Swift made his NBA debut against the Clippers in Los Angeles. Noah Graham/NBAE/Getty

SUPERSONICS.COM: Has it been difficult not playing much recently?
Robert Swift: No. I'm just playing at practice and getting better. As long as we keep winning, I'm happy with that. I understand the team's playing well, and I knew I wasn't going to get much playing time as it was with the lineups that we're playing right now. We're winning games.

You often work with some players after practice, like today, or go one-on-one with guys like Jerome James before games. Is that important to your development?
Swift: We just do that for fun. It does get, I guess you would say, tedious at times, but we do what we can to try to have fun. The young guys, me included, just go out and play on the court. We go out and have fun after practice.

Is it easier to enjoy without the coaches looking over your shoulder?
Swift: They're watching anyways. Basically, we're playing, we're doing our job, but that's a time when we're relaxing when we play. It's not like a battle, it's more trying to improve, trying to help each other is the best way to put it.

How often do you and Jerome play one-on-one?
Swift: We go before every game. I get my work in and help him work out.

Do you keep score?
Swift: A little bit. It was one and one last game. We usually play best of three, but we didn't have time last night, so we're one and one.

What are you able to learn while watching a game on the bench?
Swift: Mainly, one of the things that's noticeable is how the other team plays - what they're doing, where they're positioning themselves. When we've got a guy in the block with the ball, where the double-team is coming from - all the little stuff that's difficult to notice when you're trying to worry about your man and protecting the ball. It's a lot of little stuff.

Do you find the game slower when you're watching than when you're playing?
Swift: Not necessarily. When I'm playing, actually, everything slows down - it makes things easier. But when I'm on the bench, I can see everything instead of just the play or the situation.

How was the recent six-game, 10-day road trip for you?
Swift: Enjoyable. It did get long at the end, but my teammates knew how to do it, knew what it was about and helped me out, helped me to find some things that were enjoyable - getting together and having breakfast or going out to dinner, just talking. It got to be enjoyable. It helped that we were 5-1 too.

There's been some talk of the Sonics going out together and not having cliques - have you found that to be the case?
Swift: If there's a group of people that wants to go to one place, they go. That group might split the next night - half of them want to go to one place, half of them want to go to the other, so they split and go with other people. There's really no groups or anything - we're just a team. We go with each other where we want to go and it's not like, 'I'm going with this person,' or 'I don't want to go with this person,' it's more 'I'm going to this place,' or 'I don't want to go to that place'.

Did you stay in touch with your family during the trip?
Swift: My dad and my brother came to three of the games, so they were there a little bit. My brother wanted to come. He wanted to see what it was like at away games.