Wilcox Continues to Impress

Chris Wilcox has begun to put up huge numbers in Seattle, though Reggie Evans was never quite sure why the SuperSonics needed another power forward in the first place.

In what seems like a case of both players benefiting from a change of scenery, Wilcox and Evans have been providing sparks for their new teams.

Wilcox went to Seattle from the Clippers in a trade for Vladimir Radmanovic in the middle of February. That paved the way for Evans’ departure about a week later, when he was shipped to the Denver Nuggets as part of a four-team trade at the deadline.

Wilcox, who hasn’t lived up to the expectations of being a lottery pick in 2002, has been playing to his potential lately. He had 16 points and a career-high 19 rebounds Monday night against Sacramento, then scored a career-high 30 points and grabbed 14 boards the next night in a victory over Milwaukee.

“The sky is the limit with him,” Seattle Coach Bob Hill said. “He’s bringing lots of energy all over the floor.”

That’s Evans’ specialty, and he can’t understand why it wasn’t good enough for Hill.

Evans started 79 games last season and led Seattle with 9.3 rebounds per game. But he quickly fell out of favor with Hill, who replaced the fired Bob Weiss early this season. Evans ended up on the bench so Radmanovic could start, but he wasn’t coming off it nearly as much as he expected, and let it be known he wanted out of Seattle.

“Coach Hill didn’t want to play me,” Evans said. “He just said he wanted to play Vlade. I was like, ‘Cool.’ He said he wanted to try him out. So I’ll just come off the bench and be ready for the team. But unfortunately he didn’t play me.

“I was more than willing to come off the bench to help the team out, sacrifice for my team just to do anything to win. But he made a decision, so I had to make a decision, also.”

Evans has been getting time with Denver’s frontcourt riddled with injuries, and he has delivered. He averaged 9.1 rebounds in his first 13 games with the Nuggets, including a 20-board game at Toronto on March 10.

He knows his minutes will be cut when Marcus Camby and Kenyon Martin are entirely healthy, but said that is fine with him.

“Like I say, it didn’t matter to me in Seattle, so it don’t matter to me here,” he said.