The Team has now made this report official with a press release just arriving. Also confirmed is that the pick is a 2008 second rounder:

“We drafted Earl in 2001 after his solid career at UCLA, and it will be great to have him back with the Sonics,” said Sonics General Manager Rick Sund. “With his talent, we’ll have a good flow at the point-guard position. We thank Reggie and Vitaly for their hard work over the past few years and wish them the best of luck in Denver and Sacramento.”

Earl Watson is a Sonic once again. ESPN reports a Three-way deal that brings Watson to Sonics. While Watson’s salary will be a source for debate, no one can deny that this upgrades our back court and gives us the solid back up PG we have desperately needed this season. I was a big fan of Earl during his short stint here, it was sad to see him leave after being left off the playoff roster by Nate MacMillan. While Watson is expensive, it is a clear signal that Seattle is willing to spend money to fill the holes in this roster.

Earl Watson’s Bio

"This might be my last one. Thought I'd go out with a bang. This is it. I mean, let me be free. They need to trade me for a big man. This has gotta be my last game. I know the trading deadline is tomorrow and nothing against the fans of Portland, but I just want to be happy. Hopefully, things go right for me. I just want to start my career over."

The move also reunites Ruben with his old Cincinnati partner in crime Kenyon Martin. No word yet on whether or not Bob Huggins is sober enough to be brought on as an assistant coach, but Karl is definitely going to need someone around to dole out hush money to the scores of traumatized Denver residents whom Rube and K-Mart will undoubtedly leave in their wake.

So Denver gets some defense, Seattle gets a back-up PG with a hella long contract and a decrepit Byron Russell, and Portland gets a back-up PF/C and a little cap room, and one less Ruben Patterson. Wrap it up; I'll take it. So long Ruben, don't forget to register when you get to Colorado, you scum bag.

Update: It seems as if I spoke too soon. Rumor is the deal now has Brian Skinner coming to the Blazers from Sacto instead of Vitaly, in exchange for Sergei. Potepenko supposedly is off to the Kings, and the Blazers are still getting Lenard. I liked the first version a lot better. Skinner makes too damn much. This still hasn't been finalized, so who knows what it will look like when everything shakes out.

The Seattle Supersonics made news last night by trading Vladimir Radmanovic to the Los Angeles Clippers for PF Chris Wilcox in a move that didn’t stay in the headlines long. First the move was overshadowed by a piss-poor effort against the Milwaukee Bucks. Secondly that trade became secondary news to rumors that the Orlando Magic were on the verge of acquiring former number two overall pick Darko Milicic and possibly trading away guard Steve Francis.

With all these rumors running rampant and the trade deadline just over a week away it is clear that trade season is fully upon us.

With yesterday’s move the Sonics front office proved many people wrong.

First there is the concept that this front office doesn’t make trades. Over the last several years the team has turned over virtually their entire roster. Only SF Rashard Lewis remains from the team Rick Sund inherited. Each season fans have called for a trade of Radmanovic only to hear that the front office was asking for too much in return. What they were asking for, reportedly was Wilcox.

This team is not afraid to pull the trigger, they are however exceedingly deliberate in their dealings both contract wise and in terms of trades. Sund frequently outlines how the seeds of a trade are often planted a year, or years in advance through dialogue with opposing General Managers. This is likely one of those scenarios as the Sonics were rumored to have had interest in Wilcox nearly since the day of his draft.

The second point proven today is probably more important to the team. By trading Radmanovic the team took a step to dispel the notion that players on one year qualifying deals have no value. Radmanovic, along with teammates Reggie Evans, and Flip Murray all accepted one year qualifying offers to make themselves unrestricted free agents at the end of this season. According to the league’s collective bargaining agreement all three can be traded, but only with their permission, and by granting permission the players will waive “Bird Rights” for the team that acquires them. These particular trade restrictions are new to the CBA this year and there some serious doubts whether any team would trade an asset of substance for a player under those circumstances. By getting any value at all for Radmanovic the team surprised me, and likely many other teams in the league. The hope is that this will set a precedent for Evans and Murray to be moved when GM’s assemble at next weeks all-star gathering.

