The Seattle SuperSonics are more than halfway through their season, enough time to develop lasting impressions about a team that held few expectations when the season began.

I think the most prevalent impression is the way this team is viewed. My outlook on this group has changed dramatically in the past four months.

When I would attend a game in November and December, I entered cynically, expecting the Sonics to lose. If they won, it was something of an upset.

Perhaps that came from too many years of Olden Polynice and Billy Owens and James Cotton and Jelani McCoy and Vernon Maxwell and Lazaro Borrell and Greg Foster and Vladimir Stepania.

Now, when I watch the Sonics, I am shocked if they do not at least show up and compete, and I know they have a chance to win each night they play. Not that I expect them to win every game, but it certainly does not come as a surprise when they do, even against the top competition.

The game Saturday against the Indiana Pacers was a good example. Vin Baker was out with an injury, Gary Payton and Desmond Mason were sick, Rashard Lewis was fighting back spasms, and the game was the last of a long trip. Anybody in their right mind would have been justified to take $100 and call a bookie.

But with these Sonics, you just never know. They are so young and so unpredictable that they defy common sense. Their capriciousness, after years of working against them, on Saturday night worked in their favor. You could feel the excitement in the locker room that something was building, something was accomplished.

Changing perceptions is a difficult thing, because people cling to reputations, deserved or not. But the Sonics are challenging people to view them differently.

Certainly, with so much inexperience, there will be disappointments. But the steps back seem to be getting smaller, the steps forward larger.

A great deal of this has to do with Nate McMillan, who should be considered for coach of the year.

He has taken a team in turmoil and rehabilitated it. He is the drill sergeant who has taken a loose-knit group of underachievers and transformed them into a spiffy marching unit. That's a fact, Jack.

It started the first day of training camp, when he stressed fundamentals, explained that the small things, such as setting a proper pick, make the difference between winning close games and losing. Small things made the difference in the victory over the Pacers.

He instilled a mind-set. His players know that three games in four nights does not mean a day off; it means getting in the gym and lifting weights and running plays that have been run a thousand times before. It means professionalism, determination, sacrifice. It means being driven and staying driven. It means pushing yourself to get better instead of being satisfied.

This team may not as good as it can be yet, but you can feel the movement as it sits three games over .500.

The other person who deserves credit is Payton, who stunned everyone by reversing his personality. He's had a lobotomy without using one surgical instrument.

He has become cordial, respectful. Most of all, he is a leader of a group of individuals who need direction from more than McMillan.

Amazingly, Payton's game seems to have gotten even better as he closes in on 34. It's as if the energy he previously used to rail against teammates, coaches, management and media is channeled toward winning. Now more than ever he is an incredibly gifted athlete who is a joy to watch.

Yes, the development of Lewis and Mason help, as does the resurgence of Baker and emergence of Brent Barry.

But those seem ancillary to the real story, that McMillan and Payton have this team progressing toward something that people may actually care about in a place that hasn't cared about pro basketball in years.

For half a season, it's been a fun project to watch.