Sonics 126 Hawks 123, 2OT

Boxscore

Gameflow

That was a bad loss. Furthermore, it was a dispiriting loss; the first indication that this roster may not possess sufficient depth to finish the 82-game season at or near .500.

Struggling, to some degree, in the absence of Josh Smith and Acie Law IV, isn't reason to condemn the result. The failure to convert chances to win the game in regulation likely compounded the damage of the loss by forcing Salim Stoudmaire and Tyronn Lue to play more minutes than their health warranted. With Anthony Johnson making himself unavailable (which is not to excuse the fundamental wastefulness of acquiring and using a roster spot on him in the first place), Mario West was exposed as little more than a nice story.

The Hawks were -15 in the 3:16 that West played. Obviously, that's not the sole responsibility of West but there's very little West can be expected to contribute in terms of tangible value. The Hawks can't spend five roster spots on two unavailable backup point guards, an injured backup point guard, an undersized (and injured) two guard, and a walk-on.

As far as I know, Hassan Adams is still available.

Who knows who will be available to play tonight and for how many minutes their bodies can reasonably be expected to hold up. I'm pretty confident that, if he fired up League Pass to do some advance scouting, Michael Redd recognizes a good opportunity for the third 50-point game of his career awaits.

Darko Is Free

With the Magic agreeing to sign Rashard Lewis to a max contract, Darko Milicic (who wasn't contacted by the Magic on the first day of free agency) won't be getting the $10 million a year he's looking for in Orlando.

John Denton of Florida Today, reports that only three other teams (Milwaukee, Minnesota, and Atlanta) are capable of offering Darko more than the MLE:

Milicic is a restricted free agent, meaning the Magic have the right to match any offer he receives. [Milicic’s agent, Marc] Cornstein said he received calls from "half the teams in the league," but only four of them -- Milwaukee, Minnesota, Atlanta and Orlando -- can offer him more than the mid-level exception ($5.5 million).

Any of those teams would be help themselves by acquiring a 22-year-old big man with some potential for improvement but none of those teams should want to make Darko Milicic their second-highest paid player. Milicic is young enough that he could still have a major contract offer the next time he hits free agency. I don't think he should forgo contributing to a good team for the MLE in the hopes that a bad team signs him to an expensive deal because they hope he will someday be worth it.