It has been suggested in some Sonic forums that we shouldn't be concerned with 0-6 shooting performances from our new center, Calvin Booth. After all, the argument goes, we don't need his offense when we have Baker, Payton, Lewis, & the hopefully developing Mason, do we? We got him for his defense & shot blocking skills, didn't we? To answer these questions, one needs to dig a little deeper, & not be so accepting of the propaganda dispensed by WUSS. To take everything they say at face value is inexcusably worse than being simply naive. We need to look at how & why Booth became our center w/o just believing their retroactive explanation verbatim.

The first consideration is Patrick Ewing. If you're going to argue that there is a heirarchy of skills a center should possess, & that scoring is at the bottom of the list; then why did we go to such great lengths in turning the roster upside down last year all to acquire said over-the-hill former All-Star? Everyone knew Ewing had no lateral movement on defense because his knees were shot; but by virtue of experience & reputation alone, it was thought, he would be an intimidating presence in the paint. Well,it didn't quite work out as planned. Opposing players motored around Ewing like he was standing still. Beyond his first quarter stint, even after icing his knees, he was usually so stiff to start the 3rd quarter that he could barely get up & down the court, let alone play defense. And teaming him with the notably soft Vin Baker was a disaster which necessitated relegating The Dough Boy to the sixth man position, a role he never accepted.

No,Ewing was not brought in for his defense, but rather his offense. Some might argue that the reason Patrick & Mr. Softee didn't play well together had nothing to do with defense; but rather had everything to do with the shortage of offensive touches between the two egotistical super stars when they were on the court at the same time. Well,let's look at it from that angle. If Ewing was brought in to mentor our decidedly inoffensive young backup bigmen as some contend, how is this years group of James, Drob, & the big "O" going to be any better served by BOOTH? Those 4 players together won't average much more than 10 points/game in decidely more minutes than Ewing played last year. Unless you accept the premise that management conceeded that last years Ewing experiment was an abject failure, & decided to change philosophies, then you are left with only one possible conclusion.

As everyone knows, management wanted desperately to move Baker in the offseason. They tried everything they could, including packaging him with other, more desirable players, to no avail because of Vin's contract & perceived attitude problems. They even floated Gary Payton as well, but found no realistic offers in return. So to suggest that management originally sought out someone with Booth's limited offensive skills so as not to compromise the scoring opportunities of the above named returning veterans - that is patently absurd! They didn't even know WHO they were going to HAVE coming back. That's why it took them so long to do anything, & that's why the early front runner Marc Jackson wound up on the sideline wondering what the hell had happened. It seems more realistic to say that once they realized they were stuck with Baker, to avoid a repeat of last year's problems, they changed direction & went with a defensively oriented player with no offense; someone who would certainly not disrupt the fragile "chemistry" of the returning sullen vetrans by expecting to shoot more than once in a blue moon. Had they known it was going to work out this way (especially since they were willing to let the Sky Pilot go w/o getting anything in return), they would have been better served to go after Nazr Mohammed. But by the time it became obvious that they weren't going to be able to move their two best veterans, it was too late for that. Jackson was still waiting quietly in the wings, but the thought of a virtual rookie demanding his share of shooting opportunities much have sent a chill down Nate's spine. That left Booth as the only logical choice.

While the NBA is replete with exceptions, I think there is an unwritten rule that you need both an inside game and an outside game to play at the highest level. That's why a more developed player with better all around skills like Nazr would have been a better fit for the Sonics. But he wasn't there by the time WUSS figured out what they were doing, so we're stuck with Booth & the Boys. You can point to Michael Jordan & his Bulls; Bill Russell & his Celtics; & several other championship teams that made it to the top w/o a dominating, offensive minded center. But those teams are the exception rather than the rule. They were successful because of the extraordinary OTHER skills that Russell & Jordan brought to the table to compensate for the lack of offensive output in the low post. Teams with a Kareem & a Magic; a Shaq & a Kobe; a Robinson & Duncan; an Hakeem, or Wilt the Stilt; even a Bill Walton with some outside help -- these are the types of teams that more typically win it all. So either Booth is going to have to develop Bill Russell caliber skills; our big men are collectively going to have to find an offensive game; or most likely we'll continue to be relegated to the middle of the pack, & an early exit from the playoffs -- IF we make it that far. And finally, don't tell me that Vin Baker is the answer. Until I see any proof to the contrary, I'll always think of him as a small forward in a big man's body -- with attitude to match.

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