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Sund's new deal takes care of one major concern for the Sonics, but Coach Nate McMillan remains unsigned beyond June 30, as are All-Star guard Ray Allen and likely eight other players.

"I hope I'm the first of many," said Sund. "We have a good foundation of young players. We obviously have some challenges in free agency, but that comes with success, so those are positive problems. We've got to get Nate signed and I've got my fingers crossed that we can do that."

"Anything less than two years would have been too short, but anything over three years would have been too long." Jennifer Pottheiser/NBAE/Getty

Sund, who is completing a four-year deal that he received when he joined the Sonics in June 2001, said he is "very happy" to get a three-year deal.

"Anything less than two years would have been too short, but anything over three years would have been too long," he explained.

McMillan now becomes the team's top focus. The Sonics have exclusive negotiating rights with McMillan until his contract ends June 30. After that, other teams with vacancies, including the Milwaukee Bucks, New York Knicks and Portland Trail Blazers would have the opportunity to talk to McMillan. Sund, who has not been handling negotiations while finalizing his own deal, said there's no pressure on McMillan in terms of a timetable.

"I have not been involved with it, which I shouldn't have been under my situation," said Sund. "I took an advisory role with (Chairman) Howard (Schultz) and (President and CEO) Wally (Walker) to give them my thoughts and then I spoke to Nate. I said to Nate, 'When I get done, I'll be there bugging you to sign.' He deserves his right as a free agent to look at other opportunities if that's what he wants to do. I think the club has done a tremendous job of sitting down, talking to him, giving him some proposals, not putting any pressure on him - I don't think you want to do that."

With the contracts of several key members of the organization expiring at month's end, the perception is that the Sonics offices at The Furtado Center could be an awkward place. Sund said that isn't the case.

"After the season ended, I told our staff, 'We're all going to work to July 1 as though we're here (beyond then), because that's what we're paid for,'" he said. "There was never an uneasy feeling by anybody."

That includes former Associate Head Coach Dwane Casey, who was hired by the Minnesota Timberwolves as head coach last Friday.

"How can you not be happy for Dwane?" said Sund. "That's tremendous. Here's a guy who the last three or four years has had some opportunities and came in second. Now he's going to Minnesota, so I'm happy for him."

The urgency of preparing for next Tuesday's NBA Draft as well as working on new contracts has made it difficult to juggle both things.

"We're playing catch-up with the draft, we're playing catch-up with workouts; that's what we've been focusing on," Sund said. "As soon as the draft is over, we'll go from there."

Another key development affecting the Sonics and the other 29 NBA teams was yesterday's announcement that the NBA and its Players Association have agreed in principle to a new six-year Collective Bargaining Agreement. Sund and his peers are still finding out what the new deal means for them.

"I got the same reports that the media did, basically," said Sund. "In the next couple of days, I'm assuming, we're going to get some in-depth analysis from the league as to what the thinking is and what they've agreed to. Until we get that, I really can't comment."

One change Sund feels we'll see because of the new provisions is an increase in the value and importance of draft picks, particularly in the second round. That's good news for the Sonics, who own both the 48th and 55th picks in the second round of this year's draft.

"I think draft picks become way more important with some type of relationship we're going to have with the minor-league system, having more roster capabilities, going to 14-man rosters," explained Sund. "I think draft picks are even that much more important now from a developmental standpoint. I pointed that out to our staff - we've got to really focus in on the second-round (picks) because they become that much more important."