Would you want C - Webb ?

If Rox could get C-Webb for MoT and Cato (roughly same total contracts for next two years, third year C-Webb more), would you

-- be happy?
--feel too much was given?
--worry his knee would never be good enough?

Or ?

I, for one, unless I could be assured the knee would get much better (no assurances there) would say, 'too much was given'.

 

What is crazy is that this is not a way out there kind of question. I mean, if Webber were healthy OR cheaper then it's a no-brainer. Since he's neither healthy nor cheap, but is, at least a little bit, intriguing, then what, maybe?

 

This Kings' writer doesn't think Webber is going anywhere:

http://www.sacbee.com/content/sports/story/9358204p-10282633c.html

Mark Kreidler: Fire sale by Kings? Not time to panic
By Mark Kreidler -- Bee Sports Columnist
Published 2:15 am PDT Thursday, May 20, 2004
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MINNEAPOLIS - Right, let's take a deep cleansing breath and see if there's any perspective to be had. The Kings:
(a) Lost their putative best player for 58 games because of a serious knee injury and a ludicrous self-inflicted suspension;

(b) Fell from the first seed in the Western Conference to the fourth while trying to get that rehabbing player back into the mix;

(c) Entered the playoffs without the services of the reigning NBA Sixth Man of the Year;

(d) Discovered during the playoffs that their top scorer had suddenly misplaced the broad side of his barn; and

(e) Took the Minnesota Timberwolves to the final tick of the seventh game of the conference semifinal before finally bowing out.

That's probably failure. It's a word, anyway - failure - that you're sure to be hearing around the campus today, as a rabid nation searches for a way to describe the feeling of seeing the Kings bounced from the postseason yet again short of their stated goal, reasonable or not.

But as for a wholesale detonation of the roster, the always-popular Apocalypse Option that surfaces at times like these, not so fast. This isn't a salvage job. Nor should it be.

When Chris Webber's three-pointer went inside the rim before finally hopping back out in the final second of game time here Wednesday night, one of the first emotions was to wonder whether you had finally seen the end of the line with this bunch. People talk about windows closing at this time of year. Vlade Divac, in particular, speaks of the uncertainties of the future. It goes like that.

But this 83-80 defeat, tough as it was for Sacramento to absorb, really felt nothing like the end of nature, nor anything close to it. What it felt like, mostly, was the visiting team losing to the home team in Game 7 of a playoff, which only happens about 83 percent of the time in NBA history.

And on so many levels, most of the talk about blowing the Kings' roster apart is so much hot air. It not only makes no sense, it's wholly implausible on any grand level.

Take this for the good news or the bad, depending upon your mood today: The team you'll see trot onto the floor next fall isn't going to look just entirely different from the one that just got its heart ripped out for the third consecutive spring.

Let's talk about the "core," since it's such a lively term lately. The core of the Kings is remarkably easy to identify, and there isn't one person included in it who's going anywhere.

Mike Bibby, Peja Stojakovic and Brad Miller can all be argued as players who may still be on the upsides of their careers. Bobby Jackson is 30. Darius Songaila is 26. Doug Christie, who was the best player on the floor for Sacramento in the most important game of the season, clearly has plenty left in the tank.

And the whole Webber situation is really worth discussing if only because of the constant chatter around him. Assume for a moment that Webber really does want out of Sacramento. How many NBA teams can you name who are eager to jump into a league-maximum contract (Webber has nearly $80 million remaining over four years) for a player who, by his own admission, still hasn't fully recovered from knee surgery?

(While we're on the subject: Webber was one of the only front-line players who showed up in Game 7. He wasn't brilliant, but he mattered from start to heartbreaking finish. You sure he's the problem here?)

You look to operations president Geoff Petrie in times like these, and his low profile is telling. When Webber threatened not to report when the Kings first traded for him, Petrie quietly bided his time. When Webber threatened to leave a few years later as a free agent, Petrie quietly bided his time.

If Webber at some point decides to make public a desire to strongarm the team into a trade, Petrie undoubtedly will mumble something about the Kings always being open to good deals - and then he'll resume quietly biding his time. He'd rather have a healthy Webber on the floor before he makes any decision that's going to so impact the franchise's future, especially with Divac either stepping out of the picture or agreeing to a bench role.

Not that the Kings have nothing to ponder, of course. They've got to figure out what it is about the playoffs that causes Stojakovic to disappear. They've got to reckon with the reality of Jackson's injury and determine whether he'll ever be that brilliant sixth man he was before.

There are new levels of Stojakovic's game to pursue, new ways to work Miller and Bibby together to torture opponents. The Kings went 55-27 and to Game 7 of the second round with no Jackson and half a Webber and a receding Divac. Not sure that constitutes panic time in the hinterlands.