Tag Archive for 'Chris Webber'

Halftime inspiration: Joe, Flip or McDyess?

Published by Matt Watson on April 28, 2008 in 2008 Playoffs, 76ers and From the news. 41 Comments

I didn’t see Chris Webber’s comments on TNT at halftime, but I certainly heard about them. Fortunately, The Starting Five has the transcript (via PistonsNation):

Webber on the lack of intensity by the Detroit Pistons: “(The Pistons) are really nonchalant and that’s why I felt we lost last year (in the Eastern Conference Finals). It sounds crazy, but they could care less. That locker room is crazy, disciplined and unruly. Disciplined because they police themselves, they are all veterans, they know they’ve got to be in bed, they know they’ve got to work hard, I’m not talking about on the court. They come from a coach like Larry Brown, they look at him like the epitome of basketball, and they feel they can wait until the last game or the championship and they won’t lose. I’m not saying it’s right, but that’s how it is.”

Webber on the feeling in the locker room during halftime: “No disrespect to Flip (Saunders), but it doesn’t matter what Flip says, because they take on the personality of Joe Dumars. Rip (Hamilton), Chauncey (Billups), Tayshaun Prince, Rasheed (Wallace) and (Antonio) McDyess are very mad right now, they probably aren’t even talking and they are probably just saying, ‘ok we’re going to go win this game.”

Webber: “Joe will come down to the locker room and tell everybody I don’t know what you think you’re doing, I’ll trade everybody.”

The idea of Dumars addressing the team at halftime seemed surprising (if not laughable) to me, and Chris McCosky of the Detroit News agrees:

[Webber] was asked what Saunders might be saying at halftime and he said something like, whatever Flip says won’t matter, intimating that the players don’t listen to him. Charles Barkley, bless him, challenged Webber on the statement and Webber backtracked a bit saying that it would be Joe Dumars in that locker room talking to the players. Wrong, wrong, wrong. Dumars talks to the players all the time, but never during a game, at halftime or immediately following a game. If he has issues with what Flip is doing, which he has in the past, he will talk directly to Flip. But he would never interfere with the coaching of a game.

I had to laugh afterwards when I say Rip Hamilton interviewed on TNT, and he was asked if Dumars talked at halftime. “Not at all,” Rip said. Then, I caught the very last segment of the studio show and Webber was in complete back-peddle mode. He said what he was trying to say is that the Pistons are a veteran team and they police themselves.

That’s true, but that’s not what he was saying at first. He was getting his licks in on a coach he didn’t like.

So what did Saunders say at halftime? From ESPN’s Chris Sheridan:

When it came time to save his job, and that’s pretty much what the situation boiled down to in the moments after the Detroit Pistons exited the court at halftime trailing by 10 points, coach Flip Saunders ripped into every single member of the team — except one.

“I told them: I looked at us playing in the first half, and we’ve got Antonio McDyess, who got operated on yesterday in Detroit, flew back and was throwing up all night, and he’s competing harder than anybody,” Saunders said.

“I said: ‘That should show you how bad he wants it, and we all should look at what he’s doing, and we’ve all got to be willing to make the same sacrifices.’”

Chris Webber retires

Published by Matt Watson on March 26, 2008 in Alley-Oops. 18 Comments

Chris Webber has announced his retirement, ending his nine-game “comeback” with the Warriors. Reactions: Simon on Sports, Golden State of Mind, Keith Langlois.

Chris Webber’s homecoming: Golden State edition

Published by Matt Watson on January 28, 2008 in From the news. 8 Comments

Most of you know this by now, but it looks like Pistons fans can finally shelve the “Chris Webber, yea or nay?” debate. From ESPN’s Marc Stein:

Barring an unexpected change of heart, sources said, Webber will accept the invitation from former coach Don Nelson and former teammate Chris Mullin to come back to the team with whom he won NBA Rookie of the Year honors in 1994, only for Webber to force a trade to Washington some six months later when his prickly relationship with Nelson collapsed.

