Kevin Pelton, SUPERSONICS.COM | Oct. 21, 2005
It has become something of an
annual preseason tradition for SUPERSONICS.COM to
pose ten questions about the upcoming Seattle SuperSonics season during preseason play. Last season, as the Sonics won 52 games and the Northwest Division, most of those questions
were answered in the affirmative. Can the Sonics repeat that success? Only time will tell.
Can the Sonics cut down on their opponents' field-goal percentage?
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"A fast break with Ridnour in the middle of the floor and Ray Allen and Rashard Lewis spotting up on the wings should prove difficult for opponents to contain."
Kent Horner/NBAE/Getty
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Since day one of training camp, new Sonics Coach
Bob Weiss has preached defense. Specifically, he's wanted his team to lower the field-goal percentage it surrenders. Last year, opponents shot 45.9% against the Sonics, which was sixth-worst in the NBA. How important is opponent field-goal percentage? Last year, nine of the top ten teams in that category made the playoffs, while only three teams in the bottom ten - the Sonics, Sacramento and Washington - advanced to the postseason. Relying largely on veteran assistant coach
Bob Hill and consultant Brendan Malone, Weiss wants the Sonics to improve their defensive rotations by helping a player that gets beat off the dribble, then helping the helper. The results in preseason have been mostly positive. The Sonics have held opponents to 42.1% shooting, which is good for sixth in the NBA. However, the high-scoring Phoenix Suns did shoot 48.8% against the Sonics even without MVP Steve Nash.
How will the Sonics respond to playing at a faster tempo?
While the national media portrayed the Sonics last season as a run-and-gun team like the Suns, savvy Seattle fans knew better. While both teams boasted efficient offenses, the Sonics actually played at one of the league's slowest paces based on possessions per game. Data on shot-clock usage provided by 82games.com backs up the dramatic difference between the two teams: 48% of Phoenix's shots came in the first 10 seconds of the shot clock, just 35% of the Sonics. This year, the Sonics hope to play at a similar pace to the Suns, if not quite that fast. Because the Sonics had too many shooters for opposing defenses to guard for 24 seconds and were the league's second-best offensive rebounding team, they were successful in a half-court setting last season. Weiss doesn't want that to change - he was behind the Sonics "get it early or get it late" philosophy, which encouraged testing the defense early in the clock but at the same time being patient and not forcing shots - but he would like the Sonics to be more potent in the open court. That's directly related to our next question, …
Is 
Luke Ridnour ready to take the next step in his development?
A year ago, Ridnour was the only Sonics player to start all 82 games, but he didn't finish all of them, often giving way to backup Antonio Daniels. Daniels has departed for a possible starting spot in Washington, putting more responsibility on Ridnour's shoulders. So far during preseason and training camp, the third-year guard has looked more than equal to the task. He's averaging 10.8 points (third on the team), 4.0 rebounds (third) and 6.8 assists (first, tied for fourth league-wide) and has been more aggressive looking for his own shot. The biggest challenge for Ridnour is to improve his two-point percentage (41.3% a year ago), both by hitting more long jumpers (a shot he worked on all summer long) and finishing better at the basket. Ridnour's improvement has also forced the team to take advantage of his dynamic offensive skills on the break, which is where he truly thrived at Oregon. A fast break with Ridnour in the middle of the floor and 
Ray Allen and 
Rashard Lewis spotting up on the wings should prove difficult for opponents to contain.
Can Coach Weiss keep 
Nick Collison on the bench?
At Media Day, Weiss surprised reporters by sharing that he would prefer to keep second-year big man Collison out of the starting lineup this season (while still increasing his minutes to around 25 per game). However, Weiss pointed out he may have no choice but to start Collison as the season goes on if he plays as well as the Sonics hope and expect. The Sonics leading preseason rebounder (6.0 rpg), Collison has displayed more touch from the outside during the month of October, which should make him an even more dangerous offensive player. Collison is also the Sonics best post defender. According to a system created by Dan Rosenbaum and published on 82games.com that Weiss cited on Media Day, Collison projects to be the third-best defensive power forward in the league next season in terms of impact on the team's defense, trailing only All-Defense First Teamers Tim Duncan and Kevin Garnett.
Is Johan Petro for real?
The buzz around Sonics HQ this week has almost entirely been focused on the Sonics first-round pick last June, French center 
Johan Petro. The raw 19-year-old entered camp with his plane ticket to Albuquerque and the Sonics NBA Development League affiliate penciled in, but Petro has tabled any such talk with his preseason performance. Petro has blocked a shot every 10 minutes (approximately the same rate as last year's league leader, Andrei Kirilenko), been active at both ends of the court and cut down dramatically on the fouls that plagued him during summer league. Petro started against Houston, played with the starters at the end of the game against the L.A. Clippers and could realistically be a part of the team's rotation in the regular season. What is the limit on what Petro can do?
"I don't know yet," said Weiss. "I didn't expect him to be where he is now, so I don't know what he's going to be like when we get to the season."
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