he was traded for Mike Wilks, a future 2nd rounder and cash http://sports.espn.go.com/nba/news/story?id=2342228
Flip Murray Traded to Cleveland <div class="quote_poster">Quote:</div><div class="quote_post">The Cleveland Cavaliers have acquired Ronald 'Flip' Murray from the Seattle SuperSonics in exchange for little-used guard Mike Wilks, a second-round pick and $500,000, ESPN.com has learned.</div> Source
IIRC, Flip schooled Damon Jones pretty bad here in Seattle, I'm sure he made an impression. Anyway, GL to him, too bad it didn't work out here. I hope he does well now that he's not in Denver or Portland. As far as Wilks, I'm sure he's just trade fodder and won't amount to much. But the 2nd rounder is nice.
I think its good. We got what we needed really. A pg who's quick and can play defense. Also we got that "Physical, athletic big man" that I kept reading in the newspapers for the past 4 years in Wilcox. It isn't a blockbuster deal, but because of the salaries of the players we had...I think Sund pulled off a good deal. On a side note...Vitaly ended up in Sac-Town...apparently the Queens sent Brian Skinner to the Blazers for Pots.
Any deal that gets rid of Murray is a good one in my eyes. But I don't know much about this Wilks fellow...
Great deal - likely less than we could have gotten talent wise for Flip 2 seasons ago, but hindsight is 20/20. Flip will likely do alright in CLE. He won't be asked to handle the ball much with Lebron around, and his defensive inadequacies won't show up as much on that squad. Hopefully he can help them make a playoff push and earn himself a contract this summer. When Hughes comes back next year, there won't be any room for Flip with Damon Jones and Eric Snow already on the roster.
I was shocked to see this deal made, especially when I looked at the NBA wire after 3 p.m. and saw that Flip hadn't been traded yet. Rick just dumped Flip to dump him. Next year we could potentially have four second round draft picks--Memphis from last year or the year before, the two from Denver, and one from the Cavs. Do you really think that all of those players really have a chance of making our roster? Trading for Mike Wilks would have made sense if we didn't get Earl Watson, but what are we going to do with a fourth string point guard? Now Wilkins will be are only competent back up behind Ray and Rashard--for absolutely no reason whatsoever other than Sund wanted Flip out of dodge. When I found out about this trade I was hot--not b/c Flip got traded but b/c he got traded for nothing at all. The Cavs are renting Flip for a half of a season and I really hope that he goes after his game enough that he gets a big deal somewhere else. But I hate Sonic fans who are excited about getting rid of Flip without getting any compensation for him. Rick Sund did a great job revamping this roster before the deadline but Flip should not have gotten traded for what he got traded for. I am literally drained from talking about how underdogs get shoved under the rug so I am going to vent elsewhere besides this forum.
A future second rounder (not necessarily next year from what I saw) is better than letting Flip for nothing, Shiek.
Earlier when I said that "I think we got a good deal" I was referring to the whole package of trades we made in the past 2 weeks. Now, when I read that we got Wilks for Flip, no that wasn't a good deal. I think we could have kept him because he could have been Ray's backup. Sund probably made the best deal he had available...since Flip had asked for a trade. The way I see it it's good for Flip since Hughes has been hurt. And the way we were playing Flip, it doesn't hurt us to let him go either.
i dont know much bout sonics but i thought flip murray was a solid player? i dont understand why he's traded for just mike wilks and 2nd round pick. Sonics could get a better deal than that.
I don't think the Cleveland trade was the original deal intended for Flip. I saw somewhere (I can't remember where) that another trade involving Flip was just about done, but fell through at the very last minute. At that point, since they had already told him he was getting traded, the Sonics didn't feel they could bring him back -- out of respect for him, is what I read. They did however, trade him to a team where they thought he'd have a chance to play. And I'm glad about that. I hope he does well and earns himself a nice contract. As much as I wasn't a big fan of his on the court, I never got the impression that he was a bad teammate off the court or that he wasn't liked in the locker room. Best of luck to him.
<div class="quote_poster">Quoting whatever:</div><div class="quote_post">i dont know much bout sonics but i thought flip murray was a solid player? i dont understand why he's traded for just mike wilks and 2nd round pick. Sonics could get a better deal than that.</div> Basically, Flip exploded during Ray Allen's injury two years ago and showed a ton of potential. After Ray came back, Flip was demoted to the bench where he has struggled ever since. But because of that explosion two years ago, he's always been labeled as a better player than how he has played recently. Since the Sonics have Ray Allen, if Flip couldn't come off the bench and contribute he was pretty much worthless. They tried to get him to be a combo guard and played some point but he looked horrendous. He hasn't played well for the Sonics the last two seasons, and the reason he got minutes this year was because he was the only choice off the bench to back up Luke and Ray. Bob Hill even said he was going to promote Mateen Cleaves over Flip because he was so inept at playing point guard, although Hill never really followed through. To sum up, Flip is probably better than what we got for him, but he was pretty much a lot of wasted potential in Seattle, and didn't have much value. He wasn't going to resign with the Sonics, anyway, so Rick Sund got what he could.
Great summary, Casual. Another thing to point out: Bob Hill decided that he'd rather play Damien Wilkins (a natural forward) at the point than Flip. Not that Wilkins has done bad, because he hasn't. I'm actually very pleasantly surprised with his versatility.
Before tonight, I did not know a thing about Mike Wilks, but after watching his performance vs Miami, 12 pts, 5 assists, I am very happy that this trade went through. Hopefully he can keep that type of performance up. Flip seemed to be causing chemistry issues within the team and to get what we got for him I think it was worth it. Now I just don't know what we're going to do w/ all these point guards, with luke, watson, and wilks... uptempo smallball??
I've never gone on the record as saying Mike Wilks is a bad player because he isn't. He is a feisty undersized combo guard who competes every possession. I just don't think, with the addition of Earl Watson, that the position that he fills is a position of need for us. I wouldn't be surprised if 12 points actually ends up being his season high for the Sonics this year. He got the opportunity to play significant minutes tonight--and at some point I'm sure that he'll get some time to show what he can do again--but at the end of the day when you have 30 million dollars invested in your back up point guard and you are still trying to find out after 3 seasons what you have in a starting point guard in Luke Ridnour, I don't imagine that Mike Wilks development is a top priority in the Sonics camp. I'm glad however that he is taking advantage of the opportunity that he is given though. At this stage in the game I think it is more important to play some of these younger guys than it is to watch Ray and Sweet Lew dominate the possessions of the basketball. We have some very good young talent who needs to feel a part of the mix offensively for this team to grow--or at least to increase their trade value.
