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Can the Kings count

on Webber?

by Terry Brown

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Also Below: Payton still waiting for new contract | Peep Show

NBA Insider Chad Ford is off for the next two weeks. He'll return on Tuesday, Oct. 1

Now you C Webb, then you don't.

Chris Webber may or may not be found guilty of lying to a grand jury and he may or may not serve time for the offense and the league may or may not suspend the all-star for his alleged involvement in gambling, money laundering and, in his own words, extortion.

The only thing we know, thus far, though is that Webber will not play a full season for the Kings.

In fact, he has never played more than 76 games in the regular season and that was back when he was a rookie. Overall, he has missed 177 games in nine seasons, three times missing more than a third of the season. That's an average of 20 games per year and growing. In 2000, he missed seven. In 2001, he missed 12. In 2002, he missed 28 games due to various injuries and illnesses, including the entire month of November.

But the Kings keep winning.

They went 19-9 without Webber in the lineup last season, winning 67 percent of their games. Stretch that into an 82-game span and the Kings would have won 55 games during the regular season and had home-court advantage in the first round of the playoffs.

Webber may have finished the season as the team's leading scorer at 24.5 points per game, but you would have never guessed it during his absence. Not a single King boosted his own numbers by more than a three-point shot the whole time he was gone yet the team's margin of victory was actually greater.

Peja Stojakovic went from 21.2 points per game in the season to 23.3 in November while Vlade Divac went from 11.1 to 12.8. Mike Bibby averaged 13.7 during the regular season and 16 during November and Lawrence Funderburke went from 4.7 to 6.8. Doug Christe, Hedo Turkoglu, Scot Pollard and Bobby Jackson all contributed less than a bucket more.

But during that month of November, the Kings defeated their opponents by an even nine points per game while on the regular season as a whole, they won by an average of 7.6. Sacramento went 12-4 on the month, including a 7-3 mark against eventual playoff teams. The Kings defeated the Lakers, 97-91, in a game that Shaq and Kobe combined for 54 points, 22 rebounds, 8 assists, 5 blocks and 2 steals before Webber ever played his first game of the season.

Each of these key players averaged a couple more minutes, shot the ball one more time and usually made it. Together, they held opponents to five fewer points per game than normal.

And that was without the recently signed Keon Clark, who averaged 11.3 points and 7.4 rebounds per game while shooting 49 percent from the field in 27 minutes as a back up big man for the Raptors.

It was Stojakovic that the Kings were missing dearly during the Western Conference Finals. It was Bibby hitting big shot after big shot. It was Divac sticking his neck out in the press so that the younger players on his team could keep their heads about them during the game.

Statistics and scribblings on dry erase boards have been satisfied. The physical requirements have been met by these Kings.

But one month, one playoff sequence, do not a team make. And as this very good one stands on the verge of greatness, it is its best player who remains a mystery, another injury being the least of the Kings' collective worries as character issues come into play.

Inner demons trump high-ankle sprains every time.

And it isn't so much when Webber returns to a team he has actually yet to leave. But how.

He is the one player on the Kings who could make them fulfill their potential and the one who could very well keep them from it. And only the 6-foot-10 forward from Michigan knows that answer.

C Webb or not C Webb?

That is the question.

Payton still waiting for new contract

If at first you don't succeed, have your agent meet with the Sonics the next day and try, try again.

"We want to get something done this week," said Sonics coach Nate McMillan on the culminating negotiations with Rashard Lewis involving his agent Carl Poston. "And I think it will get done here in a day or two."

The seven-year, $60 million part has been settled. The $15 million in incentives and fifth-year out clause have not, reports the Seattle Times. As a result, Seattle will pay a luxury tax in order to remain competitive and Lewis acknowledges that $90 million at 16.8 points per game conflicts with franchise integrity.

"We're optimistic things are moving in the right direction," said Sonics CEO and president Wally Walker.

But who's going to tell that to Gary Payton?

The franchise player is insisting on an extension on his current contract that will pay him more than $13 million per season. The franchise is insisting that it will not pay any player that amount of money and wants to re-sign Payton to a new contract, instead, when this one runs out at the end of this season.

"Many great players have re-signed with their franchises after their contracts have expired," Walker told the Seattle Post-Intelligencer. "But everyone's recollection here is that few, if any, players with that length of experience have gotten extensions before the contract expires."

Aaron Goodwin, Payton's agent, argues that if his client's productivity hasn't declined, then neither should his compensation.

Last time, Payton used Reggie Miller and Karl Malone as examples of franchise players who were rewarded for their career-long contributions with big deals latter in their career. This time, the Sonics are, since both of those players, along with John Stockton and David Robinson, waited until their contracts expired and then signed completely new ones based on re-evaluations.

"Is he hurt?" Goodwin asked. "Yes, he's hurt and he's hurt that he hasn't been taken care of for the future. He's hurt that he's heard talk of Jason Kidd coming in. He's hurt that the team hasn't done what it can to give him security. But you know what he is? He's a professional. A trouper. He'll continue to march on."

As one Seattle columnist explains, the Sonics are "more guilty of procrastination than parsimony."

Sonics play waiting game with Lewis deal

Jayda Evans / Seattle Times

Lewis close to re-signing

Danny O'Neil / Seattle Post-Intelligencer

Payton's contract unresolved

Danny O'Neil / Seattle Post-Intelligencer

Sonics woefully late in showing The Glove his deserved love

Dave Boling / Tacoma News Tribune

Lewis, Sonics talk but no agreement yet

Don Ruiz / Tacoma News Tribune

Peep Show

Wizards: On second thought, maybe Patrick Ewing isn't done playing. "If [Wizards owner Abe] Pollin came to me and said, 'Here's a 10-day [contract]' I'm not going to turn that down," said Ewing, who became an assistant coach for Washington after a retirement announcement Tuesday. "I don't want to start looking ahead, because now all of a sudden we start saying 'Is he a player or is he a coach?' And I want his focus to be on coaching," Wizard head coach Doug Collins said. But, "one thing you always have to do in this business is be flexible. One thing I've realized too, is there's no 'nevers.'"

Bulls: Chicago has signed journeyman guards Doug Overton and Rick Brunson to undisclosed contracts in the hope that one of them will be able to back up Jay Williams and Jamal Crawford at point guard. The 6-foot-3 Overton has averaged 4.6 points per game in 10 seasons playing for eight teams, the latest being the Clippers last year. The 6-foot-4 Brunson has averaged 2.4 points per game for three different teams in five years.

Lakers: The defending champs have signed Guy Rucker as insurance for Shaquille O'Neal, who may not recover from toe surgery in time to make the season opener on Oct. 29. Rucker played in Hungary last year.

Pistons: Detroit president Joe Dumars is hinting that his team isn't done dealing despite the fact that it has already traded leading scorer Jerry Stackhouse for youngster Rip Hamilton. "Yeah, it would help if we had one more big guy," he said Wednesday. "It's not training camp yet."

Bulls sign pair of guards

Staff / Chicago Tribune

Bulls try out Overton, Brunson

Phil Jasner / Philadelphia Daily News

Deal eludes Clips center

staff / Los Angeles Daily News

Dumars hints at more moves

Chris McCosky / Detroit News

Ewing's days as player in past ? maybe

Duff Durkin / Washington Times