His knowledge of defense will complement the skills of our existing staff. |
I am not so much looking at what it's going to do this year as much as what does it do for the future. What pieces fit? What doesn't? What's the best style of play? The real question is not how they play today but how we perceive them to play in the future. |
I talked to him this afternoon and acknowledged the fact of possible starting time and (the Timberwolves) revamping their team, and his response was, 'Rick, this is home.' |
I've known Bob for a long time, but he understands and I think he thought we were going to do better. I'm disappointed in this team. I am disappointed in the fact that a coaching change has been made, 30 games into the season. But we're very, very inconsistent and that's an area Bob Hill is going to have to deal with. We did what we thought was necessary. |
I've told the players every season that any dialogue that a player has with me is private. And any dialogue as far as trades is private because it's just too much of a distraction during the season. |
In his three years with the Sonics, Vitaly has given us a tough, physical presence in the middle along with the ability to score. |
In my view, he's been developing since he took over. He's done a nice job. |
It takes two to make a deal. |
It's been fun to watch him mature. You love seeing that in your young players. Now he knows he's one of the key spokes in the wheel. |
It's going to be interesting to see what they're going to do, ... They have some flexibility. I'm sure a lot of teams will be calling them. |
It's good that it's a graduated thing. With the amount of money that it used to be, those in the league office didn't think that $500 was severe enough. |
It's never easy to make a deal, even those that seem the simplest. When you want to do it, another team maybe wants to wait. So there's much to consider. |
My only plan is next season. I think we're playoff-caliber, and our expectations are we should make the playoffs next year. |
One of our concerns has been, and probably always will be - unless you have a (Tim) Duncan or a Shaq (O'Neal) - having enough depth at the center position with enough flexibility so you can match up with all the different teams, because teams give you different looks, ... That was a strength last year, and it will be another strength for us this year. We have the strength with Vitaly, versatility and talent with a guy like Nick Collison, a low-post game. You have some length now and running ability in Mikki and some youth in Petro and Robert and some toughness and bulk in Danny. |
One of the strengths of the Sonics, last year and again this year, is depth at the four and five spots, |