Scott - B-
Nick Collison - B- - I expected more of Collison. Really looked
good the last 8 games of the season. Needs structure to be
successful.
SonicsMan - C+
Even before he got hurt, he was pretty inconsistent. Still ended up showing enough promise that he will provide serious competition for Wilcox for the starting role.
Mr. Baker - C+
Nick needs to shoot a 15 foot shot constantly to be effective, though his personal fouls need to come down the team is net +2 in net fouls when he's on the floor.
Brian Robinson - C-
High hopes were on Nick this season. In my opinion the crappy coaching of Weiss, combined with the stress of his out of wedlock childbirth put him in a funk that he didn't recover from until the end. Nick continues to have great +/- stats and I am still hopeful for him as a pro. This just wasn't his year.
John - C-
Wow, where do I start? Nick got traction at a couple of spots this season, but mostly he had a yo-yo year I'm sure he's willing to forget. But he's a guy I trust on the practice floor and he can easily improve quite a bit between now and next season so I'm not concerned about Nick's development. Is he a starter in this
league? Huge question mark, still.
Steve - C-
Nick started the season coming off the bench. Before the season began I thought he was the best starting PF on the team, at least on paper. This assessment caused some readers to unfairly malign the entire site as wildly biased towards Collison, which couldn't be further from the truth. In fact even before the Radmanovic-Wilcox trade I backed off my "Nick should start" stance. I think that Nick is a very valuable player to have and I could see his career developing similarly to Detlef Schrempf's if he can develop more range on his jumper. With that in mind, Nick is primarily a high post player whose lack of height and athletic ability sometimes works against him and in a league that's growing more athletic that could be a problem. I wonder if PF is his true position or could he be more of a Schrempf style SF/PF combo forward for the Supes, serving as a second ballhandler and superb weakside help defender? Make no mistake, despite Nick's athletic shortcomings he is by far and away the best post defender on the Sonics, and on a team that desperately needs post defenders I don't see the Sonics reducing his role in the near future.
Big Chris:
B-. Nick struggled at times this year, coming off of an impressive playoff run last season. Injuries took their toll, as did personal issues off court. While some thought that Chris Wilcox may have made him expendable, I think there is reason to keep Collison around. He needs to work on his mid-range jump shot, and continue to improve his finishing at the rim. Collison plays defense, and seems to play some of the best players in the league quite well. As long as players like Tim Duncan are in the league, Collison will have a role. Collison showed improvement this past season, just not as much improvement as many had hoped/expected, myself included. I appreciate a lot of the intangibles that Nick brings when he is on the floor.
CUMULATIVE GRADE: C-