<div class="quote_poster">Quote:</div><div class="quote_post">SEATTLE - The Seattle SuperSonics have requested waivers on forward Noel Felix and guard Alex Scales, General Manager Rick Sund announced today. Scales, from Oregon, averaged 5.6 points in seven preseason games. Felix averaged 2.4 points and 2.0 rebounds in five preseason games. The Sonics originally signed both players and invited them to training camp on Sep. 30. The Sonics roster now stands at 15 players. supersonics.com </div> I personally think they shoulda kept scales in place of brunson maybe....
Brunson cemented his spot in the last game with some heady play against Portland, and to be honest, it's hard to disagree with his inclusion as otherwise it would leave Mateen as the only pure point guard on the roster behind Luke. As for Scales, well it's unlucky he's a 6'2 shooting guard, because he was probably the best player out of the four throughout preseason, while Felix looks to have some upside, but we are already stacked at both forward spots. I'll certainly keep an eye on both guys in the next few months and I'm sure management will too.
I think if Flip had shown the ability to run the offense more consitently in limited minutes (we have all seen he does better with 20-30 minutes) then Scales might have been a possibility. The trouble is that they need insurance against injury to Luke. They need someone who can run the offense and not turn the ball over a lot. This means leaning heavily on Brunson and Cleaves. Flip can take over the scoring for AD with ease, they needed to make sure they could cover the other half of the equation in the event that Flip at the point doesn't play out as they would like. I think they may end up with a four guard roatation rather than a three like last year unless Flip is able to pull together both parts of the role they are asking him to play.
Yeah I do agree with keeping Rick and Mateen. They're both vets, so we do need that kind of locker room leadership. I think it'll help luke as well...
From a basketball perspective it would make sense for us to keep Scales as opposed to having two journeyman point guards who essentially (although their games are different) have the exact same role. Fiscally and for the sake of team continuity/chemistry the organization made the right decision. If you are going to guarantee money to players (partially in the case of Mateen) you might as well give them the opportunity to give you a return on your investment. Plus Cleaves is about as good of a teammate that you could possible ask for, so I think it would have hurt team morale had he been released. But at the end of the day we're trying to win games and it is important to have players who are capable of producing when their number is called. I'm not saying that Alex Scales is a guy that you can rely on for production at the NBA level but from all of the accounts I've read he has more natural ability than both Brunson and Cleaves. God forbid something happens to one or both of our two guards b/c I'd hate to have a line up that featured Sweet Lew/Vlad at the two or have to play extended minutes with a backcourt of Ridnour and Brunson/Cleaves. I hope that Damien is getting multiple reps at shooting guard in practice--just in case.
I agree that we don't need Brunson. Remember last year when we had 4 point/combo guards? Luke AD Flip Mateen Flip and Mateen barely ever got to play. Now that AD is gone Flip will get more minutes. But do we really need another poing guard who will do nothing other than warm the bench? We should have brought in some more big men. Considering that Fortson and Collison are anything BUT frugal with their 5 fouls, we could have gotten some back up and those positions.
I wouldnt have minded keeping Scales from what ive heard about him. But its nice having Cleaves back so im happy with it overall (or atleast not upset). As for adding another big man im not sure that would have been very prudent. As I see it right now we are probably going to start the season with 2 healthy centers on the inactive roster (Mikki Moore and Robert Swift) plus 3 capable powerforwards who will all be averaging under 30 mpg I think.
