RELATED CONTENT

Training Camp Homepage Notebook: Radmanovic's Injury Not Serious Sonics News Archive

"I just want to play against anybody different, besides the guys you've been playing against for I don't know how many days" said guard Luke Ridnour after the Sonics practiced Tuesday. "Just someone different will be good."

Ridnour will get his wish tomorrow, when the Sonics open 2005 preseason play against the Portland Trail Blazers. In a fortuitous bit of timing by the NBA's schedule-makers, that means that the first game coached by new Blazers Coach Nate McMillan will be against the Sonics team he helmed for four-plus seasons, as well as former assistant Bob Weiss, making his debut as Sonics head coach.

"I’m looking forward to it. It’s fun to have it be Nate on the first one." Otto Greule Jr./Getty Images

"I’m looking forward to it," said Weiss. "It will be fun. It’s nice to have an exhibition game where you can enjoy it because it’s an exhibition game. It’s fun to have it be Nate on the first one."

Will it be strange for Weiss to look down the sideline at McMillan, with whom he has spent the last 11 years, first with McMillan as a player, then an assistant coach and ultimately as his boss?

"It will be very strange," Weiss said. "It will probably be more strange for him to be coaching against these guys."

Sonics players expressed mixed emotions about matching up with their old coach.

"I’ve got a lot of respect for him, and I think it’s going to be real interesting - even though it’s a scrimmage," said forward Rashard Lewis, the only player to last McMillan's entire tenure in Seattle.

"The players started talking about that this morning," said second-year center Robert Swift. "It’s one of those things where I’m going to wait and see what happens. I really don’t know what to expect or what it’s going to be like."

While the McMillan reunion may be an important subplot, there will be business at hand for both teams in their preseason opener. With two starting spots up for grabs and plenty of his rotation still to be determined, Weiss will be using tomorrow's game and the remainder of the preseason to do critical player evaluation.

With likely starting center Vitaly Potapenko unable to travel to Portland because of a strained hamstring, Weiss will start Swift along with incumbents Ridnour, Ray Allen, Lewis and Reggie Evans. That lineup played together during the Sonics scrimmages Tuesday, and it was during practice that Weiss revealed to Swift that he would get his first career start, albeit one that won't officially count.

"I still want to bring Nick (Collison) off the bench and Swift’s had a good camp," Weiss explained. "He plays well with that group."

Asked whether he thought, "Oh, great!" or, "Oh, no!" when he heard the news, Swift said, "A little bit of both."

"(I'm just going to) go out and do what I’m supposed to do, prove that I can be out there and help the team."

"We’ve been talking to him throughout training camp, but we’ll talk to him tomorrow," said Lewis. "(We’ll tell him) relax, run the floor, rebound, block shots, run the floor, don’t be nervous. We’re going to be out there; we’re going to have his back the whole time."

Ridnour noted that Swift had earned the opportunity to start with his performance.

"He's been playing well," said Ridnour. "He's been working hard. He worked hard in the off-season. He just has to be big right now, just learn how to be big and rebound and do those little things. That's going to keep him on the floor, I think."

Weiss has plenty of options for how to distribute minutes during the preseason, and told reporters he's yet to settle on exactly how he will do so.

"So far, all I’ve gone over is covering what different options I have - everything from three platooning to playing the starters," said Weiss. "I don’t think any of those starters are going to play more than half a game, so I have the option of playing them in the first half almost like a regular game, where Ray comes out and Ray comes back in rather than have Ray come out, sit the whole half, and then come in later stiff.

"I’ve got the option of starting that first unit and rotating the bench in or rotating the rookies in and starting a new bench unit in the second half. I’ve still got all those options."