The Sonics had a light practice this morning with head coach P.J. Carlesimo again mostly focusing on basic drill work like how the team will defend simple offensive plays like pick and roll, down screens, cross screens and screen the screener. The team also went through zone rotations defensively.

Carlesimo said he wants the Sonics to have the ability to play a good zone defense, and that if they can do that he believes it will help them during the season.

“Where most of us (coaches) come up short is we don’t put the time into it,” Carlesimo said about the zones employed in the NBA. “We all have a zone that we can throw out there but most of them are (crap) zones.
“Sometimes they work because the other team is missing shots or the other team doesn’t attack zones well. But it’s not usually because it’s a good zone and has good slides and the players understand it. Our goal this year is to have a good zone, and see if we’re right. See if a zone really is something that will bother teams, and will be able to help us in given situations."

Listen to the full interview with Carlesimo after practice here.

Chris Wilcox joining the growing list of players filling team trainer Mike Shimensky’s training room. Wilcox has a left quadriceps hip flexor contusion and sat most of Friday morning’s practice.

Wilcox joined Mickael Gelabale (left hamstring strain), Robert Swift (right knee tendinitis), Delonte West (left big toe nail removed) and Kurt Thomas (left quadriceps contusion.)

The injuries left Seattle with only 10 players available. The Sonics were supposed to go hard this afternoon, but Carlesimo said he might take it slow again to avoid other guys getting injured.

Again, the media has only been able to watch the last 30 minutes of practice, which either consists of a controlled scrimmage or drill work. But in talking to the guys afterward it seems like they’re doing a lot of running. So that might be why some guys are coming up with some of the nagging injuries. If guys didn’t come into camp in shape they should be by the end of next week.

“We sure are running,” Szczerbiak said. “We’re getting up and down the floor, and this is probably the most running I’ve done in training camp. But it will pay off in the end.”

I also talked to Johan Petro. The Frenchman said he’s likes Carlesimo’s system because it fits what he does best, which is run the floor. Petro said he needs to get better defensively, and he's get his chance to improve because he is one of the three big men not sitting the sidelines.

With Thomas, Swift and Wilcox out, Jeff Green saw some time at the four spot during practice.

Rookies Green and Kevin Durant have avoided the injury bug, so they have been able to get a lot of learning in this week. I imagine by now most guys are anxious to play a real game.

The Sonics will practice again this afternoon. And on Saturday they will have a light practice in the morning and a full practice Saturday evening, 6 p.m. at Seattle Pacific University that’s open to the public.

Again, no real formulation of a potential starting lineup at this point so I’m not going to mention who was in green and who was in white because I think at this point they are just trying to put 10 healthy guys on the floor. But I think a couple more players should be healthy enough to scrimmage on Saturday, and the team is just taking the necessary precautions to make sure guys get through the preseason healthy.

Wally Szczerbiak seems to be fitting in well and getting comfortable as a Sonic. I’ll have a story on his transition coming out West on Sunday. You can listen to an interview with him here.