Vin Baker was a three-time First Team All-MEAC and 1993 MEAC Player of the Year at Hartford and was the eighth Overall Pick in 1993 with Milwaukee as his landing place.  Baker saw a lot of minutes early as a rookie (31.2), and he broke out in his second campaign where he went to his first All-Star Game, averaged a double-double (17.7 Points and 10.3 Rebounds) and led the NBA in Minutes per Game (41.0). 

Baker continued to grow his game and the master of low post scoring put up his best numbers over the next two seasons (21.1 PTS/9.9 RB & 21.0 PTS/10.3 RB) where he again was an All-Star, but also added a Third Team All-NBA Selection in 1996-97.  Baker proved he was an excellent basketball player, but he had little help on the Bucks and never saw any playoff action in Milwaukee.

The struggling Bucks traded him to Seattle, where he had his most complete season in the sport.  An All-Star for the fourth straight year, Baker was also a Second Team All-Star and was eighth in MVP voting.  Baker also had career-highs in PER (20.4) and Win Shares (10.4), and this should have vaulted the Power Forward to the next level, but, alas, there were issues behind the scenes that hindered his growth.

Baker was dealing with alcohol issues that progressively got worse.  He was still a potent player, but at a time when he should have been in his prime, Baker’s stats were declining.  The Sonics traded him to Boston in 2002, but his play got much worse, averaging only 5.2 Points in 2002-03.  He was better the year after, but showed up to practice drunk.  Baker was suspended and then released, but the New York Knicks picked him up, but was largely ineffective in a reserve role.  He played 11 more NBA Games, three with Houston and seven with the Los Angeles Clippers, and Baker became more of a cautionary tale than a superstar.

Vincent Askew was very much a journeyman in the NBA spending time with Philadelphia, Golden State, Sacramento, New Jersey, Indiana, Denver, Portland, and Italy.  Of course, Seattle was one of those stops, and it was there where he had his most productive and stable run in basketball. 

With the Seattle SuperSonics for five of his 16 years in the NBA, Tom Chambers was a workhorse for the club. 

An All-Star in 1991 with Philadelphia, Hawkins joined the SuperSonics after being traded from the Charlotte Hornets in 1995.  Hawkins would play in Seattle for four years and would average 15.6 Points per Game in his first year as a Sonic, which would also see him help the team reach the NBA Finals.

Always onward and upward for us here at Notinhalloffame.com!

We are ready to unveil a new Top 50, and again it comes from the hardwood.  It is the Top 50 of the Oklahoma City Thunder.

Originally, the Seattle SuperSonics, the franchise would win the NBA Championship in 1979, the year after they went to their first NBA Finals.  The Sonics would again go to the Finals in 1996, though would lose to the juggernaut that was the Michael Jordan led Chicago Bulls.

As much as the Seattle fans supported their team, a new ownership group from Oklahoma City purchased the team and brought the franchise to the state of Oklahoma, the first major franchise to arrive there. 

Now known as the Oklahoma City Thunder, “OKC” would go to the Finals, though they would fall short against the Miami Heat.

As the city of Seattle owns the rights to the Sonics name, a new team in the Emerald City would revert the history of this team in Seattle away from the Thunder, however as it stands now, this list begins from 1967, when Seattle first gained a team.

The entire list can be found here but for those who want a sneak peak, the top five are:

1. Gary Payton
2. Kevin Durant
3. Russell Westbrook
4. Jack Sikma
5. Shawn Kemp

This list takes into account traditional statistics, advanced metrics and playoff performance.

It is up to the end of the 2015-16 Season.

Up next will be another NBA team, with the Atlanta Hawks.

Drafted fifth overall in 1997 by Boston and coming to Seattle as part of the Ray Allen trade, Jeff Green would arrive as part of a rebuilding effort by the Sonics.  Green would be part of the move to Oklahoma City and while he was not always the most efficient scorer he did always average 10 Points per Game with the Sonics/Thunder.

A starting Point Guard in the late run of the Seattle SuperSonics and the first stint of his own career, Luke Ridnour would have three straight seasons where he would exceed ten PPG for a campaign.  Ridnour’s best run in the National Basketball Association was with Seattle.

From the University of Utah, Danny Vranes was a defensive minded Small Forward who would earn Second Team All Defensive honors in the 1984-85 season.  10.1 of his 13.9 Win Shares as a Sonic would come from the defensive side of the ball.  Vranes was not much of a scorer, but was able to often prevent his counterpart from putting up garish offensive stats.