So what exactly does this move mean for the team? Clippers Coach Mike Dunleavy pretty much summed up why this deal made sense for both teams in this morning’s LA Times.

“It’s an opportunity to add a player to our system who brings a totally different dimension,” Dunleavy said when describing Radmanovic. “We have a bunch of guys who are pretty good low-post players, but we were looking for a guy who could do it more from distance.”

Take that comment, turn it around to say “”We have a bunch of guys who could do it from a distance, but we were looking for a guy who is good in the low post.” And you have your answer as to why this is a good deal for both teams.

Wilcox plays above the rim and excels at running the floor. He is not the greatest team defender but does protect the basket with athleticism and shot blocking ability that have been lacking from this team at the power forward spot. For the last several years the team has focused on savy players such as Nick Collison who focus on team ball. The hope is that a blend of the two types of players will produce a product which is better than the pieces combined.

Somewhere between Keon Clark and Jermaine O’Neil the acquisition of Wilcox, if it pans out, changes the fundamental nature of this team by providing balance to a roster that has for several years been unbalanced. No longer will the team have to rely on a gimmicky philosophy of “spreading the floor with their big men”. Between Wilcox, Swift, Petro, and Collison they can at least make a basic attempt to play a more traditional game. No longer will they attempt to coach around their physical limitations in the frontcourt. They have enough physical ability to go around.

This is a great first move but the guard rotation remains critically undermanned as Flip Murray continues his Radmanovic-esque slide to complete uselessness. By moving Radmanovic the team cleared the path for Damien Wilkens to see additional minutes at the backup SF position. He should now play exclusively at the SG and and SF position. This leaves the team with a crippling shortage of ballhandlers and the need to make one more move for a backup PG. Marko Jaric of the Timberwolves and Earl Watson of the Nuggets are guards most closely linked to the Sonics in the rumor mill, but fans should keep in mind that this notoriously tight lipped front office likes to swing deals out of the blue. The Radmanovic for Wilcox trade had not appeared in a publication for nearly a year before it happened. I would expect the Sonics to grab a guard nobody is expecting without a peep being leaked to the press.

And so goes the current Sonics season. The Sonics dropped another game last night–that they typically won last season–when Baron Davis’ prayer from somewhere near Aurora Avenue barely ruffled the net as it went through the hoop giving the Warriors their 11th win against sub.500 teams.

Last season, which was only 7 or 8 months ago but feels like 20 years removed, Vladi would have let the defender fly by in O.T., then calmly knocked down the open jumper enroute to victory. But not this jolly ole season. No, Vladi let’s the guy go flying by, then takes off, to who knows where, but passes up about 2 or 3 easy looks at the rim to throw the ball out to Murray.

Murray does well getting to the rim, and his pass attempt to Collison can’t even be faulted because it was close to a great play and the right play all wrapped up in one. The only problem with the play is that it didn’t take about .6 of a second longer to fizzle out.

So Davis goes down, calmly hits a 30-footer and leaves .04 on the game clock. The problem there is that instead of Derek Fisher, the .04 wonder, being the guy we signed last year, he was actually on the Warriors so we get no help there. Well, Fisher was the opposite of help as he added 26 points to the Sonics woes last night himself.

Returning to the topic of surviving this Sonics season, the club is flying under the radar with the Seahawks basically owning Seattle’s collective sports interest thus far. That’s good. Last night was a wildly entertaining game, but if the Sonics defense is going to be this pourous all season, the results of last night’s game is going to look like a Groundhog Day loop. In other words, the results are going to be coal in every Sonics fans’ stockings.

How can the Sonics improve?

Well, maybe if coach Weiss gets kicked out later in the game, the following 10-0 run might work; but probably not.

The sad part from my viewpoint is that the defense they need is not found on their current squad. So unless Sund’s Christmas list includes an Earl Watson, or what they truly need, a shot-blocker, we can expect to see more games like last night’s.

The upside to the game last night is that it was good entertainment value, if your stomach can handle the loss. The effort was there, and if the Sonics shoot slightly better, they win the game.