Webster played vastly better defense on Melo the Roy. Roy had one good sequence and was otherwise destroyed which impacted his offensive production IMO. Webster should have been in during the 4th as a Melo' stopper or at least slower until he fouled out. IMO the closing lineup should have been: Rudy Roy Webster LMA Oden I actually wonder if that wouldn't be a decent starting lineup considering how well Rudy did on Ty Lawson. LMA hasn't gotten nearly enough criticism thus far this season. Oden has outplayed him but gotten twice the guff. Glad Roy showed up in the 2nd half, his first half was worse then LMA's. Tired of Oden being the whipping boy around here.
I'd like to see that lineup some more. Where Rudy will run into trouble is if you get a PG like Jason Kidd who can hit threes at a decent clip. (Wow--that still seems weird to say about Kidd.) Rudy looked so good against Ty because he went underneath every screen, every time, daring him to shoot. (That'll be the playbook on Lawson for everybody going forward. Lawson may be having a Sergio Rodriguez moment--he looks good right up until scouts tell you how to handle him. Then he disappears.)
well then we disagree. I don't think much of his Bball IQ and have no idea why anyone would. He's pretty straight forward/safe the way he plays offense demonstrating little innate feel for any aspect of the game. If he's open he shoots immediately. If he's covered he passes immediately. Those are the safe/low risk plays of a player who is trying to keep things simple... it's not bad play per se, but it's also not indicative of high Bball IQ. On the other end it's rare to see him a step ahead on defense anticipating passes or a weakside block opportunity. Across all sports when I think of high IQ players, generally they are the Joe Cool types who never get too high or low. I'd like to see Martell have better focus on the W... take a 1st quarter highlight in stride rather then as an opportunity to pound his chest and yell. I know when I play, nothing gets me more focused then having the guy I'm guarding do that sort of stuff. STOMP
ty lawson can shoot...maybe he doesnt have 3 point nba range yet, but he had a money jumper last year in college...
I completely disagree with this. He fired up himself, the team, and the crowd. If anything, that caused Melo to try too hard on on offense to prove himself that he got an offensive foul called on him.
That's just not true.. that is a huge generalization and is the opposite of what I see from him. On one of his dunks he caught the ball at the three point line with Anderson guarding him and was pretty wide open, instead of shooting immediately like you seemingly think he does whenever he's open, he drove baseline for a dunk. That is a pretty heady play if you ask me. And these statements you made are just such broad generalizations it's kind of ridiculous.
right, Melo was just terrible after that... good point! I'm glad you figured out that I was generalizing. Have you ever looked at Martell's shooting stats? As that link details, in the 2007-08 season 83% of his shots were jumpers. For his career, 50% of his shot attempts have been 3 pointers. Yes he occasionally does something other then shoot an uncontested deep jumper and you provided an excellent example of one, but I don't think I'm portraying the opposite of what has usually happened at all. Maybe you being a little overly sensitive about your favorite Blazer? STOMP
Didn't think my thoughts were worth a new thread, so I'm bumping a 3-day-old one... Anyway, the more I think about it, the more I'm beginning to be sold on Martell at the 3. I mean, what skill set do we want from that spot? At least through the first 4 games, he's bringing everything I want. Every alternative I hear bandied about has major drawbacks. Rudy Gay? No defense. Gerald Wallace? No outside shot. Tayshaun Prince? No future. Plus they're all $9M+/year players. Webster has energy, defense, an outside stroke, "upside", and a cheap, long-term contract. He's four (I guess technically twelve) games into a return from a year-long injury, and he's posting a 14.4 PER so far, while expending extra energy every minute guarding the opposing team's biggest threat. I don't think it's beyond reason to think that his percentages will improve as he continues to shake off the rust from his layoff. If he continues the aggressive mentality he's been showing and can improve his percentages (say 40% from 3, 44% overall), he will be everything that we need at the 3, and perhaps the "legit third option" many of us want.
Webster--best, alright, bad energy shooting dribbling He should take the same dribbling seminar that Bayless took this summer. http://www.slamonline.com/online/the-magazine/features/2009/10/training-days/
I want to say how proud I am of Webster. He was that guy I wanted so much to succeed in Portland. With him having to cope with the murder of his mother, to the mental warfare he had inside his head through all those season's of mediocracy, coming out like this is a feat I doubt I could have ever handled. I have now become a HUGE fan of Webster. He has so far giving me every reason to be one.
Webster has continued to look good, especially on defense. He's making his freethrows and hitting the three while occasionally slashing to keep his defender honest. He's done the best job of anyone on Melo'. He pretty much shut down Durant with 4 steals and excellent defense leading to one of Durant's worst lines since Carlesimo was coach. I feel like people are coloring their critique with past seasons. Based on this one he has been great in 75% of games with one bad one in Houston. Sadly, Martell has probably been our most consistent player!
I think it's too early to be pointing to stats as proof of anything about this season. But even if I do look at them, I'm not nearly as blown away as many here seem to be. http://www.basketball-reference.com/players/w/webstma02.html his steals and blocks rates are way up over career averages and reflect a high activity level. His assists are well up over career averages too, but 1.7 projected out to 36 minutes isn't anything to crow about. Other then that, his scoring, FG%, FTA, 3Pt%, Rebounding, and most of the advanced stats are right at his (being generous) mediocre career averages. I'm definitely not sold on his D being average let alone what I want covering the other team's #1 option. Hopefully the blocks and steals keep coming. Hopefully the shooting percentages improve. Hopefully this is the year he doesn't struggle with his confidence and fade. To my eyes he's doing okay which is fine enough for a rotation level player, but he's hardly separating himself from mediocrity let alone inspiring me to dream of him being a legit 3rd scorer and everything I want at SF. STOMP
I would have agreed with you... until the moment when Durant blew a wide open two handed dunk. Kevin shut Kevin down as much as Martell did. That said, Martell's doing GREAT out there!
