Considering four major point guards and one minor one in the NBA were traded last week, you would have thought that the Seattle SuperSonics floor leader would have been one of them.

	Which team will Payton be starring for next season?

After all, the Sonics shopped Gary Payton around to just about everybody in the league, yet they were unable to deal the seven-time All-Star.

So now, there is a lot of political maneuvering going on that has everybody confused, no resolution in sight and seemingly can only end in bitter, controversial dispute.

When rumors abounded that Payton was on the block, he issued a bizarre release last week thanking the fans for support of him over the year, in case he got traded.

Slipped into the release, though, was a phrase that said, "I only wanted an extension as a reward for the way I have played in Seattle," as if the $86 million contract he was handed five years ago was not enough of a reward for him to go out and play hard.

In any case, Payton is taking his case to the public, trying to get the fans' support behind him for a two-year contract extension that would net him an additional $30 million or so.

To that end, Payton's agent, Aaron Goodwin, has let it publicly be known that Payton will not play for a team in the Eastern Conference, and will play for only four teams in the Western Conference, something the Sonics want to avoid since they don't want Payton to come back and kill them four times a year. In effect, Goodwin is trying to block any trade the Sonics may try so that he can force them into giving Payton his extension.

Goodwin has not contacted the Sonics directly about an extension yet, but he might want to think about doing it soon, because when he asks for the extension, here is what he will hear: "N-O. No."

		If he does want to be traded, to whom? He already has said he will not go East, and he has stipulated he will not go to a losing team, so that leaves him with very few options.

A team in the middle of a rebuilding stage that already has had difficulties with Payton -- he was suspended twice last year for conduct detrimental to the team -- is not going to sign him for another two years at an exorbitant rate, particularly when the Sonics say they lost $20 million last season. So where, then, does that leave Payton?

That's what everybody is waiting to see. Because once he is told he is not going to get an extension, does he demand a trade, citing the Sonics' lack of loyalty to their all-time leading everything?

If he does want to be traded, to whom? He already has said he will not go East, and he has stipulated he will not go to a losing team, so that leaves him with very few options.

Does he rescind what he has said, and then will accept a trade to the East or a losing team, exposing himself as interested only in the money and not in being a winner?

These are just a few of the questions going around Seattle these days, because new owner Howard Schultz promised the organization will not accept the status quo -- missing the playoffs for the second time in three years -- yet so far the decision-makers have done very little to instill the fans with a great deal of confidence except for drafting Vladimir Radmanovic, which only scares people more because of the experience they had with Vladimir Stepania.

	Baker

	Stepania

The Sonics promised they would trade Vin Baker, then found that he has little to no trade value in a league that is trying to cut back because of the looming luxury tax.

After Schultz ripped Baker in the local media toward the end of the season for his lack of dedication, Schultz, Baker, Goodwin, Nate McMillan and CEO Wally Walker had a sit-down at Schultz's house the other day to straighten out any differences they had, indicating Baker might indeed be back.

There is speculation that the Sonics agreed to the meeting as a way to send the message to the rest of the league that they may not be desperate to trade Baker, hoping to elicit better -- or any -- offers. Either way, they are in a bad way with the Baker business -- although the lone bright spot is that he loses his base-year compensation status in August.

This doesn't even take into account Ruben Patterson, who must be traded because after pleading guilty to third degree sexual assault, he must register as a sex offender in the state of Washington.

And as the Sonics head into free agency, they are without a center, and there are few with talent out there -- Golden State's Marc Jackson and Atlanta's Nazr Mohammed being the best.

When it was pointed out to the Sonics on draft night that they chose a small forward with their first-round pick instead of a center, they said they filled the center position by trading their second-round pick -- Bobby Simmons -- for 6-10, 270-pound center Predrag Drobnjak.

He does little to inspire confidence considering the Sonics said the same thing about Stepania two years ago, and Argentinian Ruben Wolkowyski last year.

	Lewis

So, here's what they have in Seattle: An all-star point guard the team doesn't want, who wants a pricey contract extension, whom they can't trade; an $87 million power forward who doesn't want to be here, whom they don't want, but whom they can't trade; a small forward who they have to try to trade but who has a sex offender tag on his resume; no center; about $5 million in cap space; and a core of players -- Rashard Lewis, Desmond Mason, Brent Barry -- who will be highly upset and distraught if either the domineering point guard or the underachieving power forward are brought back because they both demand the ball.

Schultz may not want to embrace the status quo. But the status quo may have put a bear hug on him.

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