Keep Webber. And play him

Yes, you read it well. Sixers should keep Chris Webber. And play him.

We are aware that this post could destroy all the credibility of this young blog. But we are not afraid of our thoughts. But, before clicking to another, smarter site, follow us for a while.

We are writing this post after the defeat in Toronto (104-102), and our record dropped to 3-2 now. That’s the typical situation when Sixers fans usually overreact, going from “We’re gonna win the ring !!” (after the first 3 wins) to “We suck, let’s rebuild !!!!” (after these last 2 losses).

Webber is playing bad. Really bad. Maybe the worst basketball of his glorious career. Few minutes, very poor shooting percentages, no defense. Wanna know a funny stat? He shot six free throws in five games. That sucks, right? Yes, no doubt.

He puts no effort, zero intensity and will, which is unacceptable for a Sixer, we know. He’s almost detrimental to the team, actually. He was often benched in the fourth quarters by Mo. Pretty surprising to see, uh?

So everyone is asking to bench him, in the best case, while others think about a trade, even a buy out. But this would be stupid. And even more stupid to do now.

Trade? His trade value today is close to zero. Would you want a 33 year old POWER forward who averages 10 ppg with a ridiculous 34,3 % fg ?????????? No, right? If you were another team’s GM what would you give up for Webber, considering he is owed 20 millions dollars this year, and 22 the next ?????? A dish of spaghetti and a pack of Pepsi, maybe.

(Well, you could actually offer another overpaid, injured, slumping player, but with a worse contract ** cough ** Kenyon Martin ** cough **. We just hope Billy King won’t bite…)

You have heard about “sell high, buy low”. Well, if that works – and it does work – this is the worst moment to (try to) “sell” Webber.

Keep him. Play him. Use him properly.

He can’t go back to his best days, he will never be again the player he was. But he can still play. This team has troubles rebounding the ball. Nothing new, right? But guess who is our best rebounder? The one-legged boy from Michigan. Now, if you take him out, who’s going to bring home those 10 rebounds per game? Stephen Hunter? Shavlik Randolph? Please…

Give him 30 minutes per game, use his passing ability, tell him to post up more instead of jacking up (or airballing, damn !!) those elbow jumpers. Hey, he might be fading but he won’t shoot 34% all year long, hopefully.

In this way, he’s gonna give us a good contribution. Maybe not a 20 pts + 10 reb player but still a good 16 + 9, perhaps. God knows how much we would need that.

Then you could trade him or, as we would prefer, keep him another year and let his contract come off the books, to get finally some cap relief and sign a good free agent.