According to Vescey; Webber could be traded to Indiana...

Milos: "Drafting Loren Woods makes perfect sense, b/c he's from the same mold of underachievers."

Ouch! You gotta think that the Rockets are looking for a warrior: Shane Battier-- he's a spot-up 3 shooter and the best individual and team defender in years.

Read the article in the new SI about Battier, Griffin, Haywood and others. It's very interesting.

Battier's weaknesses are NOT things we really need, i.e. the ability to create his own shot off the dribble. Francis, Mobeley, MoT, and (even) Hakeem can get that done. We need the guy to drain the 3 and play D.

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"How far you go in life depends on you being tender with the young, compassionate with the aged, sympathetic with the striving and tolerant of the weak. Because someday you will have been all of these."

 

If Webber really is leaving, Sactown should do that deal in a heartbeat. They get a potential All-Star C, as well as Croshere and Harrington, they get to unload headache JWill, and bring in that vastly underrated Best as his replacement. Look at this lineup:

C-Divac
PF-O'neal/Pollard
SF-Peja/Croshere/McKey
SG-Christie/Harrington/Turkoglu
PG-Best/Jackson

Not only are their starters decent, but that bench would be the best in the league. If that deal happened, I wouldn't be surprised if they did just as well w/o Webber.

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Webber is hugely over-rated... unless he comes here, of course.

No, I mean it. It would be great to have him in a Rockets uniform but at what cost?

That's the sticking point. I can certainly live without him.

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"How far you go in life depends on you being tender with the young, compassionate with the aged, sympathetic with the striving and tolerant of the weak. Because someday you will have been all of these."

 

I agree Rich that Webber is not in the same class as Duncan, Garnett, etc. Still, it is impossible to contend in the West with softies MoT and Cato in the middle. Drafting Loren Woods makes perfect sense, b/c he's from the same mold of underachievers. If we can sign Webber, it would be a huge upgrade over MoT, and Woods could be very effective as a shotblocker with someone like CWebb helping out inside.

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http://www.starnews.com/print/articles/krav24.html

Would Chris Webber help? Of course. But not at the expense of trading Jermaine O'Neal. "If they want O'Neal," Walsh said, "that would be a deal breaker."

I guess this kind of contradicts Vescey's report.

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I would also love to see Battier in a Rocks uniform next year, as I have posted many times in other forums. But I mentioned Woods b/c I have a feeling that is who we will end up with if we stay at 13.

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Webber is great but I think he will look elsewhere. That then gives Taylor to develop with Francis and Mobley. Taylor is cheaper and will provide what the Rockets will be needing except for the rebounds. Because of this, the Rockets are going to take a center in the draft and use the money to try to tempt Hakeem to stay or to lure another free agent(Jackson). The Rockets aren't far from the playoffs and will be a great team if they spend their money on more than just one player. Cato is gone which also makes me believe we will go big in the draft.

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Stevierebel