“I hope that it happens to be quite honest with you,” Nelson told Bay Area reporters Sunday before the Warriors hosted the New York Knicks. “I think our team needs it.” […]

“I’ve learned over the years,” Nelson said Sunday night. “I’ve softened a bit through some of the experiences I’ve had. I look back at the time when Chris and I were here early in our careers. We were both pretty stubborn and I was maybe too tough and he was too young to see the positives I was trying to bring to the table. I’ve learned and I think he has, too. Hey, I’m an old man and he’s an old player.”

The difference being, though, that coaches tend to get better with age, whereas players just get slow. But still, I’m happy that Webber found his team, and I’m even happier he found it out west.

Dumars is in touch with Webber

Published by Matt Watson on January 21, 2008 in Rumors. 39 Comments

[Update: Dumars spoke again today, check the bottom of this post …]

From the Detroit News:

“I have had an exchange (verbal) with Chris within the last 24 hours and I’ve been in constant communication with his agent (Aaron Goodwin),” Pistons president Joe Dumars said. “But the one thing that hasn’t changed is that we still have a 15-man roster, and that poses a problem as far as bringing him here.”

Dumars said it was not his intention to buy out the contracts of either Flip Murray or Primoz Brezec. So, unless a trade can be made, Webber is going to remain on the outside.

We’ve had variations of the Chris Webber debate several times over on this site, so feel free to skip the “should we?” opinions and focus on the “will we?” speculation in the comments. (Or not, the comments are your domain, feel free to re-hash to no end if that’s your thing. I’m just saying that the point of this post isn’t to open that can of worms, just to pass along the latest info.)

At first my gut feeling was, “well, if he’s in constant communication with Goodwin and is even taking calls from Webber, something must be cooking.” But the more I think about it, I’m not so sure. Yes, Murray and Brezec have expiring contracts, but those are just as valuable to Detroit as any other team.

I’ve kind of held a simplistic view that as soon as a team offered a pair of second-round picks, Murray would be out the door. But who’d make that deal? Not a team looking for cap relief (duh, you only get cap relief by dumping a bad contract, not trading picks that don’t actually cost anything), and probably not an actual contender (since Dumars most likely wouldn’t trade with an Eastern team and nobody in the West seems to be interested). I suppose Brezec has a touch more value simply because of his size/position, but it’s basically the same conundrum.

Since moving either player individually without getting an actual player back in return seems surprisingly difficult, I think the most likely scenario to open a spot is a 2-for-1 in which Detroit trades Murray and Brezec. But that’s more difficult than it sounds. The only teams who’d jump at that deal would be those looking to dump a long contract, but it doesn’t make sense for Detroit to take on a bad contract just to clear a spot as opposed to just buying out a deal.

The best-case (and least likely) scenario is Dumars pulling a 2-for-1 while duping a team into giving up a quality player with a respectable contract. (Murray and Brezec combine to make $4.64 million, and there are plenty of useful individual players at that pay grade.) Maybe it could happen — Dumars is a shark — but it’d take a team really, really desperate to clear room under the salary cap this summer to make it happen.

Or, maybe Dumars actually is willing to buyout one of those two guys at the last second and is merely putting on a front to encourage more trade offers. In hindsight, that’s probably the most likely option, which means I probably should have just pasted his quote and not wasted any time speculating any other possibilities.

Update: A. Sherrod Blakely spoke with Joe Dumars today (1/21):

“I had dialogue with Chris this afternoon,” Dumars said. “And what I expressed to him, is that we do not have a roster spot open. That has not changed. And if we were to have a roster spot open, we’d still have to have a conversation about role, minutes … and all those things.”

Dumars later added, “that situation hasn’t changed. It’s the same as it was a month ago, two months ago … it’s the same situation.”

For a guy who keeps saying the situation “hasn’t changed,” Dumars sure spends a lot of time chatting with C-Webb.

