<div class="quote_poster">Quote:</div><div class="quote_post">General manager Rick Sund is just about done negotiating a new deal with the Sonics. He's just not done negotiating for the Sonics. Sund is expected to re-sign with the team this week for what is believed to be a three-year contract. It's the first agreement for the Sonics in a summer with a long to-do list. Eight players and head coach Nate McMillan are unsigned beyond next season, and teams can begin contacting free agents beginning July 1, barring a lockout. When reached last night, Sund declined to comment on the situation other than to say, "I'm optimistic that something will get done in the next couple of days." A voice-mail message left for team president Wally Walker was not returned. Sund has been the team's general manager the past four seasons, and his contract would have expired on June 30. The Sonics and Sund had been negotiating for more than a month, discussions starting while the Sonics were still in the playoffs. Sund, who made a little more than $1 million last season, won't be taking a pay cut. His deal is expected to be for three years, which is one year shorter than the deal the Sonics have proposed with McMillan. The Sonics' discussions with McMillan have been going on less than a month because the coach didn't want to have any discussions until after the season. Seattle's offer to McMillan is higher than the four-year, $16 million extension that Scott Skiles signed with the Bulls earlier this summer. That figures, since McMillan's team won a playoff series this season, Skiles' didn't, and McMillan has more than four years as Seattle's head coach.</div> <font size="1">Full Story courtesy of Danny O'Neil and the Seattle PI.</font> Well, if there is one positive to come out of the bargaining between the NBA and the players' union it's that there isn't any real stability in terms of player contracts, and enables Mr Walker to concentrate on two of the three biggest free agents. Adds a lot more certainty to plater negotiations when the man at the forefront of them is tied up himself.
