<div class="quote_poster">Quote:</div><div class="quote_post">A season of irrelevance would suddenly become meaningful should the NBA gods smile on Seattle tonight. The injuries, the franchise record-setting 15-game road losing streak, the 22 losses by six points or less, coach Bob Hill's dismissal and general manager Rick Sund's demotion would all be forgotten if the Sonics were to get lucky and parlay their long odds of claiming one of the two top picks in the lottery into a winning combination of pingpong balls. </div> Link It's been too quiet as of late.
You know, I never really thought about that. If Seattle could get Oden or Durant, then I think Seattle would stay for sure.
I thought that the lottery God's were going to shine on us last year and we ended up with the 10th pick. This year the absolute worst we can finish is 8th so at least we have that going for us. Greg Oden would help us out tremendously and Kevin Durant would make Rashard Lewis expendible. Preferably I would like to have Oden and trade Petro for some backcourt help then bring in Durant in hopes that he could be a better version of Sweet Lew. I really feel like this team is Rashard's not Ray's and I wish that there was a big time shooting guard prospect that could make Ray Allen expendible -- too bad there isn't. Last year we took a stab at a center prospect who had a horrific rookie season. Since only Renaldo Balkman (NY fans wouldn't have guessed it) Marcus Williams, Rajon Rondo, and Paul Millsap really impacted the success of their franchise after the 10th pick I wouldn't say that the front office made a terrible decision drafting Mo' Sene last year. If that was the case than the selections of Patrick O'Bryant, JJ Redick, Hilton Armstrong, Rodney Carney, Cedric Simmons, Shawne Williams, Oleksiy Pecherov, Quincy Douby, Shannon Brown, and Joel Freeland should have gotten multiple GM's fired considering that they did nothing to merit their draft selection. I'm interested in what happens but I'd be shocked if we were fortunate enough to get a top two pick. The Sonics are the most apathetic franchise in all of sports right now.
Bill Simmons wrote an article on who deserves the #1 pick the most and he chose the Sonics as team #1. Source. <div class="quote_poster">Quote:</div><div class="quote_post">1. SONICS (No. 5 in the Ping-Pong order) Bad Luck -- 6 Front Office Competency -- 4 Loyalty/History -- 8 Level of Devastation -- 10 Overdue Good Karma -- 10 Tanking Karma -- 5 Rigging Potential -- 7 Entertainment Value -- 10 Final karma score: 60 Comments: Three points of contention here ... 1. Their fans definitely slacked the past two years, but only because their billionaire owner kept threatening to move if they didn't help him pay for a new arena. Would you vote for a tax increase to help out someone who owns every Starbucks on the planet? I didn't think so. Anyway, I gave them eight points for loyalty/history -- that's been a great NBA city and one of the better playoff crowds I can remember. 2. Landing Oden or Durant would save pro basketball in Seattle -- after all, how could they move under those circumstances -- but we're not sure if Team Stern believes this would be a good thing or a bad thing, so I'm giving them seven points for "rigging potential" as a compromise grade. No franchise has more riding on those Ping-Pong balls tonight. If they don't get a top-two pick, they're almost definitely gone. 3. A run-and-gun team of bombers built around Ray Allen, Rashard Lewis and Durant would be exceedingly entertaining to watch, right? The mere thought of those three guys trading 25-footers earns them 10 points for "entertainment value." </div>This is the most pivotal point in Sonics history just about, figures it comes down to pure "luck". First two picks, we get to keep our team in Seattle and add a potential superstar. Anything else, hope for the best in another city. Although Brandan Wright is going to be great as well. I will cry sweet tears of joy if we land either 1 or 2.
I played the draft lottery on espn.com and the fourth time I clicked "Play Lottery", the Sonics came up with the #1 pick. I didn't play again after that. We'll know around 6pm tonight. Are you guys getting butterflies too?
<div class="quote_poster">monty001 Wrote</div><div class="quote_post">I played the draft lottery on espn.com and the fourth time I clicked "Play Lottery", the Sonics came up with the #1 pick. I didn't play again after that. We'll know around 6pm tonight. Are you guys getting butterflies too?</div> Tons of butterflies, this is why I love sports so much. The suspense is better than any movie. BTW, I changed the thread title to make this just the general lottery chat thread, hope you don't mind.
Sonics will definitely get in the top 3. I actually want them to get a top pick and keep Durant/Oden out West.
I ran the Lotto Machine 50 times and am going to see if any of the top 3 match the real top 3. Plus I wanted to see how many times the Suns would've received the Hawks pick, statistically the Suns have a 62% chance of the Hawks not getting top 3, out of my 50 results the Suns got the pick 70% (35/50) of the time. Anyway I noticed the Sonics were well represented in the process, Seattle received the first pick 6 times (4th most of any team) and the second pick 7 times, so although the stats say Seattle has an 18% chance of getting in the top 2, in my small scale experiment they received 1 or 2 26% of the time. The Sonics have the 5th most chances, and the team in the 5th spot has gotten top 3 six times in the last 12 years. 1st Pick: Golden State (1995); Houston (2002); Toronto (2006) 2nd Pick: Philadelphia (1997); Vancouver (1998) 3rd Pick: Atlanta (2001)
i was just looking at branden wright footage, either he can be a good role player or just another post player with not enough muscle to make it in the nba. if i were teams i would pick horford or brewer over wright, you cant underestimate the importance of a good atletic defensive 2 gaurd with size, quickness and a reasonably good offensive game. i hope that sonics get in the top three because this team has gone through enough and really need some luck on their side.
<div class="quote_poster">Hard Wrote</div><div class="quote_post">Tons of butterflies, this is why I love sports so much. The suspense is better than any movie. BTW, I changed the thread title to make this just the general lottery chat thread, hope you don't mind.</div> Don't mind at all. I hate to say this now, but if we end up with anything besides the top two picks...who do you pick? Do we go for another big man? Or just the best available player? I'd go for Corey Brewer because we need a lock down defender. I hear that he's been owning in workouts and his stock is rising.
Management is supposed to be high on Yi Jianlian (surprise). I'll jump of the space needle and video tape it and have someone put it on youtube for you guys to see if that happens. If we land in 5th or 6th, a Corey Brewer makes sense or Julian Wright or someone. But I just have a nagging suspicion that if we don't get Oden or Durant that we will take yet another overseas project.
Aahhhh!!!!! I'm just so shocked right now that we got number 2. When #8 was being announced, I was ready to go on a swearing rampage. Kevin Durant...the savior of the Seattle Sonics? Freakin Portland...
