<div class="quote_poster">Quote:</div><div class="quote_post">August 19, 2005 -- While the Lakers have stepped in and interrupted their pursuit of free agent Aaron McKie, the Nets appear to be just days away from adding Robert "Tractor" Traylor to their roster. "Tractor wants to be a Net and the Nets want to have Tractor," Traylor's agent, Andre Colona, said yesterday. "If I were a betting man, I'd say something would be done by early next week." Traylor, 6-8 and 280 pounds, would easily comply with the description of front-line players Nets coach Lawrence Frank provided this week as he reviewed the summer makeover. "I think the identity of our group is our bigs are going to be mean, tough, nasty guys who [can] score but are going to be really good screeners and rebounders, and they're going to close and protect the paint," Frank said. So while Traylor seems a sure thing, what looked like another virtual certainty, the addition of Aaron McKie, may have hit a snag, as the Lakers are in the picture for his services. McKie is set to clear waivers today and can sign after that. McKie's agent, Leon Rose, recently called the Nets the "front-runners" for his client's services but indicated the 6-5 guard would wait until after the weekend to make his decision. But the Lakers can ante up more than the Nets, who would offer $1,138,500 for the 10-year veteran's minimum. The Lakers had been in pursuit of Derek Anderson, late of Portland and like McKie, an amnesty clause casualty. But L.A. shifted gears toward McKie, who is stronger and bulkier than Anderson. </div> Source
If the Nets can't get a double digit rebounder, a nasty big bodied dude like Tractor will do along with Marc Jackson. They never really had a double digit rebounder even with KMart around. They had a team who would box out so that even their wingmen or even JKidd can grab the board. Now all they have to do is use their big bodies to throw their weight around so that Kidd or RJ or VC or Nenad can grab the board and start the break at once which was the key to their success before.
