Some of us were musing in here last week how nice it would be to have Antonio McDyess anchoring a suspect, if not struggling Sonic's front line. Here's a guy who when healthy is a legitimate 20-10 kind of guy. Although hampered by injuries, his career stats still show a banger who shoots nearly 50%, averages nearly 2 1/2 blocks & 12.6 rebounds/48 minutes, doesn't make many silly fouls; & is a genuine power forward presence in the middle. In fact he rates better than Vin Baker in every single category I looked at, and is two years younger to boot with a better contract situation. And, we are led to believe, he wants out of Denver along with Nick the Quick, & possibly others. That should be enough to make even the most pessimistic Sonic fans salivate. Sounds like a no-brainer when we've got a point guard we're trying to unload, a finesse power forward who gets injured every couple of weeks, & a 22 year-old small forward who thinks he's worth the max despite having been to the playoffs only once in his young career. Surely some combination of those players would be happier in Denver. Rashard would be closer to his beloved Houston, Shammond would be the perfect replacement point, & Vin would find the lower gravity in the mile high city to his liking.

While there are some who insist that "Vin makes everyone around him a better player", we got a glimpse of what the Sonics' future might look like without him the other night against Indiana. I have to say it looked pretty good to me. Strong-minded veterans have a reputation for turning it up a notch in times of adversity. Gary had 11 assists, getting everyone involved in the game despite the fact that he, Mason, & others were stricken with the flu. Barry had his second consecutive stellar performance, again scoring over 20 points. And His Lardness? He sat on the bench in street clothes with his injury du jour watching with a "bone contusion", or in laymen's terms, a bruised shoulder. Now I know players aren't as tough these days as they used to be. Jason Williams is currently out with a couple of ingrown toenails, for God's sake! Didn't anybody ever teach the boy hygiene? In my day they'd just amputate the final joint; apply a tourniquet; & get him back out on the floor. Who's gonna miss part of a couple of toes anyway? Not every player has the intestinal fortitude to suck it up & play through a little pain, but the Rubber Band Man is the closest thing I've seen to gutless in a long,long time. Has he never heard of a cortisone shot, or a local anesthetic? If he hadn't had such a motley assortment of ticky tack injuries, I'd be willing to give him the benefit of the doubt. But the litany of Vin's maladies strains credulity. This is NOT the kind of guy you want to build a franchise around as the Sonics are being forced to do with the Doughboy because of the contract wunderkind Wally lavished upon him. As I've implied in a previous column, it just sends a message to the younger players that you can show up whenever you feel like it.

Vin's latest injury occurred in the Milwaukee game against well-known thug Anthony Mason or Darvin Ham, depending on who you want to believe. It was one of those Muhammed Ali phantom punch kind of deals where you could watch the instant replay over & over again from every possible camera angle & still not have the slightest clue as to what exactly had happened. There was no logjam of bodies writhing in pain on the floor; there was no finger pointing or barbed accusation; there were no double technicals & heated exchanges; there was only Vin grimacing much the same as he does every time a foul is called on him & grabbing what appeared to be his collarbone, or pectoral muscle. Same again in the Portland game. When I work out, it's not unusual at my age to tweak a pec, deltoid, or trapezius, or irritate one of my rotator cuffs if I do too many flys, inclines, benches, or dips. I put the heating pad on it in the evening, rub some Tiger Balm on it before going to bed, and by morning it's pretty much as good as it's ever going to be at 54 years of age. But Vin's not an old geezer like me. Mr Softee's got 24 years on me, & after last night he's gonna be next to worthless for what, a week or more? Even if he does play, his softness in the middle will continue to make opposing frontline players look like all-stars. Dale Davis, amongst others, killed us against Portland with 14 rebounds & 20 points on 9-10 shooting mostly unopposed in the paint. While Vin obviously isn't the entire problem, neither is he by any stretch of the imagination our savior either. Last night he basically hung aroung the perimeter shooting jump shots assumedly because he knew any contact would sit him down for the night as it ultimately did. This is NOT a tough guy, folks.This is NOT the kind of guy we want leading us into battle when the going gets tough in the playoffs.

I realize Vin probably put a lot of work into losing the weight he did over the summer; but one thing we have seen time & again with athletes is the need for muscle mass as a part of a conditioning program. Anyone with even the basics in nutrition & physiology knows that when you lose weight the body is rather indiscriminant in the cells it choses to cannibalize for needed energy. In other words, you are just as apt to lose muscle tissue as fat. Vin didn't have a hell of a lot of muscle he could afford to lose to start with. That's why he's been dubbed a "finesse"player -- a misnomer that's obvious if ever you've watched him barreling over his defender in the low post. Having once lost 63 pounds in 5 months to gain a starting position on my high school football team as a junior, I can tell you from first hand experience it is extremely difficult to weight train while losing as much weight as Vin did in the off season.You just don't have the strength or stamina to lift & do wind sprints when you're on that strict a regimen. So you eat salads & jog a lot. But until you stabilize your weight & return your calorie count to normal so that you can begin weight trainng in earnest, you are left with a weaker body more prone to injury. To me this is obviously what has happened with Vin. The Rubber Band man has never had very big arms or legs, but now he looks positively anorexic. Please excuse me for being politically incorrect, but this is not a body that was bred for anything but playing basketball. The way the game is played in the NBA, it is definitely a contact sport. You can't expect to NOT bang shoulders, elbows, & knees -- all of which have befallen Vin this season along with fingernail scratches & what have you. We can't all look like Karl Malone even if we lived in the gym. But when you have as big a torso as Vin, your joints are gonna take a beating if you don't work at developing the muscles & connective tissues of your arm & legs. And Vin just doesn't appear to have done this.

So far this month our games have gone LWWLWLLWWLWWL & yet we see people inexplicably predicting we'll make it to the Western Conference finals or better; & that we'll be no worse than a 6th seed. People, I hate to be the harbinger of bad news, but we haven't even MADE the playoffs yet. Portland was one of the teams these yokels had counted out, but we couldn't even beat them at home. The way this team wins impressively one night, only to follow it up with an unexpected loss the next -- I wouldn't be surprised if we were looking past Portland, & come back to beat Sacramento. This has been the unfortunate pattern all year &, in my opinion, represents the destiny of this team as it is now constituted. We're just not good enough to look by ANYBODY! Would we be a better team without Vin? That really depends on who Wally would bring in as his replacement. As much as I've wanted Marc Jackson on this team, I now believe he wouldn't make us any more of a contender than Vin has. That was back in the days that management had me convinced that we were a player or two away from returning to those heady days of the mid 90's. Now I know better. But one thing I truly believe is that we'd play more inspired, even impassioned basketball without Vin needing to get his touches. I caught a glimpse of that in the Indiana game & I liked what I saw.

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