not exactly sure PJ is doing that. Durant isn’t quite evolving like he should. He’s being asked to completely carry the load offensively and then play defense. And while he hasn’t been as embarrasing as in the beginning of the season, it’s clear that maybe they should change his name to Kevin Urant cause he ain’t got no D. If you watch a Sonics game live you will see that this drives PJ nuts and there is nothing he can do about it. Every now and then he’ll jerk him out of a game (i.e. last night after a nasty VC backcut) but then you’re taking away your #1 guy. Veterans are grumbling about minutes, they have no steady point guard and poor Jeff Green…if he isn’t in the post its been a struggle for him to score.
On paper the Sonics have everything in place to make a major turn around. But if PJ’s running the ship, I think they are doomed.