Wilks is a free agent. I think they'll be closer to this: West, Ridnour, Watson Durant, Wally, Gelabale Lewis, Green, Wilkins Wilcox, Collison, Fortson Swift, Petro, Sene
Keep in mind that they also have two promising young centers (not including Swift) Sear Sene and Johan Petro.
It sounds like SEA is stepping up to the plate to sign Lewis for the MAX. They can give him more money than anyone, starting at 15m and up for 6 years. That's over a hundred million dollars. Do you think Lewis will turn that down, plus have the chance to play with Durant and Green for the next 6 years? DON"T THINK SO ... HE'LL TAKE THE MONEY AND THE SUCCESS. They are quite a powerful team. I expect them to have all 3 out there ... It would not suprise me to see Durant and Green starting with Lewis, and moving Wilcox to center. With Ridenout, that's quite an athletic crew that could cause nightmares. Would you want to go up against Durant at SG, and have West coming in behind him, and Collison behind Green? Perhaps they start Scherbiak and Collison, But, I see it more like this: Ridenour/Watson/ Durant/West/Wilkins Lewis/Scherbiak/Gelebale Green/Collison/Fortson Wilcox/Swift/Sene/Petro They'll probably give the rookies immediate playing time to develop. In 2 to 3 years, those guys will be championship caliber, with the ability to drive teams crazy THIS year. They would have so many pieces to use in trade for a better 1 and 5, although not in bad shape there. That's a serious team. Seattle is smart to take on Lewis' big contract. It makes them deep and scary. The draft and trade of Allen has made them a much stronger team, and one with lots of growth potential. Imagine those 4 gazelles on the court at once ... geez
I think they will try use Durant at the 4 and Green at the 3. Durant is RAIL thin and Green is a decent player. They need time. Portland on the other hand is the future powerhouse of the NBA with Oden, Aldridge and Roy.
Last season they defeated Dallas, we couldn't defeat Dallas. GS gets better in the off season! Rockets must get MUCH better in the offseason to catch up and overtake.
All the more reason why we need to win now! Soon Seattle and Portland will be both be title contenders if all goes right for them, which both GM's seem to be doing very well at with what they have and are doing. I give both those teams 3 years to be a legit threat to the crown. Portland will have a crazy front line of Oden and Aldridge to slow Yao down, not to mention Roy, the ROY. Seattle will have the perimeter games of Durant and Green to speed things up. That's if they use Durant as a SG or SF. I don't see Durant as a PF, he seems more like a healthy, taller, and younger replica of T-Mac to me. Then again, the game is changing with interchangeable players that can play 2 positions rather than one prototype position. We've been seeing larger point guards, smaller shooting guards, versatile centers and PF's that can hit the open 3, etc. After the West got the top 2 picks, i'm convinced the NBA needs to have a 1 vs 16 playoffs format, even if you still let the East still gets 8 teams in. The WC Finals are basically the NBA Championship and i don't see that changing for years to come. At least if the reseeded, we could finally see the teams with the 2 best records in the Finals.
