The Sonics have a Flip problem. This roster is built in a fashion where Flip Murray has to be a part of the team. For this team to win he has to play an active scoring and distributing role in the back-court.

The problem is that the Sonics have been awful when Flip is on the floor. +/- is a stat that has become very popular in the NBA. It is no different then the hockey stat. If is how your team does when you are on the floor. If your team goes on an 8-0 run you get a +8 if you team is outscored 8-0 you get a –8.

Thus far this season is the 62 minutes that Flip Murray has been on the floor the Sonics have been outscored by 56 points. That is correct in 62 minutes Flip Murray is a –56. In other words over 48 minutes with Flip on the floor the Sonics would be outscored by 43 points. Offensively and defensively the Sonics have the worst ratings when Flip is on the floor. Both offensively and defensively.

Now this could be a one year issue and an early season issue if the same thing hadn’t happened both of the last two years. Last season the Sonics were –128 when Flip was on the floor the worst on the team. In fairness last year was tough with the injury and never having a set role.

However, in 2003-04 the year which every sites as Flip’s great year the Sonics were –141 when Flip was on the floor second worst on the team.

The concern is that this year is not an anomaly. Over the past three years when Flip Murray has been on the floor the Sonics have been outscored by 325 points. 325 points.

Do you want more. There is a stat called the Roland Rating. It measures how your team performs when you are on the floor compared to when you are on the bench.
In 2003-04, Flip was second to last on the team in Roland Rating, in 2004-05, Flip was last on the team in Roland Rating and this year Flip Murray is last on the team in Roland Rating.