weird...

[Peter Delevett <pdelevett@sjbj.com>]

I'm sure many of you have seen this, but ESPN is saying Orlando is now the favorite to land Ike Austin. His agent is slobbering about how much Ike wants to return to the Eastern Conference & play with Penny. This could well be a tactic to coax a sweeter deal from the Western teams (Utah, Phoenix, Clippers) courting Ike. At various points in the past several months, he's made noises about liking all three of those teams, and the smart money has always said he'd end up in Phoenix with Pippen. Anyway, if Ike does go to Orlando, that will create a much tougher divisional opponent for the C's, if Nick Anderson continues his Lazarus act and Penny can do the same and Outlaw continues to develop. The one bright spot is that if they do land Ike, they will have something of a glut at 4 and 5 (Ho Grant, D-Strong, Doleac) and *might* be willing to part with Keon. If we land a veteran center and could have Keon as a shotblocker off the bench, he could be the final piece. (Yeah, that's the ticket...) But I'm keeping my fingers crossed anyway.