Congrats on your first win as an NBA coach, Reggie Theus.

The Sonics were unable to close out another one last night (is Kyra Sedgwick still unsigned?), losing to the Sacramento Kings, 104-98. Wally Szczerbiak, whom I’d declared more or less done after the first two games, poured in a game-high 32, knocking down jumper after jumper. It was damn fun to watch, but I worry it’s fool’s gold–he still moves like an old man, and in 32 minutes of play (yes, 32 points in 31 minutes!), grabbed just two rebounds and had zero assists, steals, or blocks (give him credit for taking a charge, though). Considering that last night’s shooting display was an aberration (he’s much more likely to shoot around 45-50%, not last night’s 75%), having Szczerbiak on the court for long stretches might not be the best thing.

As the folks at Wages of Wins have repeatedly concluded from their research, a player’s scoring average is typically way overvalued in determining his ability to help a team win. (While I don’t always agree with them, they appear to be the only ones who run their data through regression models to figure out which stats actually best predict wins.) You could argue that Carlesimo doesn’t have anything better to roll out there, but I’d like to see a few more minutes for Jeff Green (he played only 10 last night), despite his offensive struggles.

Finally, it appears Damien Wilkins has come back to earth. He’s becoming what Sonics’ fans feared–your teammate in a pick-up game who gets insanely hot and then is convinced that he should be the one taking the shots for the rest of the afternoon, long after they stop falling.

I leave you with a couple of videos. First, a behind-the-scenes look at the Sonics, courtesy of a dude named Elie Seckbach, who apparently has won an Emmy and a Golden Mike, but who seemed a little too in love with his own questions for my taste (he came across as a combo of a giggly, jock-sniffing undergrad and Sacha Baron Cohen’s Bruno). Still, you get to hear Delonte and Swift (nicknamed “Wild Bobby Ginger” by some friends of mine) explain their tattoos, and get a sense of how young Kevin Durant really is.

And second, a little glimpse of the beginning of Reggie Theus’ coaching career:

This entry was posted on Wednesday, November 7th, 2007 at 12:04 pm 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.