If he sticks around, he could be a great find, definitely. If he's also okay with being a backup 3/4, he could clean up on minutes, as well (if we ship Travis and Martell off for some reason).
Size wise, Rudy is more of a 2-1 then a 2-3. Compared to Roy, he's shorter, much lighter, and has less length. I'd guess the times that Roy and Rudy are on the court together it will be teamed with Blake or Miller more times then not and it will be Brandon covering the other team's 3... of course that guy will likely be more 2 guard sized himself. STOMP
David Thorpe once said somewhere that he is more worried about guys with a nice looking shot that don't shoot a good percentage, than someone who does OK with a less than perfect technique... that made me wondering about Webster.
Not a bad point, really. Is there a better backup guard rotation than Blake, Fernandez and Bayless? You could argue we've got the best backup center in the league, too. With Miller, Roy, Batum, Aldridge, Oden, Przybilla, Blake, Fernandez and Outlaw, we're going to have one rock-solid 9 man rotation this year. I'm stoked.
sorry but you're giving him too much credit In the Kings "game" they were missing their two best players (Miller & Martin). STOMP
I don't think Webster is anything special, but saying he hasn't been an average shooter is a little rough. Being 37% from 3 for his career when more than half of his shots have come from there isn't below average in my mind. He is a shooter. That's all he is. But it's not like he's been a bad shooter. Streaky at times for sure, but I'd say average.
Until I see with my own two eyes that Martell is back and healthy and until Travis shows that he's as effective at the 3 as he is at the 4 (check out 82games.com if you don't believe me) I don't think the position is a problem at all. Of course this isn't to say it couldn't become a problem, but if so that's why trades are allowed in the NBA
Nicolas Batum is head and shoulders above Martell Webster. In Webster's best season (his 3rd in the NBA) he produced 3.3 wins in 2100 minutes. Batum produced 3.5 wins in 1400 minutes in his rookie season. Oh...and Batum was a year younger. Batum had better start and with Webster getting mop-up minutes at best. Maybe Webster can succeed as a Kyle Korver type, spreading the court by hitting threes. (Though Webster is only marginally better than Batum at three point shooting, if that.) Batum's overall fg% was much higher than Webster's career best too. And Batum is a better passer and rebounder. Obviously he's a better defender. Batum could score, if he were given that role, but as a starter, his role is to defer to the other scorers in the starting lineup. I think he's perfect for the starting role and about 30 minutes per game this season. If Webster is starting this season, I'll be pretty annoyed.
It's a consistency problem, not a SF problem. The frustrating part is that it should be one of the easier positions to fill with a talented starter, but we have yet to do so. We tried with Hedo and Odom but struck out. I just hope they can get something done at the deadline this year.
Webster has shown he can do one thing at an NBA level - shoot wide open treys....and that was on 2 good feet. If Webster is even playing, and I will believe it when I see it, he had better not be playing more than garbage minutes. For all his flaws, Outlaw is still a better offensive player, and neither is good enough on "D" to make a difference.
It's win shares, an advanced stat that estimates the number of wins per season a player produces for a team.
you can find listings of advanced stats like win shared on a number of sites including basketball-reference.com. Navigate to an individual player (like Batum ) and then scroll down to the advanced stats section. Hover your cursor over the various category for a brief explanation of the stat. Hope that helps STOMP
