I was actually up in seattle for the past couple of days (and portland the day before that) - talked a lot of hoops with the locals
in seattle there is a ton of concern about them moving amongst basketball fans - the diehard sonic fans see them moving at years end - the rest of the city, in typical seattle form, is apathetic
lewis has opted out of his deal and is looking for new money - I think he values himself higher than he actually is - the guy is very talented, but not assertive enough to be a true star in the league and at this point I don't think he'll ever develop it
i think he would be a great third option behind allen & durant - only problem is it would require him to play off the block a little bit more - he'd rather hang by the line
i think the #2 pick may make him a bit more expendable
I personally think diaw is garbage and would want no part of him - marion could make sense - the change of scenery could give him the air of being "the man" and his defense is something the sonics could surely use
the sonics have 3 low cost project as center (swift, petro & mo sene), wilcox was very inconsistent at the 4, lewis is usually steady and a good player, allen is a good player - then they have around $16M tied up between ridnour & watson, neither played like starters last year
what the sonics need next year is health - assuming that, they would have a couple different looking lineup options
ridnour would start the point, allen the 2 and durant the 3 - if they keep lewis do they start him at the 4 and run wilcox at the 5? or do they start swift and bring collison & wilcox off the bench with watson
seattle has a lot of good bench depth that could help out phoenix - they just need better play from the point and more consistent play across the board
i honestly don't know how durant & lewis would fit in together and given that lewis would want over $10m per year (believing he's a superstar) he could very well be on his way out regardless - hurting the sonics buying power
however, clay is still playing the whole "want to keep the team in seattle" card - dumping lewis may be seen as a salary cut and restructure to move type deal which could buy a lot of bad will in the public