NBA All Access, with Frank Hughes. (Damien Wilkins, Explained)

Yesterday, at about 3:45pm, while driving to the store to get a loaf of bread, I turned on KJR-am radio here in Seattle to hear Frank Hughes hosting his infrequent (not even on the schedule), NBA All Access show. For somebody like me that has a Basketball Jones the show was interesting, and entertaining. Good show Frank, It took me an hour to get a loaf of bread.

Frank is pretty easy going on the radio, has his own opinions, and doesn't sound like he's struggling to fill airtime. His reporting skills allow him to present a topic with all of the meaningful components required to not just impart information, but to actually tell a story. He's not a radio guy, and doesn't have the newscaster broadcast voice. He asks his engineer if he's getting close to commercial break when there is a natural break in what he's saying. But you know what, that doesn't matter, he knows what he's saying, it works. I likely wouldn't be giving Frank the props if I thought more highly of his journalism, though I enjoy his reporting quite a bit (journalism and reporting are two different things, and I meant exactly as it reads).

One story Frank told was about Gerald Wilkins thanking Ray Allen a couple months ago for taking Damien under his wing to show him the NBA ropes, and Allen thanking Gerald for raising a son that is a good person, and that is willing to listen to advice.
Frank characterized Damien as Ray's disciple. This is all good to hear when considering that the Sonics matched a 5 year offer tendered by the Timberwolves last summer.
Damien told to Frank after the Nuggets game that he was so intent on passing the ball to Ray Allen, and Rashard Lewis, that he didn't even see the defenders when throwing his first few passes and ended up passing the ball right to the other team. he settled down after that and just ran the plays.
Frank noted that Bob weiss likes length and defense, and that Damien may see more time in the point guard spot.
Good story Frank, good information, you had to be there to have that kind of thing to bring to the radio.

I'll speculate here, without much effort: I'll guess that the start three games ago by Ronald Murray was less productive than anybody had hoped for. I'll guess that Wilkins finishing that game did lead into his starting against Denver. I'll also guess that Ray Allen had something to do wth that as well.
Much like last year when Rashard was hurt, this year when Luke was hurt the Sonics found that Wilkins could step in and play and be productive. Damien's dribbling could be better, and he would likely need help getting out of back court against better point guards, but the rest of the things he was able to do made the team better. But, let's be real, his turn overs are greater than his assists. He will be able to fill the backup role to Luke Ridnour. Luke is 6th in the league in assist to turnover ratio (hey, where's Antoio Daniels on that list, had he qualified he would be 15th).

Let's recap, Flip Murray went from backup to Luke Ridnour, to backup to the backup behind Brunson, to backup to the backup's backup behind Wilkins three days ago. Flip isn't going to "get it" and suddenly become the player the team needs for THAT role. Flip is a fine player, he's just not a good fit for this team.

By the way, Flip isn't the only one playing for his next contract, with the score of last nights game 66 to 68 Reggie Evans decided that was the time for him to drive to the rim, too bad it resulted in a turnover. He's turning into Ruben Patterson (that's not a goood thing). There are much better offensive players on the team, and on the floor at that time with him, and he chose to force a ham handed drive into three defenders. Dear Bob Weiss, make it stop. It's fine to give him a few post-ups 5 feet from the hoop, but he shouldn't be even looking at the hoop when he's beyond the freethrow line (where he struggles in an empty gym).
See the game flow here Reggie was a -5 on the day. His +/- is -2.9.

Reggie can be traded after January 4th, I would be ok with that. I think that the closer we get to the end of this contract we will see Reggie working harder and harder for Reggie.