I listened to the majority of it which obviously doesnt substitute for seeing the game but sounds like we had some good signs. I was happy to see Reggie Evans get to start which probably means he will be starting on opening night. Clearly the best atleast stastical thing of the night was Flip Murray. I had been feeling like Weiss wasnt giving Flip the time he needed on the court to adjust and he did tonight and Flip came through. Hopefully that can be a consistent thing for Flip because we need him badly. BTW could Petro be our starting center for the majority of this season?
We're certainly a much more dangerous team when Flip is on the floor and shooting the ball well. Great to see the team put the game away in the third quarter and go into Wednesday's opener on a positive note. On Petro, who knows if he'll be our starting centre for the majority of the season, but with Pot missing again through that hamstring and another impressive showing from the Frenchman, it looks like he may be the starter on opening night. What odds could you have got for that in summer league?!
He may just be the center for the season. Who knows, crazier things have happened. Look at Reggie his first year.
You guys crack me up. When Flip is play is suspect in limited minutes he should be out of the league but when he plays well in a win he is the missing ingredient to our success. Here is the deal. Our backcourt rotation should be fine. Between Luke, Ray, and Flip we should be in a situation where we can get at least 45 points a game. With extended minutes there is no doubt in my mind that Flip would establish himself as one of the best combo guards in the league but b/c it could come at the expense of Ray and Rashard getting shots I know that he isn't going to get starters minutes--and thus his numbers won't reflect his ability. Our problem is our frontcourt rotation. I don't understand why Weiss isn't looking at the combination of Nick and Petro as our starters. If he is so enchanted with Nick and Danny on the floor together at the same time why not just substitute Danny for Petro in the first sub rotation? It's not that difficult. Nick is our most complete power forward. If you want him to get extended minutes he shouldn't have to split time with Reggie and Vlad to get them. The crazy thing about it is that you could essentially have a line up that has all three of them on the court at the same time--so it really isn't that hard of a puzzle to solve. I'm glad the preseason is over. There is too much speculation as to who is playing well in meaningless games. I know this for sure, when the lights turn on for real the only people on the Sonics whose production I'll be worried about is Vlad, Damien, Petro, Clinton, and Swift. OUr guards are fine and if Flip gets those consistent minutes that he's earned he will surpass the expectations that everyone in this league (and this forum) has for him.
<div class="quote_poster">Quoting Iron Shiek:</div><div class="quote_post">You guys crack me up. When Flip is play is suspect in limited minutes he should be out of the league but when he plays well in a win he is the missing ingredient to our success. </div> Hardly. Take a poll on the site and see how many guys would prefer Flip not be on the roster - I doubt there would be many, if any who would say that, because we all know what he potentially brings to the team. However, and even you couldn't deny this, he is the single most frustrating player going around. You see glimpses every now and then, but there are more bad nights than good ones. Yes, I know part of it is to do with not getting consistent minutes, but he is a pro playing behind one o the best in the league, so he has to adjust. If we can get 10 points a night off the bench from him and not at a horrible percentage, I'll take it very happily.
<div class="quote_poster">Quoting Iron Shiek:</div><div class="quote_post">You guys crack me up. When Flip is play is suspect in limited minutes he should be out of the league but when he plays well in a win he is the missing ingredient to our success. </div> It really annoys me when you suggest I say things that I dont..which you have done often. Ive said all along im worried about if Flip can handle this role but that I know we need him too. I have no idea where along the way I mentioned that I didnt want him on the team or that I didnt want him playing.
I can think of other gaurds I would rather have to back up our starters. That said, I can think of worse options. I hope this is the year Flip puts it together for both his sake and the team. I wish I could make him make better decisions with the ball, but I can't. Even though i have ripped on him, and don't like him very much as a player, that does not mean that i don't think he should be in the league. I feel the same way about Vlad. I don't like him, but if he can become that 18 and 8 PF every night and at least try to defend other bigs, great, lock him up til 2012. If I have ever said that Flip belongs in the D League, and i believe I may have, what the intention was meant to be was that I believe he needs to develope as a player. Murray has the chance to show that he has grown as a player.He has his chance this year to be a sixth man and earn that contract. One of three things will happen. 1) he will play great and go start for some other team. 2) he will play alright and go back up some other team 3) he will play the same way he has been playing and go sit on some other teams bench. Givin that choice I think anybody that is a Sonics fan would take #1, because if he plays great that means we do better. Duh.
<div class="quote_poster">Quoting Iron Shiek:</div><div class="quote_post"> OUr guards are fine and if Flip gets those consistent minutes that he's earned he will surpass the expectations that everyone in this league (and this forum) has for him. .</div> I've never understood this line of thinking. I'm sure you can pull up some statistical evidence to support Flip's production increasing by leaps and bounds when he gets over a certain # of minutes - but what in the world would you expect? The man's role on this team is instant offense off the bench, and it has been for 1 1/2 seasons. When he's hot, he stays in the game longer and puts up solid #'s and looks great, when he's not, he doesn't get the time and more often than not puts up not so great #'s at terrible shooting %'s. I'm not saying thats even necessarily a bad thing, but if he wants more minutes he has to be able to expand his role beyond that kind of play. The problem with Flip isn't if he can play the instant offense role successfully - because he's proved he can score on just about anyone. Its whether or not he can actually run the offense efficiently without turning each posession into an iso. If he's going to get consistent minutes this year, he has to be able to coincide with Ray, and get other players involved and I'm not talking about dumping it off to a big after he breaks his man down. If Ronald can't take minutes away from Brunson or Cleaves, than he has no one but himself to blame but himself because it just means the coaches don't think he can run the offense correctly.
I respect a lot of you guys opinion. If you didn't get an opportunity to see Flip when he played extended minutes I would see why you would be very concerned about what he can bring to the table. Last year he played poorly in a reserve role, but played well when he was allowed to play starters minutes. Most of the time he came in a reserve role and thus he had a poor season. This is the thing about Flip. For whatever reason it takes him about 6-8 minutes to get himself in the flow of the game. I don't know why it is like that, but it is. During those first six minutes if the light switch is off, you get a guy who is turnover prone, shoots a low percentage, and is a inconsistent defender. When given extended minutes that light switch turns on often and then he scores in bunches, finds open teammates, and is a quality perimeter defender. Now when he is brought in a reserve role you expect a player to be able to instantly have the light switch on and not have to wait for him to get his game legs--but often that isn't the case w/ Flip. But in contrast when he does get his game legs he is capable of doing things that no other guard on our roster (or many other rosters) can do. Is Weiss going to be able to get Flip to play well w/o giving him a 6-8 minute grace period? I don't know. I hope that he has conditioned himself so that he can be effective the moment he steps onto the court. But the bottom line is that other guys have been able to work their way through their shortcomings w/o being relegated to the bench. Luke Ridnour was atrocious last year in the summer league and preseason and Nate stuck with him. Why? B/c he was a first round draft pick that the team had a vested interest in his success. Same thing with Rashard Lewis who struggled mightly in his rookie campaign and Nick Collison who took about two months to understand how to be an effective role player. In the case of Flip he opened so many eyes early that people that people wondered what was wrong with him--being a second rounder from a Division II school. Nate pointed out that he had concerns about his defense and now all of a sudden Flip's fast start was labeled a fluke. Flip is a very important part to our success this season. If we are going to be good we are going to need him to play well as the third guard b/c Luke and Ray can not play a combined 80+ a night for 82 games.
