Lawson response

Lawson wrote:
“Reading this just makes me so pumped…you know I’m a Swogger guy, just like I was a Kegel guy, just like I was a Leaf guy…I LOVE those tall QBs in this offense…Love em, love em, love em…It will be interesting to see how this whole thing unfolds…saw Bruce on the Campus Cam couple of nights ago, you can tell that the kids think we’re gonna be really good….I am excited…”

You said it! How can you not be excited and, better yet, confident after reading that? With Swogger’s arm and some experience under his belt, this could be a wonderful season for him. With all those weapons too? Check out this Bumpus punt return vs. the Quackers:

Lawson wrote:
Couldn’t agree more about the A’s…Dead in the water in May and then KABAM…really incredible to see those kids step up like they have…..makes you really wonder what the hell the M’s have been doing for the last few years, although man has Richie Rich panned out….Am going to be sad to see it happen on one hand, but I sure hope to see Moyer go to a contender..he’s back to form and will be really fun to see ole Mister Crafty down the stretch…As you know, he has been my favoriate Mariner for long time for the same reasons as why I loved Gary Payton so much–I love players with fundamentals…remember how Gary would use his left to bank in those 7 foot bank/hook shots from the lane..so old school…and i love watching moyer paint the corners with those change ups…I love it….and the M’s should deal him…period….

Agree on M’s – sell anyone who isn’t named Sexson/Beltre/Felix. Notice I left Ichiro’s name off that list?? I seriously would live if they traded him elsewhere (the Cubs have wanted him since early last year). How about Ichiro for Kerry Wood?

Lawson wrote:

Sonics: Hard to know what to think…I think Locke’s right about the interchangable pieces, but they had better get something for Vlade, cuz the one year tender will yield nothing in return because the salary will be too low…My sense is that Indiana may still be a destination for him…..Toward that end, Eddie House is basically done in Sacramento now that they traded for Hart to back up Bibby…House can fill it, and man is he quick…I think he’d be GREAT in Seattle backing up Ridnour and the Sac Bee reported Seattle as one of three interested teams (Mia, Cle)….Wilkins: I think he can be GREAT for the Supes given their system and current stars (Allen/Lewis)…but they should NOT overpay for him, and if he wants to go to the A-T-L fine…but, man, why go to pergatory and kill your value so early….I mean, NO ONE, is gonna take numbers seriously when they’re coming from scrub-central….we’ll see how it all goes down, but we need to find front court depth….the one year tender for Vlade spells DOOM!

Good timing on the Vladi take. Locke has a big write-up of why Vlade is so valuable. The bottom line is the team WINS and does well whenever he’s on the floor! There is a plus-minus calculator at a website called 82games.com where you can see how players do when they are on the floor together, and everyone is in a positive mode when Vladi is in the game. Agree on the tender, too, they’d never get decent value at 3.2 million. Who knows, maybe they just don’t want the guy around? He is a bit of a flake, and I heard from one person who works here that says the guy is a complete pot head in every sense of the word (but isn’t 50% of the NBA like that?).

Also, Locke has been talking about this a lot, but he said the Sonics have quietly started to become the “moneyball” team of the NBA. They rely heavily on statistical analysis and crunch numbers in a ton of different ways, and they use that to set the value on players throughout the league. It catches a lot of agents by surprise when they are negotiating and they show them a presentation of where their client ranks. Locke said more than once, he’s heard some comments from agents that just come away shaking their heads, knowing that the Sonics have their thumb on their players value and they don’t want that information getting out! It’s interesting. That’s why you don’t see them overspending on a Jerome James or AD, they just won’t do it because in their analysis, they aren’t close to being worth it. They are staying within their business model, and as we know last year, it worked.

Also, one other thing – I’m big on the Fantastic 4 and all that on the Supes, but I’m also concerned about the bench. I don’t mean to downplay the bench too much, I mean there are times where it’s great to be able to go 8 deep or so on a nightly basis, but it is a tad overrated. That said, we saw with a team like the Suns what it’s like when you have to play a grinding style against San Antonio and you only really can go 6 deep, maybe 7 deep, but that’s it. It just wears your butt out over a long series, and it is important the Sonics do the right thing in filling out the bench the rest of the way. Vlade would be huge to be the 6th man again and on the floor in the 4th quarter with Nick at the 5, and having Fortson thug it up nightly is important too. The backup point is really interesting because it can mean so much to a team to have confidence in that guy! What if Luke blows out his ankle? As much as I love what he’s shown this last year, what if he takes a step back this year? I guess anything is possible. The question is, will they pay enough to get quality behind him?