<div class="quote_poster">Quote:</div><div class="quote_post">While there is unbridled optimism in the Seattle SuperSonics? training camp, there is one player whose season and future seems particularly unsettled because of the way the team has been structured. With the glut at center and power forward ? the re-signing of Chris Wilcox and the drafting of Mouhamed Sene ? Nick Collison finds himself in a state of uncertainty about exactly where he is going to play and for how long. Of course, the coaching staff says Collison will be on the floor. But if Wilcox develops into a reliable double-double player, and the Sonics need to develop their three centers, the playing-time crunch is going to be felt by somebody, and that likely is Collison. ?I want to get minutes at (center), but I also know they want to play those guys a lot,? Collison acknowledged. ?So that is a concern of mine. If I am backing up the (power forward), how many minutes am I going to play?? It is the reason that when Collison and the Sonics discussed a contract extension, the sides quickly decided to set aside negotiations until next season. It is unclear what the Sonics offered Collison, but it is safe to say it was less than the mid-level exception of $5 million a season. Wilcox is earning an average of $6.5 million over three seasons. ?I think where they were at and where we were at, it was kind of obvious for both sides to wait a year,? Collison said. ?The contract they wanted me to sign, it was OK. But it wasn?t good enough for me to sign a year early. It wasn?t a bad deal, but it is a deal that I think I can get next year. So I am just going to play it out and see what happens.? Collison is, if nothing else, pragmatic. He is not the type of person who wants to hold a team hostage and squeeze every last penny from it. He realizes he is in a position that none of his relatives and close friends are in, making millions to play a game. When he says he wants to wait, it is a practical business decision. ?I am realistic,? he said. ?I see it for what it is. It is a great situation. I realize I have a pretty good life. Everybody I know never dreamed of making this money, so I can?t see it as a negative if you don?t get exactly what you want.? One thing helps Collison keep things in perspective. He witnessed how a contract season unhinged Vladimir Radmanovic, and Collison is determined not to allow that to happen to him. ?Vladimir got upset with it, got frustrated with it,? Collison said. ?You can avoid it by not worrying about that. Look at it as your job and coming to work every day, not worrying about things you can?t control. ?It is an important year. It definitely is. I want to be prepared to play and be aggressive, not settle for disappearing at times. Try to be one of the guys who is really important to the team. The rest of the league will see that, and then at the end of the year I am not really worried about it.? Still, it is unclear where Collison, the 12th pick of the 2003 draft and once seen as the power forward of the future, fits in. Sonics coach Bob Hill obviously likes Collison, but even he admits he does not have a firm place for him. ?He has to make some shots,? Hill said. ?Everything else is in place. Smart as hell. Professional as hell. He doesn?t take any energy to coach. The last piece of the puzzle is making open shots and getting to the foul line. But it is still too early to predict (his minutes).? Collison said he spent the summer lifting weights, strengthening his lower body, something he had gotten away from the prior two seasons while focusing on strengthening his shoulders, both of which were surgically repaired. He also said he worked on his jump shot, the one thing that separates him from Wilcox and the other post players. He admits he is a streaky shooter, but is concentrating on consistency to force Hill to keep him on the court, at whatever position it may be. ?I think whether it is starting or coming off the bench, I do think I can bring different things that no one else does,? Collison said. ?I am the best shooting big man. And I have a knack for making plays. Team defense, I am good. I think I can help the team. ?Who knows what minutes-wise it is going to be? But in my head I am going to play well enough that (Hill) has to play me. You can?t really control how other guys play or even what is in the coach?s mind. But if you play well enough they can?t keep you off the floor.? </div> Source
This is the biggest question of camp. Can you play Collison and Wilcox together? I think that you can and you should but if they do than the means that minutes will be taken away from the development of Bobby, Jo Pet, and Mo Sene. This is the deepest team that we have had b/c even in 2004-2005 we all knew that Robert Swift, Mateen Cleaves, and Damien Wilkins were not going to factor in to the rotation. It took several injuries for D. Wilk to get a chance and he took full advantage of it when given the opportunity. This team conceivably could go 14 deep--which means that you are going to have people fighting to stay off of the injured reserve list. Collison has to play. I like Robert Swift, Weezy, Petro, and Sene but when it comes down to product I would take Collison over all of them. Nick and Danny are the most cerebral players on our frontline and if you committed to keeping Danny on the bench than you have to play Collison extensive minutes. Personally if it were my team I'd have no problem benching both Petro and Sene and giving the majority of the back up front court minutes to Collison and Fortson. For some strange reason Hill feels obligated to develop all three centers at one time. Petro played well last season but not well enough to keep Collison off of the floor. This is ridiculous. The new thing isn't always the better thing and if the only complaint that you have against Collison is that he needs to be more of a consistent mid range shooter than I would take that over two centers who have not proven that they can be counted on for any consistent production (well Sene could be counted on as a shot blocker from Day One). If anyone on our roster should be the odd man out it should be Petro. He was the odd man out on his national team and it didn't cost them too much. I like the kid and all but I'd commit to Robert and if he wasn't getting the job done than I would give Petro extensive minutes. I wouldn't split the playing time between them and expect Nick to only play the leftover power forward minutes.
The former referee that Sonics have consulting in camp praised Collison as the "probably the most legal player in the league" with regard to his post defense this week. Wilcox may find foul trouble frees Nick from the bench.
I hope he gets a chance - he's not the type of guy who will be effective playing 5 minutes here and there to rest a starter. His help/post defense the best on the team, which isn't saying a whole lot.
