Rick Sund Quotations

Rick's playmaking ability, ball-handling skills and size make him a nice complement for our team. He is a true point guard, and I think he and Luke Ridnour will give us a good tandem at that position.

We knew we were the first. It was a selling point. We also wanted him to feel the belief we had in him.

We like a lot of things that Chris can do. And we are excited to have him. He's only 23 years old and he can run. Those are the types of guys we are looking for.

We were so good last year being injury-free. Nick's starting to play pretty good, a really good first quarter (on Sunday). He's a tough guy and hopefully it heals and he will be back.

One of the strengths of the Sonics, last year and again this year, is depth at the four and five spots.

One of our concerns has been, and probably always will be - unless you have a (Tim) Duncan or a Shaq (O'Neal) - having enough depth at the center position with enough flexibility so you can match up with all the different teams, because teams give you different looks, ... That was a strength last year, and it will be another strength for us this year. We have the strength with Vitaly, versatility and talent with a guy like Nick Collison, a low-post game. You have some length now and running ability in Mikki and some youth in Petro and Robert and some toughness and bulk in Danny.

I've told the players every season that any dialogue that a player has with me is private. And any dialogue as far as trades is private because it's just too much of a distraction during the season.

In my view, he's been developing since he took over. He's done a nice job.

Brunson had a lot of good things to say, said his feel for the game is very good.

I talked to him this afternoon and acknowledged the fact of possible starting time and (the Timberwolves) revamping their team, and his response was, 'Rick, this is home.'