http://sports.espn.go.com/nba/dailydime?page=dailydime_070113-14
SPECIAL WEEKEND EDITION Where will Webber wind up?By Marc Stein
ESPN.com
Editor's note: ESPN.com senior NBA writer Marc Stein supplies each item for this around-the-league notebook edition of the Daily Dime.
Chris Webber will soon be a Detroit Piston.
Just as he always dreamed.
Unless ...
Phil Jackson or Pat Riley or Isiah Thomas can somehow talk him out of it.
Amid a growing belief that the NBA's hottest free agent will be unable to resist the prospect of playing for his hometown team, Webber was planning to speak directly Friday to the Lakers, Heat and Knicks. Maybe Minnesota as well.
Orlando is another team he's listening to, according to NBA front-office sources, although Webber has not wavered from his stated desire to join a title contender that will give him the chance to start.
The Pistons thus remain an overwhelming favorite, but neither Detroit's pole position nor external skepticism about how much game the 33-year-old has left seems to be discouraging suitors.
The Webber Landscape as of Friday afternoon, with no firm decision expected before Saturday according to agent Aaron Goodwin:
DETROIT PISTONS
Webber wants to play significant minutes, compete for a title and resuscitate his career before re-entering the free-agent market in July. The Pistons are widely considered his clear-cut top choice because they potentially offer all of that and something bigger that Webber can find nowhere else. The chance, namely, to rebuild his relationship with the community that watched him grow up.
Webber is well removed from his days as a local icon and openly shunned by the university where he became a famous name. I'm told he badly wants to reconnect with Detroit at large and sees this opportunity -- helping a splintering team regain their standing as an East beast -- as a golden opportunity, in spite of any initial public resistance he gets and the Pistons' less-than-harmonious mood lately.
LOS ANGELES LAKERS
You surely heard Webber in his TNT interview. He barely mentioned the Pistons and sounded more excited about playing for the Lakers than anyone else. Kobe Bryant has already called to make his pitch, sources say, and Webber is admittedly mesmerized by the bright lights of David Beckham's town as well as Jackson's triangle offense.
Since Webber can't actually sign with the Pistons or anyone else until Tuesday, restricted to verbal commitments between now and then, Jackson might have enough time to convince the ex-King that he'd be better off returning to California, scene of his greatest pro successes.
The Lakers, furthermore, have a need for Webber now and later, with Lamar Odom and Kwame Brown injured at present and a squad short on playoff experience, Bryant aside, even when their starting big men are healthy.
FLORIDA
The Heat have some interest and the wherewithal to outbid Detroit and L.A., teams that can only offer Webber a pro-rated share of the veteran minimum ($1.2 million) for the rest of the season. Yet as covered in Box 6, you question how much playing time Miami can really promise Webber if Shaquille O'Neal will indeed be back this month to rejoin a frontcourt rotation that already features Alonzo Mourinng and Udonis Haslem.
Orlando would seem to be the better Florida fit, with Webber and Dwight Howard sharing Goodwin as an agent and with the Magic looking even younger and greener than the Lakers apart from Grant Hill. But the Magic, sources say, remain a serious long shot, even though the Howard connection is strong, because Webber targeted the league's elite teams from the start.
TEXAS
The Mavericks and Spurs were prominent on Webber's initial five-team wish list. But Dallas never had the minutes to be a top contender, canceling out any edge Mavs coach Avery Johnson had after playing with Webber in Golden State.
Spurs coach Gregg Popovich, meanwhile, also has a Warriors link to Webber, as a former Don Nelson assistant in the Bay Area. Yet Pop's Spurs made the call fairly quickly that they wouldn't pursue this, keeping faith with the big men and combo forwards who play alongside Tim Duncan -- Fabricio Oberto, Francisco Elson, Robert Horry and Matt Bonner -- and preferring to focus on its ongoing search for a jolt of youth and athleticism at the swing positions.
THE FIELD
• Webber and Isiah Thomas have been tight for years, but you suspect even Thomas realizes that Webber will field the Knicks' proposal purely out of respect for one of his boyhood heroes.
• Kevin Garnett wants Webber in Minnesota, so Kevin McHale is obligated to pursue it, but that won't go any farther than a Webber-McHale chat.
• The Cavaliers could seemingly use a big man with an eye for the pass, but decided early that they have no room in their frontcourt.
• The Nets, by contrast, do want Webber to give them a look, but face two obstacles:
1. After trading Jeff McInnis to get under the luxury-tax line last week, New Jersey doesn't want to use any of the $3.8 million it has available from its midlevel salary-cap exception because it'll be a tax team again if it spends more than $1 million.