The game has been cruel to C-Webb

Published by Matt Watson on January 16, 2008 in Alley-Oops. 0 Comments

Tom Ziller has an excellent, excellent column at BallHype on the snakebit career of Chris Webber. Update: Also, my HOOPSWORLD article on Webber’s most likely destinations.

C-Webb: “I’ll be back in two weeks”

Published by Matt Watson on January 14, 2008 in Around the Internets. 56 Comments

Chris Webber is returning to the NBA … soon. Not necessarily to the Pistons, but from the sounds of things he’ll be signing an NBA contract this week. From an interview with a Sacramento TV station this weekend (via TZ at FanHouse):

But in an exclusive interview Sunday, Webber told News10’s Bryan May that he will sign with a new club and be back on the court in a matter of days.

“I’ll be back in two weeks playing basketball,” Webber said.

Webber said he hadn’t made any firm decision on where he would resume his NBA career, but the 16-year veteran said he had fielded offers from several NBA clubs and had narrowed his choices down to three teams. Webber declined to name the teams he was considering.

(You can allegedly access the video the full interview on the TV’s station’s web site, but I can’t get it to work.) What three teams might be interested? I’m thinking Detroit has to be one of them, although a roster spot would have to be cleared for it to happen. At FanHouse, Ziller also mentioned Dallas (which courted C-Webb hard this summer), Boston and Los Angeles. In other words, arguably the top four teams in the league. I’d throw the Magic into the mix, especially since they’re 1-5 in their last six and might be panicking.

Stay tuned.

Chris Webber still wants to play, prefers Detroit

Published by Matt Watson on December 21, 2007 in Rumors. 52 Comments

From J.A. Adande at ESPN (hat-tip: Fel):

Fourteen-year veteran Chris Webber is close to returning to the NBA, with the Pistons his likely destination, a source close to Webber told ESPN.com.

“Look for him to be back the first week of January,” the source said.

The Boston Celtics, Miami Heat and Los Angeles Lakers had also inquired about Webber’s services, with the Heat intensifying their efforts after backup center Alonzo Mourning suffered an apparent season-ending injury to his patellar tendon in a game at Atlanta Wednesday night. But for Webber, a Michigan native, his familiarity with the Pistons players and coach Flip Saunders’ system after playing there last season appears to make them the most desirable team.

I have absolutely no idea if the Pistons even want him (update: they don’t — see below), but they certainly made it easy to create a roster spot by breaking Nazr’s contract into two, easily digestible pieces via the Charlotte trade. There’s no way Webber would return as a starter, and there’s no way he’d be signed to take away minutes from Jason Maxiell. It’s been suggested in the comments that he could fill Nazr’s role as a little-used backup C, but that’s what Primoz Brezec is here for, right? Not saying the Pistons are married to the idea of keeping and/or actually playing Brezec, but when I look at this roster, I don’t automatically think, “this team could use another veteran big.”

What do I see when I look at the roster? Like I mentioned in the last post, I see a handful of expiring contracts that could be used in a larger deal. Adding Webber to the mix (especially as a little-used reserve/mentor) makes a potential trade that much more difficult to swing. If he ever returns to the Pistons, I’m guessing it won’t be until much, much closer to the trade deadline when Joe Dumars has more time to see what other options are available.

So what do we make of this report? I’m guessing it’s strictly P.R. from Webber’s camp, indirectly reminding the league that he’s available and willing to latch on somewhere for the remaining two-thirds of the season. Mourning’s injury in Miami makes for good timing to make it look like he’s in demand, but I highly doubt he’d jump on board that sinking ship.

Update: Chris McCosky received confirmation that Detroit wasn’t interested:

ESPN.com’s J.A. Adande, citing an unnamed source, is reporting that Chris Webber could return to the Pistons as early as January. President Joe Dumars told me tonight that was not true. In fact, Dumars has told Webber’s representatives this week that he is content with the roster as it is and has no immediate intentions of changing it.