I think at this point McDick may be too scared to replace him because he's the only thing stopping the general public from knowing how little he knows how to run an hockey franchise and they he'll be the only one left to blame.
Depends on who he can replace him with. I think most fans know/understand that McDonut is not a hockey guy, but a marketer/salesman--essentially the bastard lovechild of the Grinch and Rudy Russo from the move "Used Cars". As long as he sticks to doing that I think he's fine--and I think Rocky will be ambivalent as long as things don't turn back to the Pullford/$bill era where asses were not filling the seats in perpetuity.
In other words, as long as rebuilds are short and asses are in the seats Rocky won't be after McDonut's hide. McDonut can save his skin by making sure he doesn't pull a Stan--Whomever Stan's replacement is has to be a knowledgeable guy with a straightforward plan that at least gives the fans the illusion of competence. Granted, I don't know who that is, but I think even though Q needed to be gone, the timing of it was completely off and so far Stan looks worse off for it. Especially with the players perceived attitude towards JC.
Plus, I think the company line of "This is a playoff team" (which it's not) plays into an out for upper management. Q wasn't working. Stan brought in his own guy and they're doing worse. If the team's trend continues (bottom in the league) Stan's set up to be the scapegoat.
My $0.02.
I really thought the clipper guy would have moved the team up to Seattle by now so they share a nice stadium.
The biggest issue with Seattle right now is that's most certainly *not* a nice stadium. It's worse than America West or, for a more recent example, Barclay's. In fact, Key Arena is probably the worst hockey venue I've ever had the misfortune of catching a game in--and the basketball fans I know say it's not much better for basketball.
If the published reason Seattle's hockey team is not starting until 2022 because it will take that long to renovate the arena, then there's no reason for a basketball club to move in now--especially because right now the arena is shitty.
In fact I can go so far as to say that a lot of the pas/fail for Seattle is going to hinge on that arena's rebuild. Given the fact that I lived in the area in the 2000's I can definitively tell you that there are a lot of way that some outside group can deep-6 the renovation from an acceptable hockey/basketball arena into a retread of Barclay's--and that would kill a hockey franchise.
I think a retread of the Sonics is going to wait until they figure out what they got in an arena 1st.