When this season began, part of the development of Seattle SuperSonics forward Rashard Lewis was him finding a way to carry the team.

As the future of the franchise, along with Desmond Mason, the Sonics wanted to run plays for Lewis, have him become comfortable with creating opportunities for himself, much the way Gary Payton does now.

But coach Nate McMillan had a revelation recently, and it was that Lewis may not be the type of player that is ready to carry a team.

At least not now.

"I want to give him opportunities to play with the ball, but he may be better playing off the ball," McMillan said. "Some guys don't play well as the go-to man. They want to play and have the freedom of freelancing. You single out a guy and give him the ball, that gives him the pressure of having to score. Rashard is more comfortable playing off other players and finding where the open spot is and getting there."

It is no coincidence that Lewis struggled with his shooting when Vin Baker was out for seven games with a knee injury. In those games, Lewis shot 40 percent from the field.

Then when Baker returned Sunday afternoon against Indiana, Lewis made 9-of-16 shots and scored 24 points, his second-highest total this season, behind a 36-point performance in Orlando.

A great deal of that is because Baker gives the Sonics another option, and teams cannot concentrate fully on Lewis. When he was slumping, Lewis said he was rushing his shot because teams were paying more attention to him.