2. Orlando is the only new team on Webber's list, sources say, getting any serious consideration.
SPECIAL WEEKEND EDITION Where will Webber wind up?By Marc Stein
ESPN.com
Editor's note: ESPN.com senior NBA writer Marc Stein supplies each item for this around-the-league notebook edition of the Daily Dime.
Chris Webber will soon be a Detroit Piston.
Just as he always dreamed.
Unless ...
Phil Jackson or Pat Riley or Isiah Thomas can somehow talk him out of it.
Amid a growing belief that the NBA's hottest free agent will be unable to resist the prospect of playing for his hometown team, Webber was planning to speak directly Friday to the Lakers, Heat and Knicks. Maybe Minnesota as well.
Orlando is another team he's listening to, according to NBA front-office sources, although Webber has not wavered from his stated desire to join a title contender that will give him the chance to start.
The Pistons thus remain an overwhelming favorite, but neither Detroit's pole position nor external skepticism about how much game the 33-year-old has left seems to be discouraging suitors.
The Webber Landscape as of Friday afternoon, with no firm decision expected before Saturday according to agent Aaron Goodwin:
DETROIT PISTONS
Webber wants to play significant minutes, compete for a title and resuscitate his career before re-entering the free-agent market in July. The Pistons are widely considered his clear-cut top choice because they potentially offer all of that and something bigger that Webber can find nowhere else. The chance, namely, to rebuild his relationship with the community that watched him grow up.
Webber is well removed from his days as a local icon and openly shunned by the university where he became a famous name. I'm told he badly wants to reconnect with Detroit at large and sees this opportunity -- helping a splintering team regain their standing as an East beast -- as a golden opportunity, in spite of any initial public resistance he gets and the Pistons' less-than-harmonious mood lately.
LOS ANGELES LAKERS
You surely heard Webber in his TNT interview. He barely mentioned the Pistons and sounded more excited about playing for the Lakers than anyone else. Kobe Bryant has already called to make his pitch, sources say, and Webber is admittedly mesmerized by the bright lights of David Beckham's town as well as Jackson's triangle offense.
Since Webber can't actually sign with the Pistons or anyone else until Tuesday, restricted to verbal commitments between now and then, Jackson might have enough time to convince the ex-King that he'd be better off returning to California, scene of his greatest pro successes.
The Lakers, furthermore, have a need for Webber now and later, with Lamar Odom and Kwame Brown injured at present and a squad short on playoff experience, Bryant aside, even when their starting big men are healthy.
FLORIDA
The Heat have some interest and the wherewithal to outbid Detroit and L.A., teams that can only offer Webber a pro-rated share of the veteran minimum ($1.2 million) for the rest of the season. Yet as covered in Box 6, you question how much playing time Miami can really promise Webber if Shaquille O'Neal will indeed be back this month to rejoin a frontcourt rotation that already features Alonzo Mourinng and Udonis Haslem.
Orlando would seem to be the better Florida fit, with Webber and Dwight Howard sharing Goodwin as an agent and with the Magic looking even younger and greener than the Lakers apart from Grant Hill. But the Magic, sources say, remain a serious long shot, even though the Howard connection is strong, because Webber targeted the league's elite teams from the start.
TEXAS
The Mavericks and Spurs were prominent on Webber's initial five-team wish list. But Dallas never had the minutes to be a top contender, canceling out any edge Mavs coach Avery Johnson had after playing with Webber in Golden State.
Spurs coach Gregg Popovich, meanwhile, also has a Warriors link to Webber, as a former Don Nelson assistant in the Bay Area. Yet Pop's Spurs made the call fairly quickly that they wouldn't pursue this, keeping faith with the big men and combo forwards who play alongside Tim Duncan -- Fabricio Oberto, Francisco Elson, Robert Horry and Matt Bonner -- and preferring to focus on its ongoing search for a jolt of youth and athleticism at the swing positions.
THE FIELD
• Webber and Isiah Thomas have been tight for years, but you suspect even Thomas realizes that Webber will field the Knicks' proposal purely out of respect for one of his boyhood heroes.
• Kevin Garnett wants Webber in Minnesota, so Kevin McHale is obligated to pursue it, but that won't go any farther than a Webber-McHale chat.
• The Cavaliers could seemingly use a big man with an eye for the pass, but decided early that they have no room in their frontcourt.
• The Nets, by contrast, do want Webber to give them a look, but face two obstacles:
1. After trading Jeff McInnis to get under the luxury-tax line last week, New Jersey doesn't want to use any of the $3.8 million it has available from its midlevel salary-cap exception because it'll be a tax team again if it spends more than $1 million.
2. Orlando is the only new team on Webber's list, sources say, getting any serious consideration.
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