As many of you know, the Seattle Weekly has given me a press pass for the upcoming Sonics season. Here’s my first Key Arena dispatch:

Opening night–on perhaps closing season–saw no shortage of pageantry: cannons (or something) boomed; Sonics mascot Squatch descended from the ceiling waving a sparkler; and as his name was called and the arena erupted into cheers, young Kevin Durant jogged calmly to meet his teammates, unfazed, his assassin’s heart beating an even 60 per. There was nothing in the way of the dancing and skipping that many players perform on their high-five gauntlet run, just the calm confidence of a man expected to turn around a franchise and fully expecting himself to do so. Of course, the periodic “Save our Sonics” chants and the presence of Clayton Bennett in the owners’ suite reminded us that the wiry rookie may be less franchise savior than masses’ opiate. But as opiates go, the kid’s alright.

On this night, all the kids looked alright, and even a few of the veterans, too. The Sups lost to the Phoenix Suns, 106-99, but they played with or above their opponents for the better part of three-and-a-half quarters, until around the time Marcus Banks drained three three-pointers in a row. This happened one night after Eduardo Najera and Linas Kleiza killed the Sonics in the fourth quarter with their two-man, three-point game. If the trend continues, 8th men around the league are going to be circling games against the Sonics on their calendars. I can just picture Casey Jacobsen rubbing his hands together during warm-ups: “I feel like I’m good for an even 20 tonight, guys!”

I’m sure Phoenix was rusty, this being their first game, and also probably not too motivated to play the Sonics, but the latter’s new collection of long-armed athletes did seem to disrupt the former’s vaunted offense. Steve Nash had an uncharacteristic seven turnovers, and Jeff Green, Johan Petro, Durant, and others got their hands on some implausible balls (insert Reggie Evans joke here).

In the end, though, the Sups struggled with turnovers (again) and simply don’t have much of a half-court offense. It looks like the mainstays will be Durant jumpers and Wilcox dunks (let’s hope the Damien Wilkins isolations are just an early season blip)—both easily taken away, particularly when Durant isn’t strong enough to get himself open or establish post position (he struggled with Raja Bell’s physical play in the second half). Besides Durant, the newcomers don’t look like they’ll add a lot of offensive punch: perhaps it was nerves, but Green’s offensive game appeared in need of refinement. His handle was loose, his jumper unreliable, and his left hand MIA. Conversely, Delonte West is a nice athlete and a killer going to his left but doesn’t seem to have much use for his right. (Wilcox never finishes lefty either, nor has Durant so far, for that matter. They should all take lessons from the seemingly ambidextrous Collison.)

But the worst of the newcomers was clearly Wally Szczerbiak, who looks like he’s going to need two jerseys for each game–one for his back, and another for the giant fork sticking out of it. (These green double-threes are about as close as he’ll come to the Larry Bird comparisons that followed him out of college.) I remember when he could actually move, when his amazingly consistent jumper was complemented by competent agility (he was an All-Star in 2002). But against the Suns and Nuggets, he looked like an old man playing his kid in the driveway, moving at half speed on stiff legs, trying to create shots by backing his defender down, butt way out to keep quicker hands away.

Enough of the negatives, though: for the second night in a row, the team was fun to watch. Durant had an outstanding offensive half, Weezy hit some difficult turnarounds, the rookies took charges, and the players brought more intensity than the Sups have seen since the 04-05 season and more exuberance than since the early Kemp and Payton days. They remind me a little of their amateur counterparts at Montlake—they play hard, fast, and sometimes a little sloppy, but you usually go home feeling like you got your money’s worth.

This entry was posted on Friday, November 2nd, 2007 at 10:42 am and is filed under Supersonics, Roundball. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.