Banks hasn't yet worked out for Sonics

[Celtic4Hire@xxxxxxx]

We want to work out Capakarpa but can't get it done. Seattle wants to work 
out Banks but haven't yet due to a bad hamstring. Looks to me like promises at 
16 and 17....

DJessen33

 
Saturday, June 21, 2003

Top three, then what for Sonics?
Ridnour struts his game for team before Thursday's draft

By DANNY O'NEIL
SEATTLE POST-INTELLIGENCER REPORTER

When not working out for NBA teams during the past month, Luke Ridnour has 
been home in Blaine, sleeping in the upstairs bedroom where he grew up.

But on Tuesday, Ridnour drove 110 miles south for a workout with the Sonics 
and landed in an international intersection. He was on the floor with Maurice 
Williams, a guard from Alabama, and international frontcourt players Pavel 
Podkolzine and Sofoklis Schortsanitis.

Melting pot doesn't describe the setting. Mixing bowl is more like it. 
Ridnour, the Pac-10 player of the year in his third year at Oregon, on the court 
with Podkolzine, a 7-foot-5 center born in Siberia who played fewer than 150 
minutes with his Italian club team this season, and Schortsanitis -- measured at 
6-8 in bare feet -- who won't turn 18 until tomorrow yet weighs more than 300 
pounds and has played professionally in Greece.

They're all ingredients of what might be one of the most unpredictable drafts 
in more than a decade Thursday. The past week is Exhibit A for that argument. 
When Podkolzine came to Seattle, he was being projected as a top-10 pick 
after a 30-minute workout in Chicago, where he was guarded by Bill Bayno, the 
former UNLV coach who is now in charge of the CBA's Yakima Sun Kings.

Yet on Thursday, Podkolzine withdrew his name from the draft, choosing to 
wait until next year when he believes he will be ready to contribute to an NBA 
team right away. Just one more twist in a draft that is as unpredictable as any 
in the past 10 years.

Or at least the most unpredictable after the first three picks, which are 
pretty much set. LeBron James will be chosen by Cleveland, Darko Milicic will get 
picked by Detroit and Carmelo Anthony is expected to be chosen by Denver with 
the No. 3 pick.

Sonics general manager Rick Sund can't remember a top-three outlined so early 
since 1992 when Shaquille O'Neal, Alonzo Mourning and Christian Laettner were 
chosen.

After that, things get murky. And that's part of the challenge, said Sund.

"It's a great time of year," he said. "We're getting to that time of year 
where it gets really fun, the challenge of finding pieces that will make your 
team better."

 
 
The Sonics hold two first-round picks -- Nos. 12 and 14. Detroit is the only 
other team with a pair of first-round choices. Two picks means at least twice 
as many possibilities for the Sonics to make moves around the draft.

So it's the time of year Sund gets to the office early and stays late, 
weighing possible trades up, down or even out of the draft order, choosing to trade 
for players already in the league instead. He left all those possibilities 
open yesterday and said nothing has been decided.

Nine players worked out for the Sonics this week, the most intriguing day 
when Ridnour and Schortsanitis were in town. Illinois' Brian Cook and 
Lousiville's Reece Gaines both visited later in the week. Each has been projected as a 
first-round choice.

David West of Xavier and Maciej Lampe, a 7-foot center from Poland, are 
scheduled to arrive in Seattle this weekend. The Sonics are still hoping UNLV point 
guard Marcus Banks will visit for a workout. Banks is considered one of the 
most athletic guards in the draft, but has been bothered by a bad hamstring.

Ridnour competed despite having a strained abdominal muscle that has bothered 
him since the end of last month. He was initially asked to work out for the 
Sonics on May 26, when Kansas guard Kirk Hinrich was at the team's training 
facility.

On Tuesday, Ridnour played with the international prospects, whose 
inexperience slowed down pick-and-roll sets. Ridnour's outside shot was affected by the 
abdominal muscle, which is still bothering him, but that's not a concern in 
the Sonics' eyes.

Ridnour has already worked out for Golden State, Phoenix and Milwaukee and 
was in Washington, D.C., yesterday. The Wizards hold the 10th overall pick.