Chris Wilcox has played only 17 games in a Seattle SuperSonics uniform, but already is being touted as the team’s best finisher since Shawn Kemp.

Wilcox, who was traded to the Sonics by the Los Angeles Clippers on Valentine’s Day, made his 12th straight start in Sunday night’s 114-109 home victory over San Antonio. The former Whiteville High All-Stater scored 14 points and had a team-high seven rebounds against the 54-16 Spurs.

Wilcox has scored in double figures in his last six games, including a 30-point, 14-rebound outburst in a 114-105 win over the Milwaukee Bucks on March 22. A day earlier, he had 16 points and a career- high 19 rebounds in a loss to Sacramento.

Wilcox is averaging 14 points and more than seven rebounds in his starting role with Seattle. He started his fourth season with the Clippers with dwindling playing time (only one start and barely 13 minutes per game). He scored only 218 points in his limited role in 48 games with the Clippers this season. After 17 games with Seattle, he now has 238 points.

Wilcox’s style fits the up-tempo offense of Coach Rick Sund’s Sonics. The 6-foot-10, 23-year-old Wilcox brings a lot of energy to the floor and is able to score well in traffic. He is connecting on an almost unheard of 62 percent of his field goals since joining the Sonics, and a performance in a 120-112 road victory over the Los Angeles Lakers gave solid evidence to that. The former Maryland star had four dunks, finishing with 9-of-12 shooting and 21 points.

“That’s my aggressive side,” Wilcox said in a recent Sonic press release. “I just want to out there and take everything to the basket strong. Some of the dunks I miss is because I’m going too hard to the basket. Me, I just want to finish everything; that’s the best way to finish is to go hard.”

Wilcox was the first-round draft pick of the Los Angeles Clippers after helping lead the University of Maryland to the 2002 NCAA championship as a sophomore.

He was the starting center for Coach Glenn McKoy’s Whiteville High basketball team as a sophomore and a junior. During his junior year, Wilcox paced the Wolfpack to the 1999 state 2A championship. He played his 2000 senior season at Raleigh’s Enloe High School.