From: dasaxe@milton.u.washington.edu (Daniel Perreault)
Subject: Re: Sonics: Paddio?
Organization: University of Washington, Seattle
Date: Sat, 7 Nov 1992 08:25:51 GMT

In article <1992Nov6.235822.5645@muddcs.claremont.edu> byau@jarthur.claremont.edu (Ben Yau) writes:
>
>Hi.  I was hoping some sonics trackers could help me out here.
>
>Who is this Paddio person?

Gerald Paddio a 6'8" small forward big guard type. Nice outside touch good
leaper, athletic, that type of thing. A grafuate of UNLV a few years ago and
averaged about 7pts a game last year for the Cav's I believe. He was signed
in training camp when Christie didn't believe the Sonics were going to play
hardball with him on the contract. Paddio is signed to a one year ~200k
deal and will probably be an 11-12th man type.



>
>What is happening with Conlon and King?
>(yes, I am very intersted in these back-up big men types :)

King is sitting on the bench as the third center behind Benjamin and Cage.
Conlon signed a contract to play in Italy or Spain, I think. Paddio essentially
took his place.

>
>finally, any NEW trade news in Seattle?
>Any turn yet in the signing of Christie?
>
>thanks.


Well, as to the trade talks, not really. There was some mention of Dennis
Rodman coming to Seattle for Benoit Benjamin, but I can't imagine why. Rodman
would have nowhere near the rebounding numbers in Seattle as he did in Detroit
the Sonics have a designated rebounder in Cage who can also play center and
isn't a total offensive liability. There are still the rumors about McKey,
Payton and Benjamin going to Houston for Hakeem, but I think that is quite
dead. I also think the Gary Payton for Derek Harper deal is dead. Personally
I would think if anyone was going to run a deal like that it would be Boston
and dangle Sherman Douglas, but hey that's just me.

As for Christie. It looks bad, it is claimed by Christie's old agent that the
AGENT presented the Sonics with the $500k deal and not the other way around
and the Sonics dragged their feet. The Sonics claimed they offered 2.8 over
4 years and Christie turned them down, asking for $750-800k/year for 6 years.
The Sonics claim they couldn't afford that under the cap--probably true, since
McKey, Benjamin, Pierce, McMillan and I believe Kemp are signed to lucrative
long term deals, and Eddie Johnson is also inked to a shorter term(2year?)
deal worth a fair bit. The Sonics claimed that they could not afford more than
they were offering over the summer because of the cap.                  
                                         
Several players around Christie in the draft were inked to better than 2.8 for
4 year deals. Sometime around late August, Christie got a new agent who
started into the negotiations. He requested that the Sonics renegotiate some
of the veteran contracts to have balloon payments so that more money would
be freed up under the cap. Whitsitt said he wouldn't touch any of the veteran
contracts, because "This team is built around the 10 players that were here
last year and getting the time, not Doug Christie." About this time the NBA
gives the Sonics some wierd kind of dispensation so that they can exceed the
salary cap to sign Christie this year. Christie's agent claims this will not
count against the Sonic's salary cap this year, Whitsitt says it will and
refuses to exercise it. About this time training camp is starting and Christie
has missed mini-camp, and several summer leagues that he said e would attend.
He has also missed some meeting with George Karl. About this time the Sonics
invite everyone and thier brother to camp including Paddio who impresses and
plays well at the Green and Gold intersquad scrimmage. Paddio gets inked to
a guarantueed contract and makes the team. Christie's offer is now cut to
$300k. The Sonics also sign some guy Corey Gaines and put him on the IR      
leaving Christie with an offer of $190k. Whitsitt refuses to exercise the NBA
option claiming, "it would hurt the Sonics ability to make trades." Christie
claims he is getting a grossly low offer and Whitsitt counters that he would
be the 12th man on this team and that is what they have to offer. Christie says
if the Sonics don't do something by the 10th he goes back to Pepperdine and
waits for the '93 draft. Whitsitt says he has nothing more to say and he can
reached in Japan.

IMHO Christie is getting offered much less than the 17th pick is worth as
evidenced by the many more lucrative offers around him. However, he is getting
offered exactly what he is worth to the Sonics. Currently the Sonics top
ten guys are, Kemp, McKey, Benjamin, Cage, McMillan, Payton, Barros, Johnson,
Pierce and Paddio. Christie would be behind Paddio because he doesn't know
the system and has a suspect J. Paddio is at $200k and so that's what the
Sonics are offering. So their is a fundamental problem in the NBA of who is
going to establish value right now. The Sonics did this same thing to Rich
King last year, where he made $180k for his first year because  of the cap and
got more this year in a considerable jump. If anyone has actually gotten
this far, I would be interested to hear other opinions on this issue of value.

Dan Perreault