<div class="quote_poster">Quote:</div><div class="quote_post">The Seattle SuperSonics exhibition game against the Houston Rockets in Laredo, Tex. Tuesday wasn't decided until the final minutes, Houston going on a 26-9 run against a group of Sonics reserves to claim the 93-85 win. The big story, however, came not at the end of the game but the beginning. Rookie Johan Petro, just 19 and having played only two exhibition games in his NBA career, got the start for the Sonics at center. "It was just time to take a look at him," said Sonics Coach Bob Weiss. "He had done fine in the scrimmages, so I wanted to give him a look. We went with Johan and were pleasantly surprised. The guy plays like he belongs out there - there's no fear, no apprehension. He just goes out and runs, plays hard." In 21 minutes of action, Petro had four points, five rebounds, a steal and a blocked shot. In 43 total preseason minutes thus far, he's rejected four shots and grabbed eight rebounds. But it's not Petro's statistics so much as how good he's looked on the court that has made him one of the most pleasant surprises of the preseason so far. "He is a lot further along than I thought he'd be," said Weiss. "I didn't think he had a chance of being on the floor this year, but the way he's played the last couple of days, nothing is in stone. If he keeps improving like this, he will be on the floor a little bit." ------------- "Unbelievable leaps and bounds," said Sonics Director of Basketball Operations Dave Pendergraft. "I think our coaches have done a masterful job with him. He's slowing down, he's seeing the game, whereas in the summer everything was so quick and so new. He stayed in foul trouble. He wasn't able to play basketball. He could practice, but he couldn't play. He wasn't quite ready for that. Now, he's able to go out and play the game. Once you're able to play, that's where you start improving. "I think the improvement and watching him play every day is like watching a plant grow - bigger and bigger and bigger." </div> Supersonics.com. Great read, sounds like he is really coming along and could even see a few minutes here and there this season. Interesting to read that we may not even send him down to the NBDL, and instead develop him in our own time. From what Pendergraft said, I doubt we'll even see Swift down there either.
This kid sounds like Hakeem when he came over. I think he played a summer against Moses and soaked it all up, and then turned into a monster. Let's keep our fingers crossed.
