Sonics rookie point guard Luke Ridnour denies the allegation, but it’s little wonder why people would believe he sleeps with a basketball. Without a ball in his arms, Ridnour just doesn’t look right. That’s why he has looked out of place most of the summer, whether it be standing on the sidelines during practices for the Sonics summer-league team or rehabbing instead of taking part in the pickup basketball games many Sonics players are currently playing in as training camp approaches.

Ridnour works on his rehabilitation at The Furtado Center with the assistance of player development coach Dwight Daub. Marshall Sele/Sonics Photos

The clock is ticking on Ridnour’s summer sentence, courtesy of an avulsuion fraction of his pelvic bone and a severely pulled abdominal muscle he suffered while working out for the Milwaukee Bucks before the draft. Ridnour underwent surgery to repair the muscle on August 6, with the expectation that he’d be able to begin playing at full speed around six to eight weeks after the surgery. Today marks precisely six weeks, and Ridnour expects to be cleared soon. “Still doing rehab and starting to do more each day and just waiting to get released,” Ridnour said this morning at the Sonics training facility. “I’m starting to be able to play more and do more on the court, so I think it will be real soon before I’m out there.”

It could be a while longer until Ridnour is at full speed, however. “It (the injury) will force him to come into training camp late, basically,” said Sonics coach Nate McMillan. “He won’t start training camp with live contact. We are in the process of rehabbing him. Our projection is he won’t start contact or get any contact until mid-October, which could have an effect. By that point, you’re hoping that you have an idea of a rotation and he will just be beginning his play on the floor with, I suspect, limited contact then.”

But even when he is physically able to play, Ridnour will probably be doing more sitting than playing this season, something that will be out of the ordinary for a player who started all 96 games the University of Oregon played during his three years there and averaged better than 35 minutes last season. The focus for this season is on learning, not playing, something that Ridnour understands. “I’m just going to come in here and work hard and see what happens,” Ridnour said. “Just learn all I can from the guys around me and the coaches and just play as hard as I can and see what happens.”

A WHOLE NEW BALLGAME …
Many of the NBA’s best point guards struggled as rookies.
NAME	PPG	APG	RPG	FG%
Stockton	5.6	5.1	1.3	.471
Payton	7.2	6.4	3.0	.450
Nash	3.3	2.1	1.0	.423
Davis	5.9	3.8	2.0	.420
Terry	8.1	4.3	2.0	.415

That’s probably for the best. Most experts believe that the point guard position is the hardest to learn as an NBA rookie, something that’s justified by the rookie performances of many of the game’s top point guards (see chart). While three point guards have won Rookie of the Year honors in the past decade, two (Steve Francis and Allen Iverson) were high-scoring players who operated more like shooting guards (and Iverson eventually was moved off the point). Jason Kidd, in 1994-95, was the last true point guard to be the Rookie of the Year. Last year’s draft class provided another example of the difficulty for rookie points. While we don’t yet know which of those players will go on to stardom, Jay Williams was the only one to make an impact as a rookie, and even he fell short of expectations for the second pick. Jiri Welsch, Juan Dixon, Frank Williams, Dan Dickau and John Salmons – all first-round picks – failed to make major impacts as rookies.

Fortunately, the Sonics have taken the pressure to contribute off of Ridnour. Incumbent Brent Barry is the starter at the point, and the team also added free agent Antonio Daniels to back up Barry – odd in that Daniels was thrust into the opposite situation as a rookie with the Vancouver Grizzlies in 1997-98. When the Grizzlies allowed their starter, Greg Anthony, to leave as a free agent (he ended up signing with the Sonics and spent the year as a backup to Gary Payton), Daniels was handed the starting job by default. Not yet ready to start, Daniels struggled, shooting 41.6% from the field and sporting an assist/turnover ratio barely above two. After the year, Vancouver gave up on Daniels, trading him to San Antonio, where he resurrected his career.

Ridnour will get the chance to learn his craft from Brent Barry and Coach Nate McMillan. Jeff Reinking/NBAE/Getty

McMillan likes that the minutes Ridnour earns will not be handed to him. Instead, he will have to earn them. “With him having to come in and earn his spot, it will force him to be more aggressive and make some mistakes and slowly develop,” McMillan said. “The fact that there isn’t a lot of pressure on him to be the person to carry the team, he’ll have time to develop. He’ll have veterans in front of him that he can learn from. That should help him.”

As McMillan alluded, Ridnour has another advantage in his favor as he begins the process of developing into an NBA point guard. There are few better organizations within which to learn to play the point than the Sonics, who have developed quality point guards like Eric Snow and Earl Watson, only to see them make their marks elsewhere. One reason for both the development and the departure was Payton, who could teach the point guards but also blocked their path for promotion. Now Payton is gone, meaning Ridnour is the Sonics long-term starter at the point.

Even without Payton, the Sonics have plenty of point-guard mentors, starting with McMillan. A veteran of 12 NBA seasons, McMillan knows what it’s like to make the transition to the NBA, having started as a rookie in 1986-87. (McMillan averaged just 5.2 points per game, but handed out 8.2 assists, including a rookie-record-tying 25 in one game.) “That’s awesome to be able to have a coach who played the same position as you and was very successful, so it’s going to be real good for me and I’m excited to learn from those guys ahead of me and Coach McMillan.”

“I think it’s a great situation,” McMillan said. “There’s an opportunity and the fact that he is from Washington and has somewhat of a fanbase and people want to see him and support him is exciting for him. Having the opportunity to play for the NBA team he grew up watching is probably a dream for him. Me having point guard experience and knowing how to play the position and having Brent, Ray Allen, guys like that, veterans who are great teammates, should really help him.” Payton’s replacement at the point, Barry, has long been known for his efforts to help rookies adjust to the NBA. Barry has already begun mentoring Ridnour, calling him several times during the summer. “It’s awesome for me to have somebody who plays the same position and has been in the league so long take you and show you the ropes,” Ridnour said. “It’s going to be real good for me throughout the season to just follow him.”

Sitting on the bench may be a new experience for Ridnour, and it’s probably not the one he’d choose if given a choice right now. A few years from now, however, not being forced to play before he is ready may prove the best thing for Ridnour. That will be the best for everyone involved.