FanHouse

As we digest the sheer amount of unmitigated wasted money exchanging hands in the Ben Wallace-Larry Hughes deal, we shouldn't ignore what Sonics GM Sam Presti was able to do over two days.

Wednesday, he completed the Rashard Lewis coup. Lewis was prepared to walk away, taking $90 million from Orlando. Otis Smith, for reasons still unexplained, offer Shard a sixth year, which would necessitate a sign-and-trade. All Presti would have to do is take back a second-round pick and collect a massive trade exception for his troubles. With said trade exception, Presti was in position to take Kurt Thomas' salary from the Suns, and with it the handling fee of two firsts and a second. The Sonics paid Kurt for half a season, then flipped him to San Antonio for another first.

Today, Presti took the undesirable salary involved in last summer's Ray Allen trade -- Wally Szczerbiak -- and paired it with a guard who isn't playing much (Delonte West) with the following result: Instead of one $13 million player next season, the Sonics have two players who make $7.5 million, and both should be movable this summer.

From an aging roster filled with mistakes to not terribly far from tabula rasa ... in seven months. He'll never sniff executive of the year -- Danny Ainge and Mitch Kupchak are wrestling for it -- but he might deserve it.