SEATTLE – After sitting out much of training camp to recover from offseason surgery, Luke Ridnour at last has a clean bill of health.
He is with the team on its two-game exhibition road trip – tonight in Redmond, Ore., against the Portland Trail Blazers and Wednesday night in Reno, Nev., against the Golden State Warriors – but is not expected to play due to a long layoff following an August operation to repair a hernia-like injury in his lower abdomen.
Instead, the Blaine native and Seattle’s second 2003 first-round draft pick (No. 14 overall) will wait to make his return until a practice later in the week. It will either be Thursday if the team works out that day, or Friday if the team takes Thursday off.
The 22-year-old Ridnour said he no longer feels any discomfort from either the injury, which occurred in a pre-draft workout in Milwaukee, or the subsequent surgery.
“It feels good,” he said, “and now it’s just a matter of getting used to running and playing basketball again.”
For the last several days, Ridnour has been allowed to do certain running and shooting drills, both individually and with teammates, but he has been kept out of any drills or scrimmages that involved contact.
When he returns later this week, said Sonics coach Nate McMillan, “we expect him to be able to go through the whole practice.”
Ridnour is expected to be Seattle’s point guard of the future, though his immediate contributions will depend on how quickly he adapts to the NBA game. Brent Barry is the likely starter at the outset, and free-agent newcomer Antonio Daniels will back up at both guard positions.
“I know I can play,” said Ridnour, who has been openly impatient by the delay in starting his pro career. “It’s just a matter of getting comfortable with everybody. I see how they play, they see how I play, and I just get a chance to fit in. And I’m real excited about that.”
Ridnour will have three remaining exhibition games before the team prepares for its late-October trip to Japan and two regular-season games against the Los Angeles Clippers.
“Hopefully I can prove myself before the real season starts,” he said. “I’ve got awhile, but it’s still going to take some time. It’s going to take a few weeks just to get used to playing again. … Each day I’m doing more, and pretty soon I’ll be live all the way. I’ll be able to go full tilt.”
Roster moves: The Sonics trimmed their roster on Monday morning, waiving free-agent forwards Matt Barnes (UCLA, 2002) and Sam Hoskin (DePaul, ‘03). The cuts leave Seattle with 17 players, including forward Nick Collison, one of the team’s two 2003 first-round draft picks, who will miss the season after undergoing shoulder surgery.
Of the remaining players, there are 11 veterans and two draft picks (Collison and Ridnour) with guaranteed contracts. Of the extra players – guards Richie Frahm (Gonzaga, ‘00) and Jason Hart (Syracuse, ‘00), guard/forward Galen Young (North Carolina-Charlotte, ‘99), and center Mikki Moore (Nebraska, ‘97) – one will probably make the team, either on the active roster or the injured list. There is an outside chance that two could stay, but it would mean someone finished the preseason with a flurry.
“We like them all,” said McMillan, speaking of Frahm, Hart, Young and Moore. “We’ll keep them as long as possible. We’ll see, once we’re close to opening night, what we’re going to do. But I think these guys may be with us until the end of training camp.”
Collison heads east: Collison left Seattle early Monday morning for New York, where he will undergo surgery today on his ailing left shoulder.
During some recent practices, the 22-year-old Collison (he turns 23 on Oct. 26) suffered what is called a sublexation, which is essentially a dislocation. Tests indicated some abnormalities, which will be corrected by surgery.
Collison will have the left shoulder operated on today, then return in a few months to have surgery on the right shoulder, which is also showing some of the same abnormalities, even though he has not had problems with the latter joint.
“Nick’s a strong guy,” said Ridnour, who spoke with Collison before he left. “He knows he’s going to be all right. It’s just a tough situation that he’s in.”
New lineup look: McMillan said he expects to start Calvin Booth at center tonight in place of Jerome James.
“I just want to look at the (new) combination,” McMillan said.
Preseason critique: On Saturday in Utah, the Sonics had a somewhat disappointing effort in a 90-89 loss to the Jazz, according to McMillan.
“I thought the physical play bothered us against Utah,” he said. “We just kind of got pushed around. And we had 17 turnovers, which is way too many. In our first two games we had nine and 13.”
As a coaching staff, he went on, “we probably should expect some of this a little bit, but it shows we have work to do.”
Otherwise, McMillan said, “I like some of the things we’re doing. In the first two games, some of the things we’re asking these guys to do worked. And some of the new guys picked it up pretty quickly. So we’re seeing a lot of good things.”
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