Kawakami: Warriors desperately seeking Webber
By Tim Kawakami
Mercury News Staff Columnist
Article Launched: 01/28/2008 02:07:22 AM PST
Don Nelson wants Chris Webber back in his arms again, and he doesn't care who knows it.
Actually, Nelson does care: He's desperate for everybody to know how much he craves a reunion with Webber 14 years after their blow-up, desperate to tell us that the Warriors' current roster isn't good enough and desperate for all Warriors fans to see how desperate he is.
"I just hope that it happens, to be honest with you," Nelson said Sunday before the Warriors' sloppy 106-104 victory over the New York Knicks. "I think our team needs it."
It's classic Nellie: So many messages communicated so cagily to so many people.
And, hey, if it creates and illuminates a tiny philosophical tug of war with Warriors chief Chris Mullin, who is more serene about the Warriors' current state, that's all the better from Nelson's end.
Nelson likes creative tension. He loves being the high-profile underdog. He's a premier puppet master, and Mullin, owner Chris Cohan and everybody in the league knew this before Nelson came back to the Warriors last season.
So now's the time for a probable Nelson-Webber unification. Which is perfect.
It's dramatic, it's stunning, it's tricky, it puts Nelson in the best light possible, it keeps everyone else off-balance, and it continues to cast Nelson as the eternal, clever, clamoring underdog.
It's also unquestionably ridiculous - limping, cranky 34-year-old Webber fits the Warriors' stampede style about as easily as Nelson fits into leotards.
It won't work. It can't work. Even if the Warriors view this as a cheap, three-month rental - which they do - it's too risky. Even if they think they can hit the eject button at the first sign of Webber grumbling - which they do - this is too desperate.
But it's perfect for Nelson. Give him credit for the gambit and understand that Nelson has coached and manipulated this way for decades.
Don, aren't you worried about another meltdown if you bring him back?
"I'm not afraid of that at all," Nelson said. "I'm afraid if we don't get him here, our team's not strong enough to be a playoff team."
That's the big message. Nelson is more afraid of the status quo (the Warriors are pretty good, with rising expectations but obvious flaws) than he is of an inevitable Webber Feud Redux.
Again, classic Nellie. He's an incredible coach because he's always looking for angles, which makes him so tough to endure for opponents and allies alike.
If Webber signs and plays well, Nelson wins, because that will prove he was wise to instigate this acquisition.
If Webber signs and doesn't play well, Nelson still wins, because, hey, Nelson forgave the prodigal Warrior and the prodigal Warrior forgave him, and that's something, right?
Either way, he makes his larger point about the need for help and his coaching magic.
Earlier in the day, I asked Nelson why the Warriors were so desperate for a big man like Webber.
"Have you looked at my roster?" Nelson challenged.
What about Brandan Wright?
"He's a rookie," Nelson said. "He's not ready. You know that. Take a look at my roster and you decide . . .
"I think you need to look deeply at that roster. Look at our schedule, when we start playing the West. Are we going to be strong enough? You don't think that's a concern to everybody?"
He has a point. Nelson always has a point. He won't play Wright. He gets frustrated with Al Harrington. He can't get any offense out of Andris Biedrins. He gets no reliable playmaking out of anybody except Baron Davis.
Webber can pass. He can sit on the high post and find cutters and give Davis a bit of a break. He can back up Biedrins and Harrington or start for either.
In addition, Webber can possibly bump shoulders with Tim Duncan, Yao Ming and Carlos Boozer. But wasn't that the whole problem between Nelson and Webber the first time around?
Yes, it was. This can't work. And Webber can't possibly keep up with the Warriors' fast break or shoot threes or do many of the things Harrington already is doing.
Even Nelson conceded that the Warriors wouldn't be looking for a ton of defense out of Webber - "that's not going to make us any worse, for sure," Nelson cracked.
Nelson just wants Webber because he wants somebody, anybody, and he wants us to know how much he wants that.
Webber's there and now Webber's irresistible. Webber apparently feels it, too.
Can it work after everything that happened the last time around between you two lugs?
"I think we've both matured nicely since that day," Nelson said.
No, actually, it's the exact opposite: We'll soon see about Webber, but Nelson hasn't changed at all, not a bit. That's his charm, his brilliance, his addiction and his utter predictability.
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