With less than a month to go before the draft and all the uncertainty surrounding the labor situation and the Sonics roster one has to ask what direction the Sonics will look towards. The classic dilemma has always been whether to draft for need or to take the best player available. That dilemma takes a different turn when you are drafting as low as the Sonics are.
This year the choice for the Sonics is an easy one, best player available. If you look at what this team hopefully will bring back we have a strong core coming back at nearly every position. The one discernable immediate hole would be at the center position where Jerome James is too inconsistent to be brought back at the type of money he will be asking for, Potapenko is a free agent and not likely to come back and Robert Swift is the young. The big problem here is that anyone that is selected that late at the Center position will not be polished enough to play substantial minutes.
With all this team’s free agents it has become obvious to me that the Sonics will have a chance to select a player that will give them some insurance against at least one of those free agents leaving. The first selection should give fans some idea of where this team may be looking with its off-season direction.
According to www.draftcity.com between picks 24 and 30 Martell Webster, Channing Frye, Francisco Garcia, David Lee, Angelo Gigli, Mickaël Gelabale and Julius Hodge will all be available. If those are your choices, who do you take?