Sonics Face Big Decisions
If Seattle Drafts Kevin Durant, What Happens to Rashard Lewis?
May 25, 2007
The Seattle Supersonics beat the odds in the 2007 NBA Draft Lottery by drawing the second overall selection, earning them the right to draft the consolation of the Greg Oden/Kevin Durant sweepstakes. They haven't had a pick that high since 1990, when they drafted point guard Gary Payton with the second overall pick. The consensus is that the Portland Trail Blazers, who need a scoring small forward as well as a dominant center, will draft Oden because centers are more difficult to find. That leaves the Sonics to draft Durant with the second pick.
This would bring up some interesting issues in Seattle, as current star small forward Rashard Lewis is a free agent this summer and might demand a lot more money. The Sonics have some options. They could:
- Re-sign Lewis and try to play him alongside Durant. This would create insane match up problems for opponents, but would expose the fact that both Durant and Lewis are probably too thin to go up against the large power forwards of the west, which include Kevin Garnett, Carlos Boozer and Tim Duncan.
- Let Lewis go for nothing, which would clear over $10 million of cap space, as well as another $6 million or so with the departure of forward Danny Fortson.
- Try to do a sign-and-trade to get some value back for Lewis. They would have to be careful with this option, because they probably won't get full value for Lewis, because teams know the Sonics would already have Durant and Lewis is a free agent anyway. Some options might be to try to nab Sacramento's Mike Bibby and then look to move either Earl Watson or Luke Ridour and keep the other one as a back up point guard to Bibby. One trade rumor that was circulating earlier during the season was Rashard Lewis to the New York Knicks in exchange for forward Channing Frye and guard Nate Robinson, or some combination like that. This would be a mistake, as Frye is not the kind of power forward the Sonics need and Robinson is a streaky shoot-first guard who can't run the point and is very small.
Regardless of what the Sonics choose to do, they should be an interesting team to follow this summer. There is, of course, always the off chance that the Portland Trail Blazers opt to take Durant with the number one pick and Greg Oden slides to Seattle. However, this scenerio isn't likely.
Seattle is not guaranteed to keep their team past this season and owner Clay Bennett has made it clear that he will move the team if a new arena can't be built.
