chris webber - my favorite basketball player of all time, or at least, that's what i would have said between 1991 and 2001. today -- excitement, really, for what he can bring to the pistons, but, for the last few days, i admit to dreading the arrival of what i have come to believe since around 2002 -- chris webber really *is* a born loser, selfish whiner, etc. and given the dark clouds brewing between flip saunders & rasheed and the developing frontcourt rotation with mohammad/mcdyess/dale davis and the NEXT BEN WALLACE, jason maxiell, i have been VERY WARY of introducing a mercurial former all-star who is going to be upset if he's not in the starting line-up every night, or something. send that trouble somewhere else, i said. BUT, my wolverine background kicked in, the great storyline of finally being able to do something for his hometown, and the likelihood that like gary payton, michael finley, jerry stackhouse, etc., when these grizzly veterans finally find their way onto a winning team, they act their age and accept being a great 6th man. chris webber is dead, long live the new chris webber. the biggest question is who they are going to trade now. i think (and hope) that it will be mohammad, who, over the course of the season, has played better than mcdyess, but not lately. mcdyess is back. dale davis is fucking awesome, and jason maxiell is the future heart of the pistons frontcourt.
his game is beautiful.
the tayshaun prince WALLSIDE WINDOWS commercial
just came on during pistons/t-wolves. oh, league pass:
http://youtube.com/watch?v=QtA0v2Wd4lM
also, i just heard kevin garnett audibly say
"get that shit outta here, n*gga", while blocking
flip murray. if i was to block a shot by flip murray
i think i would say something considerably nicer.
like, "thank you for shooting such a silly layup -
it was quite easy for me to knock it far away,
mr. flip"
on fsn bay area, i am seriously regretting letting
monta ellis slip away from me in the death vipers
fantasy league while he was injured. dude has
18 points at halftime. in 3 years he will be tony parker.
BEN -- look forward to my cavs/warriors preview post
later in the week.
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2 comments:
The Webber signing is interesting. I predict that it will give the Pistons a small boost in the regular season, perhaps even enough to take the division/have the best record in the conference, but will not change their overall playoff fate.
Chris Webber will have little or nothing to do with this team in the long run. He's already pretty old and his numbers have been declining for several years. He's good for 2-3 more years of 16 points and 8 boards a game, plus blocks. If Maxiell pans out, he'll probably have similar numbers, but of course with a greater upside and the potential for another decade of impact. Webber is here now for front court depth, a tool that's served the Pistons extremely well the past few seasons. He's probably expecting to play the rest of his career in Detroit, and hoping to win a championship while he's at it. Will he be content to do so playing less than 30 minutes a game? For his sake I hope so, since that's clearly the Pistons' best use for him.
The reason I think Webber will provide a regular season boost is that a) he'll give the Pistons a couple of extra boards per game (say what you will about the East, but it IS the stronger rebounding conference, and it will aid the Pistons to be deeper up front); b) he'll take some pressure off Rasheed, which should keep his legs fresher and potentially help his shooting; and c) the depth that he provides will make it difficult or impossible for lousy, bottom-dwelling teams with no decent big men (of which there are no shortage in the East!) to avoid getting rolled over late in games. Thus, the win column should be padded a bit.
But what will his presence mean in the playoffs? Less. Though he can score, he's not the rebounder or the defender that Ben Wallace was. I believe that Shaq will have a huge impact when he returns, really, and that the Heat will almost certainly run away with the Southeast. The Pistons could easily face them in the conference finals, and if so they'd have no answer for Shaq. Webber couldn't guard him; they'd have to give lots of minutes to Dale Davis, probably, who's stagnant othrwise. Perhaps Webber would match up well against, say, Dwight Howard, and that could matter somewhat, but all in all he provides mostly short-term solutions.
BTW, looking forward to your Cavs/Warriors preview. Could be close, since the Cavs will be playing their fourth road game in five days!
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