Kevin Durant | Playmaker of the future?

As gifted as Kevin Durant is — and by all accounts he's got the tools to become a special player — the Sonics shooting guard still is just a rookie.

And rookies in the star-driven NBA adhere to an unspoken, decades-old pecking order that delegates them to second-class-citizen status.

That's true even for Durant, who is expected to make his NBA debut tonight when the Sonics open the season at Denver.

"It's like you almost have to earn the respect of the refs and everybody else in the league before you get some of the calls that you think you deserve," said center Nick Collison, a fourth-year veteran who has struggled in the past to stay out of foul trouble. "It helps if you're a starter. It also helps if you have the ball in your hands and you're being aggressive.

"But everybody goes through it. That's just one of the lessons he'll have to learn."

The Sonics' supporting cast must also develop its own pecking order as it pertains to taking big shots and who's expected to take over in the clutch when the Sonics need a basket.

If Seattle's 2-6 exhibition campaign revealed anything, it's that on most nights the Sonics will be overmatched in the talent department. In three blowout exhibition losses, they played their opponents evenly until the other teams' superstars took over and Seattle didn't have an answer.

It happened during a 126-106 defeat to the Lakers when Kobe Bryant scored 16 points in a three-minute span to extend Los Angeles' 67-62 lead and help the Lakers cruise to a comfortable win.

For 2 ½ quarters, Seattle kept pace with the Houston Rockets, but when Tracy McGrady (30 points) began draining shots, it wasn't a contest.

And Portland's Brandon Roy almost single-handedly led the Trail Blazers to a 109-107 victory when he scored 14 points in the fourth quarter while the Sonics struggled offensively.

New Sonics coach P.J. Carlesimo put more of an emphasis on getting to know his players and discovering a rotation than wins and losses. He has settled on a starting five — Earl Watson, Damien Wilkins, Chris Wilcox, Collison and Durant — but it remains to be seen whether he has found a finishing lineup.

"Well, that's one thing that we're going to have to figure out," said forward Wally Szczerbiak, the only Sonics player to appear in an All-Star Game. "I don't think there's any question that we're going to be in a lot of games and it's going to be close. I've been on teams that had guys that you can give them the ball and clear out."

But at the end of games, Szczerbiak said, things add up at the free-throw line.

"I don't know if we have that type of guy yet that's going to get the respect from the officials and get all the calls like a Kobe, like a Paul Pierce and like a LeBron James, so we're going to have to do it as a team."

Other than Szczerbiak, an All-Star in 2002, and 13-year veteran Kurt Thomas, no Sonic has been the go-to guy for long stretches or has been responsible for making winning shots in the NBA.

"If I had to take that shot, no question I'd take it, but that's not something I'm comfortable with," Collison said. "If you're looking for me to take my man one-on-one and get a basket, well, that's not really my game."

He pointed to Wilcox, Wilkins, Delonte West and Durant.

"Kevin has the talent to do that, it's just he hasn't had the opportunity to do those things."

Durant, who missed the final two exhibitions because of a sprained left ankle, led the Sonics in scoring with an 18.8 average. But he averaged just 4.3 points in the fourth quarter partly because Carlesimo experimented with lineups.

"You need somebody to step up and take that weight," Sonics analyst Steve "Snapper" Jones said. "They have the potential difference-maker in Durant, and it's just how quickly his learning curve gets up to speed and he understands what he needs to do and when he needs to do it in order to make a difference."

Denver, which finished second in the Northwest Division with a 45-37 record last season and has championship aspirations this season, boasts two All-Stars capable of carrying the Nuggets: guard Allen Iverson and forward Carmelo Anthony. Anthony averaged 28.9 points, second in the NBA, and Iverson was seventh at 26.3.

"Most of the teams in the league are probably going to be more experienced than us," Wilkins said. "We have a lot of young guys that are just now getting an opportunity to play big minutes. There's going to be a lot of things we have to learn on the fly. In some instances that may hurt us, but in the long run it's definitely going to help us."

As far as the All-Star intimidation goes, Wilkins said he doesn't step onto the court and see opponents who are more talented.

"They laced their shoes up just like I did. We're going to come across teams that may have more All-Stars than we have, but that doesn't mean that those All-Stars know how to win. Every All-Star isn't a winner."

Notes

• Rookie Jeff Green practiced again after suffering a sprained left ankle in Friday's exhibition finale win. He's scheduled to be in the small-forward rotation.

• Thomas suffered a strained right hamstring in practice Tuesday and is questionable; center Robert Swift (right knee) did not practice.

• Guard Luke Ridnour was projected to start, but his inability to play with a facemask for his broken nose without adjusting the equipment between plays concerns Carlesimo.

Staff reporter Jayda Evans contributed to this report. Percy Allen: 206-464-2278 or pallen@seattletimes.com