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Chris Wilcox

When Sonics General Manager Rick Sund announced last month's deal that brought Wilcox to the Sonics from the L.A. Clippers in exchange for Vladimir Radmanovic, he explained the team had been looking for a player who could play "above the rim" for years. Wilcox has fit that bill and then some. In 11 games with the Sonics, Wilcox has made 25 dunks. In 47 games in Seattle, Radmanovic had just 13.

"Me, I just want to finish everything; that's the best way to finish is to go hard." Fernando Medina/NBAE/Getty

In his first trip back to Los Angeles since the trade, Wilcox had a defining performance yesterday in the Sonics 120-113 win over the Lakers. Wilcox had four dunks (he missed a fifth attempt, bouncing it hard off the back of the rim and all the way over the Sonics bench and out of bounds) as part of shooting 9-for-12 from the field and scoring 21 points. As a team, the Sonics had 10 dunks as they scored 58 points in the paint. Clearly, any stereotypes of the Sonics as getting all their offense from the perimeter need to be reevaluated.

"Robert (Swift) and Johan (Petro) and Weezy (Wilcox) all had them," said Sonics Coach Bob Hill Monday. "Those are fun. When they're running, those are easy baskets.

"It's a little contagious. Everyone's trying to get involved in it now, so that's a good thing."

What makes Wilcox arguably the Sonics best finisher since Shawn Kemp was patrolling the paint is not merely the frequency of his slams, but also their ferocity. Wilcox is able to dunk through traffic as well as anyone in the league because he attacks the basket so relentlessly.

"That's my aggressive side," Wilcox said. "I just want to go out there and take everything to the basket strong. Some of the dunks I do miss are because I'm going too hard to the basket. Me, I just want to finish everything; that's the best way to finish is to go hard."

Wilcox's aerial assault has him shooting 64.2% since joining the Sonics. No regular in the league (minimum 250 attempts) is hitting even 60% over the course of the season; only two players (Miami's center duo of Alonzo Mourning (58.7%) and Shaquille O'Neal (58.6%)) best Wilcox's 57.4% shooting between the Sonics and the Clippers. That's not totally out of character for a player who has shot 53.1% in his NBA career, but still reflects that Wilcox may be a better fit for the Sonics style, something the team anticipated before making the trade.

"When we were in the process of talking to the Clippers about Chris and we were doing our background work and so on, Mike Dunleavy, to his credit, was really honest with Rick Sund," explained Hill. "He said, 'If he goes to a running team, he'll be great.' But you never really knew that because the Clippers never committed to running all the time."

The Sonics weren't the only team looking to acquire Wilcox, who faced a limited role in Los Angeles because of the presence of MVP candidate Elton Brand and the emergence of rookie James Singleton, but dangling Radmanovic allowed the teams to make a win-win trade. Just as Wilcox has flourished with the Sonics, Radmanovic is averaging 12.5 points and 7.1 rebounds with the Clippers, shooting 49.2% from 3-point range.

Wilcox makes sense for the Sonics not only because of the team's desire to push the basketball but also because he's now playing with a pair of skilled passers at the point in Luke Ridnour and Earl Watson. Both point guards and All-Star off guard Ray Allen are looking for Wilcox at the rim; nearly 80% of Wilcox's buckets with the Sonics have come off of an assist.

"With the Clippers, we had some guys like Shaun Livingston, he was a guy that came off the bench and ran the ball, ran it up the floor and did things like that," said Wilcox, "but here, everybody coming off the bench, even the starters, they're all looking to throw it up and make the next pass. It's a great situation for me and a great team."

"Now I'm having fun and everybody's having fun. It's a great feeling right now." Jeff Reinking/NBAE/Getty

The quality of the passer can make all the difference for a finisher like Wilcox. In terms of his athletic prowess, Wilcox has been compared to players like Suns center Amaré Stoudemire and a young Detroit big man Antonio McDyess, and both have seen similar swings in their shooting percentages. McDyess went from shooting 46.3% to 53.6% when he was traded to the Phoenix Suns in 1997-98 and played with Jason Kidd. He then slipped back to 47.1% after returning to Denver the following season. Last year, Stoudemire shot 58.3% while playing with MVP Steve Nash, 50.1% without him.

While Ridnour and Watson aren't in Kidd's and Nash's class - yet - they have combined for 12.0 assists per game since Watson made his Sonics debut on Feb. 28, feeding off of Wilcox's ability as much as he has off of them. Allen has chipped in another 4.3 assists per game in that span, and the Sonics three-man backcourt has combined to hand out at least 20 assists twice, both times in wins.

"Those guys can be coming around like they're going to shoot the ball and then they just throw it up," Wilcox said. "You've got to be ready all the time. One game, Ray was coming off of a screen-and-roll and I thought he was shooting it, but he was throwing a lob. It's kind of tough, but at the same time it's good."

The unselfish style is making basketball as fun for Wilcox as it has been in some time.

"It's been a while," he said. "Now I'm having fun and everybody's having fun. They brought me here and told me just to go out there and play hard. That's what we're doing; we're going out and having fun and good things are happening for us. You see smiles on everybody's faces. It's a great feeling right now."