Born in Bosnia, though of Serbian descent (which is who he played for Internationally after Yugoslavia), Vladimir Radmanovic was the 12th Overall Draft Pick in 2001.  The Power Forward would do his best work in five and half years he was with the SuperSonics, three times averaging over 10 Points per Game for a season.  Radmanovic was atypical of the period as he was an excellent three point shooter, not typical of a Power Forward at the time.

A member of the Seattle SuperSonics for three and a half seasons, Sedale Threatt was used mostly off of the bench, though he would take over the starting role in his last season in the Emerald City.  Threatt was an underrated player and he finished with a PER of 16.6 as a Sonic, the highest he would do with any team.  He would later be traded to the Lakers where he would be their starter and adopt the nickname of “The Thief” for his ability to Steal.

Eddie Johnson was the named the Sixth Man of the Year when he was the Phoenix Suns in 1988-89 and while he was with the SuperSonics for two and a half years he was still a contender for that award.  Coming off of the bench for Seattle, Johnson averaged 16.2 Points per Game for the team and in his career he had over 19,000 Points, a number that puts him deep into the all-time list.

Antonio Daniels played for Seattle for two of his thirteen seasons in the NBA, where he was used as a backup Point Guard.  It was actually in Seattle where he had has largest PPG (9.7) and had his only 10 Points per Game Season.  It is certainly worth noting that his two best PER seasons were with the Sonics, posting numbers of 19.7 ad 18.0 respectively.

Jim Fox was a journeyman for sure.  He began his professional career with Real Madrid in the Spanish League, following it with stints in R.C. Mechelen (Belgium), Cincinnati, Detroit, Phoenix, Chicago (Cincinnati again) before he got to Seattle.  He would spend three seasons with the Sonics and while he bounced around as much as a basketball, his first season in Seattle saw him average a double-double and almost did so again in his second season.  To this day, Jim Fox still holds the franchise record for rebounds in a game with 30.  The journeyman would finish his career with Milwaukee and New York.

Born in China to Russian immigrants, Tomislav Mescheryakov would come to the United States as a child, though due to anti-Communist sentiment the family would “Americanize” their names and thus Tom Meschery would emerge as a star At St. Mary’s.  Following a very successful run with the Philadelphia/San Francsico Warriors, the brand new Seattle SuperSonics would select him the expansion draft. 

Criminally underrated, Ruben Patterson played only two seasons for the Seattle SuperSonics where he had two offensive seasons over eleven Points per Game.  In terms of advanced metrics, his best two years were with Seattle, where he had his best season in terms of PER, Win Shares and VORP.  Patterson would have a better overall run in Portland, but his best 82 Game run was with Seattle.

While Vin Baker is one of those players who is often associated with wasting his potential due to substance abuse, the fact remains that this was a very good player who had some good seasons, one of which was with the Seattle SuperSonics.

Arguably the most productive time of Ricky Pierce’s career was the time he spent with the Seattle SuperSonics where he spent the bulk of his time as the starting Shooting Guard.  Pierce would be named to his only All Star Team in the year he was traded from Milwaukee to Seattle and would average a very healthy 18.5 Points Per Game tally as a Sonic.

Tom Burleson was not in the NBA for long and he only spent three seasons (his first) with the Seattle SuperSonics, however he quietly put together some very good traditional and advanced numbers while he was there.  The Center from North Carolina State (he would help the Wolfpack win the NCAA Title) would make the All Rookie Team and in his second year would average 15.6 Points and 9 Rebounds per Game while posting a healthy PER of 16.9.  He would also finish in the top ten in Blocks twice.  Burleson would be at his best for Seattle in the playoffs where in his fifteen games he averaged 20.7 Points and 10.2 Rebounds per Game.

Earning a shot with the Seattle SuperSonics due to his Xavier Head Coach being the cousin of Sonics Coach, Bill Russell, Donald “Slick” Watts went from undrafted to the National Basketball Association.  Watts would eventually become a starter and a defensive star and in the 1975-76 season he would lead the league in Steals and Assists.

One of the first stars of the Seattle SuperSonics, Bob Rule was a scoring machine and the first option in the franchise’s early days.  Granted, the team was not very good, but Rule would average a double-double in his four years plus in Seattle, finishing as high 24.6 Points per Game in his final full season with Seattle.  He would go to the 1970 All Star Game.