If I were CD I'd dance around the Compaq center. ------------------ Ceo of the Walt Williams and Lisa Malosky fan club. atheistalliance.org
... That would still be a very competitive team, age wise. Webber beggining decline, others in the midst and approaching allstar contention. Which would prove my point about it leading to in effect a team flexible enough to easily rebuild. ------------------ ...The OTHER Dark Meat [This message has been edited by Silk (edited July 12, 2001).]
I don't by the peaking argument. During our two championship runs we had a rookie (Cassell) and a young guy (Horry) who played pretty big roles. CWebb gives us a legit superstar big man coming into his prime 28-32 years old. Malone is a good example of a PF who has been very productive beyond those peak years. I'm not sure MoT will ever develop into the player you're hoping for...Juwan H is a comparison someone used in another thread. We won't be mortgaging our future on CWebb...we'll be upgrading from Hakeem's contract and 38-year old game to CWebb's. Sounds like a solid business/team move to me. If we can sign Hakeem cheaply or a young center this year or next (LaF) then we'd have a great team capable of competing in the play-offs. ------------------
Duncan is not a free agent. What do you mean? Silk - Kingrene has a next to his remark. I though it was funny and I certainly understood that it was a joke. ------------------ God help me, ...I was only nineteen. Current Rocket's Salary & Contract Info
Malone is actually the only example. He is an anomaly. The guy's missed like 5 games in 16-17 years. ------------------ "I guess that's YOUR theory"
Malone may be the *most* productive, but he was far from being the *only*. Rodman was pulling down 15-19 rpg each of his last 7 years until he quit at age 37. Clifford Robinson is showing no signs of slowing at age 33 or 34 with 18.5 ppg and 16.4. Anthony Mason had one of his *best* years at age 34 with a 16/9.6 performance. Antonio Davis just had his best yr ever at 32. Kevin Willis was 17/10 at age 33 and productive afterwards. Dale Davis is 32 and showing no signs of stopping, simply being forced to share time with Rasheed Wallace. I don't think Shark said "as productive" as age 28-32, just productive as a starter. How far back in time are we going? Surely there are plenty of examples, at least as much as any position other than center (which I'm confident shows the most old-age productivity).
crispee -- what do those guys all have in common? They played minimal minutes early in their careers (except maybe Willis). I'm also sure they probably started their careers (age-wise) later than Webber. My opinion is that those guys had minimal wear and tear on their bodies early on, and are now excelling with the increased roles/playing time at a later age. Webber isn't a conditioning freak like a lot of those guys either. ------------------ "I guess that's YOUR theory"
Davo, In my opinion, Dunc who was a FA last year and will be in 2 years is the closest "big man" FA worth max besides CWebb. Freak, As Crisp laid out, there are plenty of guys who can still ball well into their 30's. I think we'd be getting CWebb at the perfect time...past his growth stage, into his peak physical and awareness stage of his career. I'm not in love with the guy, I just think he is our best chance to get to the next level sooner rather than later...and he'll be productive for at least 4-5 years. ------------------
I think we should definitely go for Webber this year. Last year we weren't in the Taylor running until things started to fall apart in the Seattle trade, so we have the cap, therefore we are still in the running for Webb. If we sign Webber , then Taylor will most likely sign with Sac-town. And if Webb doesn't work out, we could always trade him back. But I have a feeling that won't happen. I know some people bring up chemistry, but good chemistry comes when we start gelling and winning games. Webb's biggest concern with Houston would be the decline of Dream and who would replace him. But thats got to be just as big of a prob. with Divac in Sac. If ya'll didn't notice in the playoffs, all the teams that went far were the teams that had all-stars, if not superstars as their front court players. So while we do have an excellent back court, we still need some pretty good front court players to balance our attack. ------------------
