Gary Payton still is a Seattle SuperSonic.

	Patrick Ewing and Gary Payton are each likely to play elsewhere next season.

Don't think that is for lack of trying.

It's simply that on a day that the NBA actually saw more trades than anybody anticipated, nobody was A) willing to give up a key piece of their team to acquire Payton or B) nobody had a package available now that was interesting enough for the Sonics because of base-years and opt-outs and little lambsy diveys.

After the trade deadline passes, the Seattle brass' spin was that the organization wanted to give this bunch of players a chance to compete for a playoff berth.

As my good friend Mikie Myers would say, "Riiiiiiiiggggghhhhhhttttt."

This team has a .500 record against the Eastern Conference when the rest of the West is treating the East like Mike Tyson treated Robin Giv, errrr, Pinklon Thomas

This team, that can't decide who it wants to be its power forward.

Even if this team does somehow make it into the playoffs, a first-round exit is almost as certain as Juwan Howard grinning and singing Hallelujah when he gets to Big D.

It's not so much that Sonics general manager Wally Walker said he wants to give this team a chance, it's what he said about it if it doesn't make the playoffs that should be of interest.

"If we are battling to be a playoff team, and we are competitive, then we have to have Gary Payton to go to battle with here," Walker said. "If our focus is, somewhere down the road, to get set up for a couple years later, then the question becomes, does something make sense for Gary or for the Sonics?

"We are still in position to battle for a playoff spot. That is our priority, and we will look at it again this summer."

In reality, the Sonics almost had GP demanding a trade this summer.

That's because they almost dealt Vin Baker to Dallas.

	Howard

	Baker

The Mavericks had a choice between the deal they took for Howard, or getting Baker. The Sonics actually wanted Christian Laettner and Shawn Bradley, whose contracts both are up this summer and, combined with Patrick Ewing becoming a free agent this summer, would have given the Sonics almost $20 million in cap space.

That would have been a sure sign that the Sonics are blowing it up, and a source close to Payton said he would have been out of Seattle quicker than the Wicked Witch of the West when she found out how much it rained.

Instead, Mark Cuban decided to go with Howard, and what, exactly, does that say about how far Baker has fallen in the eyes of those around the league? Or maybe it was just that Cuban and Donnie Nelson were enamored with Calvin Booth and Obinna Ekezie, I'm not sure.

The sidelight of this, of course, is how will the ever-sensitive Baker react for the rest of the season now that he knows he once again was about to be dealt.

By all accounts, he was near a nervous breakdown when then-Sonics coach Paul Westphal came out publicly and said how in shape Baker had gotten himself, then was nearly traded to New York after he felt he was set up by Westphal, then the deal fell through at the 11th hour.

Now, perhaps the timing of everything is only coincidence, but it certainly is funny how coincidences keep happening with Baker. On Wednesday night, the Sonics placed Baker back into the starting lineup, and he was giddy. The next day, he finds out they almost have him shipped out to Texas, it falls through because once again Michael Jordan outmaneuvered the Sonics as he did in 1996, and now Baker is back in a Sonics uniform, feeling about as loyal as Aldrich Ames.

That should bode well for a Sonics playoff run.

In any case, the fact that Baker was out there with a moving tag dangling from his ear is a pretty good sign that this team is ready to go in another direction.

Actually, certain factions of this organization were ready to go in another direction last summer. Parts of management wanted to trade Payton then, and owner Barry Ackerley nixed a deal.

That, incidentally, may be another reason Payton was not traded by Thursday afternoon. Technically, Ackerley still owns the team, and any trade of Payton would have had to go through him.

But this summer, Ackerley hands over the team to Howie Schultz, and Schultz has said the status quo in Seattle in not acceptable.

Certainly not a team with a .500 record that causes and experiences more controversy than Jerry Springer. Certainly not a team that saw more empty seats this past Wednesday than it has in a decade. Certainly not a team that no longer has passion or soul, two words that Schultz is fond of using and feels strongly about.

And for the first time, there is a feeling in Seattle that perhaps it is time for Payton to leave.

KJR radio, the city's local sports radio show, had a poll recently that asked if Payton should be traded. Fifty-five percent said no. Forty-five said yes. In the past, if the radio show even held the poll, it probably would not be on the air anymore. Now, 45 percent of respondents think it's time for the Glove to find love elsewhere. Startling.

Hey, nobody here is saying GP can't play. Nobody is saying that the downfall of the Sonics is all his fault, or that they will be a better team without him.

But for three years now, since George Karl left, the Sonics have tried this mix of young and old, experienced and inexperienced, trying to hold the fort with an army of old codgers and boy scouts.

What they have found is a generation gap too broad to bridge, something that has resulted in storm after storm, controversy after controversy and, ultimately, loss after loss.

Unlike death, sometimes we can see things coming toward us, if we look hard enough.

So watch and appreciate the Sonics' final 27 games of the season. They will be GP's last in Seattle.

Frank Hughes covers the NBA for the Tacoma (Wash.) News-Tribune. He is a regular contributor to ESPN.com.