From last night's game recap: <div class="quote_poster">Quote:</div><div class="quote_post">Lewis managed to stop McGrady, blocking his three-point attempt with 1:42 left. Allen recovered the loose ball and flicked it ahead to Luke Ridnour, who raced ahead on a fast break. The Sonics guard, however, was intimidated by McGrady, who trailed the play, and threw a desperate pass beneath the basket that was intercepted by David Wesley. McGrady then drained a three-pointer that put Houston up 98-94. "That was a momentum-breaker," Weiss said.</div> Bad plays happen, but this is symptomatic of Luke's game this year: he's playing like a scared rookie. I was doubtful of his game last year, but he somewhat redeemed himself in the postseason (his dipsy doo pass against Sac is one of my all time favorite plays). But this year he seems to have taken a step back - can't hit a jumper, can't finish and can't defend. Frankly speaking I can't see these things improving to the point where he's a legit starting point. Maybe a 'tempo' guy off the bench is his role. Any thoughts? Is he our starting point for the next 10 years? Or do we start looking at options in the draft or via trade? Is he 'untouchable' due to his local connections?
He'll probably get the whole year. At this point, I doubt anybody would want him and the Sonics need him to play better in order to win. Management obviously likes him, since he still plays a lot of minutes.
How about the non-call when T-Mac fouled him on that off balanced shot Luke made? Maybe that effected Luke's decision because he didn't feel he would get the call if went up. Maybe I'm just making an excuse for him because he's on my fantasy league team. I think it's too, early to give up on Luke, this Sonics team has a lot of issues and it's unfair to judge him just yet. I've only seen a few Sonics games, but you can immediately see the difference from last year's team. I don't see the ball movement they had from last year, and far too, much one on one plays. Last year, Reggie Evans doesn't take those ridiculous shots and look to score like he was last night. So many players on this team are unrestricted free agents, so it's hard to keep them focused on the "team." You really need a coach with a strong personality to pull it off, and I don't think Weiss is that guy. Right now it seems like the Sonics are willing to roll the dice and rely on their 3 pointers dropping to win games. If this continues, they'll be a streaky team all season long.
<div class="quote_poster">Quote:</div><div class="quote_post">His night got off to a bizarre and painful beginning when his head collided with the teeth of center Vitaly Potapenko during the team's pregame chest bumping ritual.</div> You know you have problems when warmups are too physical for your starting point guard
I knew Vitaly was a flesh eater. He looks like Nosferatu. Anyway, Luke will look better if the bigs start showing better on the pick and roll like they did in the 1st half last night. He is being victimized on that play because he is still too small to fight through it. Stockton showed him how to run it, but he needs GP or someone to teach him to defend it.
Luke Ridnour is the pet of this organization. I can't envision Luke being dealt. One b/c I don't think there is a large market for him, two b/c he is a crowd favorite w/ locals ties, and three b/c we don't have a lot of depth at the point guard spot. Luke had the season that he had last year b/c he had our front court willing to commit 6 fouls a game to cover for his half court defensive liabilities. He's a free willing point guard who thrives in transition but struggles in the half court. He seems to only score in the half court off of the penetration of his teammates or the opposition daring him to beat us. I'm not a Ridnour hater but he is a bottom tier starting point guard in this league. There is no game where I would say that we have an obvious advantage at the point guard spot. What was good about Luke last year is that he has an unassuming personality that worked well with a bunch of players in their contract year. He looks for others before himself partly b/c he doesn't have confidence in his own ability to score. So to answer the question--How long do we wait on Luke? Until his contract runs out. If he hasn't made the strides that the organization envisions than they have to look for an upgrade at the point and offer Luke a contract to be a back up. He is far from an All-Star caliber point guard and the organization needs to not put so much faith in a player that it seems doesn't have all that much faith in himself.
I disagree with Shiek. I think Ridnour still carries potential, but when you build on a pure PG, you have to style your offense and defense around their individual strengths. They picked up Luke to get out and run and they have never been able to execute on that. Luke would work well in a system like Washington, Dallas or Phoenix, but not in a San Antonio or a Detroit. I think the organization has to make the decision to either get all the role players switched out to make the run and gun game work on offense, or they need to find a different point guard. If they decide to keep Luke then they need make sure the bigs are athletic enough to run, finish in transition, switch and cover guards or show hard on screens and be able to get back to their man. The problem now is that our bigs are either too slow on offense, can't finish in transition or can't move their feet fast enough on defense. Phoenix would not have worked as well last year without Stoudamire and Marion. They brought in the RIGHT PG to run that offense. We don't have the right PG to run the offense we run now, or the right bigs to run the offense we "want" to run. I think this is what the Sonics will be focusing on with trades and off season acquisitions.
I agree with my man the Shiek. Luke logged minutes last year because Nate was pressured by the front office clowns. Now the Sonics are trying to be a running team, but the dude leading the break can't do it. He gets owned offensively by nearly every pg and decent backup pg in the league. Last year his mid range game was money, this year he's fallen off completely. AD cleaned up a lot of Luke's mess last year, and was great at closing games. Luke still cannot play well in 4th quarters, and Flip turns the ball over so he is just as bad. We should try and deal Ridnour for someone like Troy Hudson, or another pg who isn't valued as much as he should be.
Not being able to get out in run is NOT something I blame on Luke. In preseason there were too many occassions where Luke and Lewis were out in front with three trailers on the break. The transition offense does not work with only one passing option on the break. You want at least two options up front and one decent trailer.
