This experiment has to end. He's extremely mentally fragile. That's not something you develop. You have it or you don't. He has it to the tenth power. This is his ceiling. One game he'll give you 25 and the next 10 it's a roller coaster of horrible to mediocre basketball. The summer can't come soon enough.
I meant the next ten games. It seems he has about four good games a season. I've never seen someone so mentally fragile and streaky as Martell Webster.
Uhh, he's not getting any minutes...so...why are you bitching about him not playing well. He's not playing.
I'm a Martell Fan, but I feel he will need a change of scenery to succeed. Portland fans are too quick to start playing the blame game, its something that is not uncommon for the fanbase. Unfortunate, but whatever.
Dude, this is his fifth or sixth season. He's been like this his entire career. He was given the starting SF job and lost it because of himself, not Batum. And there is a very good reason why he's suddenly not playing anymore.
Batum isn't playing that great either, Martell is just in a huge slump and therefore, is not playing. There is no "experiment", he played well when he was needed to fill in due to injuries earlier in the year. Now that more of the regular rotation players are in, he's getting pushed back. Trading him for nothing or a second round pick isn't going to do much really, I'd rather have an inconsistent Martell than stashing some schlub in Europe that will never see the court. He's fine as a backup SF (but again, right now he's not). He's actually been playing much better than Rudy this year.
He's had four good games this month. He's in a supreme funk right now, probably due to..i don't know, huge roster moves of getting Camby and Roy back.......he's actually been fairly consistent this season except for this recent stretch and an anomomly here and there.
in either case, this season has been a wash for me, in determining rotation players for the future. I'm not convinced Martell will be part of it, but I'm not in favor of giving him away for far less talent at a position we do not need. If we can package him and Rudy/Bayless for a good young PG, that will probably be optimum. If anything, to me, this time has kind of made me think that Rudy, Bayless and Webster are not going to be part of the long-term plans of the Blazers in their championship aspirations.... The core will be Roy, Batum, LMA, Oden and Camby......and I think Cunningham will survive the fury...everyone else...maybe not.
For some fun preseason Webster hype... http://sportstwo.com/forums/showthread.php?t=147240&referrerid=21490
Awesome triple post, Mr. President. Multi-quote much? I'm waiting for Fez to suggest a Webster for Mayo . . . or Webster for Beasley . . . or Webster for Marc Gasol . . . or Webster for Tyreke Evans . . . or Webster for JaVale McGee . . . or Webster for Rubio trade because in FezWorld, all good young talent is available for Blazers scraps.
I don't think he reads the board, so it doesn't really matter what we think of him. He is what he is.
As a Martel fan, I agree that he's played very spotty, but he's also played pretty good defense and done other things that don't show up in the box score. I realize most of you "experts" are just stats hounds and think it's the only true measure of a player, but I wouldn't be so quick to stick a fork in him. All that to say, he is a player that doesn't do well when sick or injured. Batum hasn't played much better either. It's just a feeling I get, but I think Cunningham will end up being a better player than either Webster or Batum.
I thought Michael Holton had a nice assessment of Martell's game on "The Fifth Quarter" post game show a couple of games back, he called Martell a bulk shooter, not a knock-down shooter, not a 3 pt specialist, but a bulk shooter; implying he needs lots of plays, lots of touches and a focal point in the offense to be truly effective over the long haul of a game. Part of the problem for Martell is Nate McMillan's offense which mostly has the small forward relegated to the corners, but part of it is also Martell's lack of an in between game, generally poor ball handling skills, and a history of battling confidence issues. I don't dislike Martell (much the same way I didn't dislike Channing the person), but I don't see him having a great long term career here in Portland ... and the only way he's going to be a productive player is if he ends up on a team that is in desperate need of the kind of bulk shooting that he can provide along with some decent (but not necessarily great) wing defense -- frankly I can't think of a team he would start for, but there might be somebody out there who really wants him.
Yeah, that may be true. The problem is, he's nowhere near good enough to help a team by getting that many touches and shots. So it's a catch-22 for Webster...he's reserve-quality, but can only function as a focal point player. Therefore, correctly, no coach will ever give him the role he needs to be successful.
