I'm going to give all of the Sonics players a rating for this season. For the second part, I'll do a more comprehensive overview of the season if I'm not too lazy. Ray Allen - B Almost everybody believed Ray would start showing his age this season, and that his numbers would start declining. Guess not. He improved slightly in scoring, assists, and rebounding, but also played 40.3 minutes a game, up from 38.7. And, unfortunately, his defense is as horrible as ever. Still, he did the same things he's always done, so I can hardly give him a bad grade. His constant overdribbling and bad shots didn't help the Sonics in their search for a working offense, but I blame Bob Hill more than Ray. Rashard Lewis - A The most consistent member of the team this year, improving not only his scoring but his overall presence on both ends of the court. And it's a contract year. What a coincidence! Chris Wilcox - D+ Wilcox was signed in the hopes that he would at least match his production in the 29 games he played for the Sonics last season. He came close, but was an overall disappointment. At 24 years old, he's not showing the type of improvement you'd like to see out of a young power forward. His problem is wild inconsistency, sandwiching mediocre games between incredible and horrible ones. Like too many players nowadays, Wilcox can't seem to play well unless he's scoring well. This is a problem because his post moves are as stiff as Greg Oden's upper lip. Chalk this one up as a failed experiment. Luke Ridnour - D His continued development as an offensive player in the first half of the season was sidetracked by injuries and a bad attitude as the games piled up. He gets docked a grade for whining but bumped back up because he gets the benefit of the doubt playing with a herniated disc for a while. Nick Collison - C He got better, but his improvement is a very long and slow process at this point. There are too many times when he looks like he doesn't belong on the court against faster, more athletic players. At best, he's a good player, not a great one, which means he would be a perfect candidate for a backup center if the Sonics had anybody better. Earl Watson - B- Earl gets a favorable grade because he always plays hard and rarely has a negative effect on the team. He gets a minus because he still drives me crazy taking so many threes despite the fact that he appears to be a deadeye mid-range shooter. Damien Wilkins - B Dominique's nephew improved his jump shot to the point that I no longer cringe horribly every time he shoots the ball. I do cringe a little, though. A competent bench player, nothing more. Johan Petro - D He didn't play that badly this season...for a small forward. Less jump shooting, more rebounding, please. Mickael Gelebale - B+ He showed enough to convince me that he has good potential. The problem is that he's pretty much a skinny version of Damien Wilkins. Not bad for a second round pick who deserved more playing time than he got. Mike Wilks - B Played very well at the end of the season, but it was only a few games. Might have played his way into more minutes next season on another team. Mouhamed Sene - C The kid doesn't know how to play basketball yet, but man is he tall! Looks like a good candidate to become the next Desagna Diop. That is, he goes through all the growing pains of a young center on his first team and blossoms into a capable big man after the first team gives up on him and lets him leave. Danny Fortson - F- Good riddance. Bob Hill - F to the negative Googolplex plus two Yeah. I'll cover him in the next post if I ever get around to it.
Surprising to me that Ray Allen could still score 26 points a game on a bum ankle, but decided to shut it down so that he could avoid more pain and we could acquire more ping pong balls. This season I was impressed with Rashard Lewis, Nick Collison, and Mike Wilks...that is it. Earl Watson did nothing to show me that he is worth 30 million over 5 years or a starting point guard spot. Mickael Gelebale has to be told to be aggressive, and despite his willingness to play defense I don't remember him stopping anyone. Damien Wilkins is solid but couldn't find a niche unless he was starting. Chris Wilcox has to be able to get a consistent post move and a 15 foot jump shot before I even think about mentioning him as a top 15 power forward. Mo Sene is long as hell and it isn't his fault that he was really never given an opportunity to fail. Johan Petro is just good enough to play enough minutes to show that he shouldn't be playing that many minutes. Luke Ridnour is probably the most sensitive player in the league, and has finally proven that the Sonics should not have anoited him the next great playmaker (of course only after they lock him up for 3 years 19.5 million) and Danny Fortson should be glad that fans did not follow him from the club and shoot into his house like they did Ron Murray. This season was a joke and it not only hurt the Puget Sound region, it also dramatically affected this forum. I'm not sure that Oden or Durant could significantly help this group. We are better off trading our pick -- we are already too inexperienced and inept to contend for anything next year.
