The secret is out. Johan Petro is your likely opening day starter.
The Seattle Post-Intelligencer's Jon Paul Morosi spills the beans on a story I expect to see in this mornings News Tribune with commentary that Bob Weiss is expecting to start a frontcourt tandem of Reggie Evans and Johan Petro in Wednesday's season opener. Morosi manages to get some direct quotes from both Weiss and GM Rick Sund which I'm assuming came via phone as practice yesterday was cut short for a team meeting. Almost to a man the media missed our normal session with the team.
It became obvious that Weiss was leaning this direction when the the Tacoma News Tribune's Frank Hughes pointed out that yesterday's scrimmage (which he was the only person on hand to watch) featured Petro and Evans despite Potapenko being proclaimed 100% healthy. While it has long been assumed that Petro's lack of offense would be balanced out by playing him next to Vladi Radmanovic the Petro/Evans tandem is one which we saw extensively in practice last week. Simply put Evans has outplayed Radmanovic once again to earn the starting spot.
To me the morning’s most intriguing story becomes that of Evans who each year is written off as a starter but earns the position in camp. I remember clearly attending last season’s green and gold scrimmage at Seattle Pacific University with the intention of reviewing Nick Collison as the starter at Power Forward. By the end of the night it was blatantly obvious that Evans was outplaying his competition to earn that spot.
I had a few minutes to talk with Evans about this subject, as well as his off-season work habits and desire to add a mid-range jumper. Check back at 11am today for an updated article on Reggie Evans.