What's this? A Daily Roundup? The in-season daily feature makes its offseason debut as a couple of stories pop up onto the radar. Unfortunately I'm just not as witty as Steve is so you're going to have to settle for a couple of links without all the good humor.
Hoopsworld.com (a heck of a site with really qualified writers) debuted the Sonics portion of their Offseason Primers series last week and it has some interesting commentary. The point of this series (can I take credit for the fact that it was my idea?) is to see how the local take on the team differs from the national view. In the case of the Sonics it did not disappoint. Not a single other writer points out Robert Swift as having potential and they almost all overwhelmingly cite problems in the frontcourt and support of Luke Ridnour at PG. Combine it with Jason Flemmings statement that re-signing Ray was a huge mistake and I think there is some reason for talk.
Supersonics.com continues to update their draft HQ and just rub my face in the fact that I've criticized the team so heavily for lack of prospect coverage. If they get streaming video of player workouts then I'll make a public apology to Kevin Pelton.
Finally the papers have picked up on the assistant coaching addition of Gordon Chisea yesterday. I'm glad that the SC.com readers agree with me about how meaningful Chisea's time in Utah must have been. This is a really solid addition. Gary Washburn of the Seattle-PI shows that after only one year covering the team he does not get the extended vacation that Frank Hughes rates by publishing two Sonics articles in a week. That must be a June record...
In non-Sonics related news the Portland TrailBlazers announced that they have reached an agreement with the owners of the Rose Garden to sell the arena along with their team. I heard this was going to happen from one of the top executives at Nike last month. He advised that he'd spoken to Paul Allen and that Allen was ready to take a beating financially just to shed himself of the team. Allen did not make a sale, but this clears the path for it. Also this may clear the path for the Blazers to move, or at least make the requisit threats of moving... I'm not sure if the city holds any lease rights but potentially the 25 years remaining on the Rose Garden lease could simply be voided by the new Rose Garden owner. I'm not sure why anyone would buy the arena, just to close it's doors, but if Allen is willing to be the one to absorb all that cost and take the loss then it is a potential scenario. My source indicated that Paul Allen could be ready to make that kind of a fire-sale type deal with the team.