This team keeps winning games it isn't supposed to win. It keeps doing things it wasn't supposed to do.

It wins fast. It wins slow. It wins when the jump shots don't fall. And it wins inside sometimes and outside most of the time.

There is a connect-the-dots quality to the Sonics. The roster is filled with irreplaceable parts. Everybody has a role and, in this wondrous season, every player — every player — has played his role as seamlessly as Oscar winner Jamie Foxx played his in "Ray."

Speaking of Ray, as the season rolls inexorably toward a long playoff run and as speculation on the future of free-agent-to-be Ray Allen simmers, let's not forget another free-agent-in-waiting who must be re-signed.

Let's not forget the contribution of the emerging 6-foot-10 forward, Vladimir Radmanovic.

"How come nobody's saying anything about him?" joked Allen, who has been barraged by questions about his future since he reported to camp in October.

This season has been magical. Despite having seven free agents and a coach, Nate McMillan, whose contract expires at the end of the year, the Sonics have played together. This team is playing the game the right way.

The NBA should market this team with the same ferocity as it markets LeBron James. This is a team in the best sense.

Master alchemist/coach McMillan has found a formula that shouldn't be tampered with in the summer. To Allen, that means signing Radmanovic is as important as signing him.

"If everybody who's on this roster this year isn't on it next year, this won't be the same kind of team," All-Star Allen said. "We're successful because the guys we have right now have come together. We've created such a natural bond that allows us to play the way we're capable of playing.

"And Vlade is a big part of it, and it's tough if you just sign me and you don't bring him on. Yeah, everybody's been talking about my contract all year long, but to the future success of the team, Vlade's contract has to be taken care of just as well."

McMillan believes in slowly growing his young players, giving them a little more responsibility every season. This season, Radmanovic's fourth, McMillan is calling more plays for him. Adding touches, expecting more.

About a month ago, the coach had a meeting with the team in which he said he would start calling more post-up plays for Radmanovic.

The way Allen describes it, there is light bulb that always hangs over Radmanovic's head, and this season Allen sees the bulb flickering on.

"I don't think there's anybody who's as good as he is at his age (24)," Allen said. "And there's so much he will be able to do in the future. He's going to start becoming even more aggressive. He'll be going down to get more rebounds. And then they're going to start double-teaming him and he's going to get more assists.

"His whole game is going to open up. It's like the light bulb turns on and he realizes, 'Hey, look what I can really do.' Right now the bulb is coming on every now and then. He can score, but there's even so much more that he can do that we all see. Things that he just has to develop on his own time. Things like being able to post up and create mismatches. But his shooting, I mean, he's been playing lights out."

In his first three seasons, Radmanovic averaged 6.7, 10.1 and 12 points, respectively. He took 354 shots his first season, 668 the next and 812 last season. This year he is averaging 12.2 points, third best on the team, and with 25 games remaining he has taken 593 shots.

"Last year, I don't think he knew what he was supposed to do a lot of the time," Allen said. "We just didn't demand stuff out of him. Now we demand more out of him and he even demands more out of himself."

McMillan calls it slow growth, which is how he approached the monumental rebuilding job that was handed to him when he replaced Paul Westphal in late November of 2000.

"Vlade has accepted the sixth-man role and knows how important that is," McMillan said. "I think the last two years he really fought it and was bothered by not starting. It was if he thought he wasn't an important part of this team. Now a lot of things we do are built around his ability to shoot the ball. And now we're seeing his potential come to light."

Radmanovic says he wants to return, "but it is not my decision. It is up to management. This is my second home and it's a great group of guys, but there's not much I can do about the future."

So, for the next three months, he will do what he has done. Curl off screens and swish jumpers as clean as Martha Stewart's home. And he'll outrun every big man on the floor.

Then he'll wait this summer knowing what we all know, that signing him is absolutely as important to the Sonics as signing Ray Allen.

Steve Kelley: 206-464-2176 or skelley@seattletimes.com