Kevin Pelton, SUPERSONICS.COM | April 21, 2006
By the time Seattle SuperSonics General Manager Rick Sund and Coach
Bob Hill met individually with members of the Seattle media on Friday to wrap up the 2005-06 season and look ahead to this summer, they had already answered one of the team's most important questions when the 2006-07 option on Hill's contract was exercised on Monday, ensuring he will remain the team's coach.
"I think it was really important to get it done before the season ended," said Sund. "I told Bob we'd wait until the end of the year. I told Bob the record wasn't going to determine whether the option was exercised. It was going to be more the belief and trust that the players respond to you and then the organization and ownership responds that you're the man for the job. You could see it build. We wanted no doubt the last week of the season with media, with fans and, most importantly, with players that Bob's going to be the coach."
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"We wanted no doubt the last week of the season with media, with fans and, most importantly, with players that Bob's going to be the coach."
Randy Belice/NBAE/Getty
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Sund's holistic approach to evaluating Hill helped free the coach to develop the team's young talent, notably 20-year-old centers
Johan Petro and
Robert Swift, rather than focusing on squeezing every win possible out of veterans who would not factor into the team's future. After the roster was remade in the month of February with the additions of guard
Earl Watson and forward
Chris Wilcox, the Sonics were able to both win - they went 14-11 after Watson joined the team, including eight wins by double-figures - and continue developing players.
Even with some uncertainty about his future, Hill began preparing for this summer and beyond with the idea that he would remain coach, an effort that has now paid off.
"You've got to manage your time when you're coaching in the NBA," Hill explained. "I did a lot of thinking and a fair amount of work in terms of preparing for what the projects were going to be this summer - that's the individual programs and the summer workouts for our guys. I did some work prior. Now I'm thankful that I did. I can finish it up, but it won't take quite so long."
With just two free agents on the team's 13-player roster (forward/center 
Mikki Moore can also opt out of the second year of his contract) and only one in the projected nine-man rotation, the Sonics enter a summer of stability after retaining Hill. The key exception is Wilcox, who is a free agent after averaging 14.1 points and 8.2 rebounds during two months in Seattle.
"That's a priority," said Sund. "We want to get Wilcox signed. He's a restricted free agent. I think that's important for people to know. That helps your percentages of being able to keep him. We'll tender him the contract."
Because of their young talent at every position, the Sonics can be especially flexible in the NBA Draft. They hold their own first-round pick - they'll pick 10th if things hold in the May 23 Draft Lottery but have an outside shot of moving up into the top three or dropping if a team behind them moves into the top three - as well as their second-round pick (#40) and one acquired in last year's Draft from Memphis (#53).
"We've got options with the pick," said Sund. "Do we keep the pick? Do we move the pick? Do we draft somebody that might help us in a specific need? Do we draft the best player? Do we draft somebody with big potential down the line?"
Also potentially factoring into the Sonics plans is their second-round pick from a year ago, French swingman Mickael Gelabale, who continues to play in Spain for Real Madrid. Should he decide to come to the NBA, Gelabale, who averaged 9.0 points and 3.3 rebounds in Euroleague regular-season play, would give the Sonics another athletic young player.
"I haven't talked to him or his agent," said Sund, who noted that Director of Basketball Operations Dave Pendergraft does chat with Gelabale regularly. "We'll wait and see what happens."
More than anything else, however, where the Sonics improvement will come from next season - besides having their post-trade lineup for an entire season - will be from within. With only Ray Allen amongst the Sonics projected rotation older than 26, there is plenty of room for growth. Hill plans to emphasize skills development.
"We have a lot of young veterans on this team," explained Hill. "To take those guys and make them better in the summer, defensively or little things offensively, is going to pay big dividends next year. I think that's my responsibility to get that."
Player development has been a priority for Hill since he assumed head coaching duties.
"As much as I like coaching, I like that better," he said. "I love, love being in the gym and helping guys get better. I just do. It all really kind of kicked in when I was in Indiana right away, even that first year as an assistant, developing all of these drills and continuing to work on it."
Even in a season that did not end the way the Sonics had hoped, there is excitement about the way the team played over the final 25 games. It's a unique feeling going into the summer.
"When the season ends in the NBA, particularly when you don't make the playoffs," said Sund, "most of the time it's a situation where people say, 'Boy, I'm glad the season is over. It's behind us.' This season ended and they wanted 20 games. To a man yesterday, they were like, 'I wish this season had kept going.' That is very unusual for a team when you don't make the playoffs."
"I think that Wilcox brings - and Earl too - an excitement to the games because of the way they play - throwing lobs and defense and Earl going coast-to-coast and throwing behind-the-back passes," added Hill. "That was all a great addition. I think the fans see it. If you're not going to the playoffs and you're headed to the lottery and that arena was as electric as it was the other night - now I know a lot of it was 
Ray (Allen) [breaking the single-season 3-point record] - but there was a big crowd there and it was a great way to finish a tough season."
The performance down the stretch has the Sonics thinking playoffs for 2006-07. And, if the team works over the off-season and continues to develop as expected, Hill has even bigger ambitions.
"What I want to do is win a championship here," he said. "That's what I think about all the time. That's what I work for all the time. I think we have to change the thinking of our team and get them thinking bigger. I really honestly don't think we're, in terms of the kind of team we need, that far away from challenging for that. I think if we all stay healthy and everybody gets better we can be really, really good next year. But I think with another summer, in two years we can be very, very good."
Mike Wilks
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