Webster has a phenomenal quarter against the Jazz. That's the only time I'd apply that adjective to his performance. He was good, but let's not get too worked up. He's still not a starting quality SF for a team with aspirations past the 1st round.
IF he were able to play like this regularly (I still hold out hope), he would be easily more than adequate.
I can't remember every game in Webster's career, especially when we are apparently judging him based on what position he played and what part of the game he made his best plays. I'm surprised that you can - so much so that you can anoint this performance as by far his best ever.
Good point. What makes it doubly amusing is that people would rather talk about Webster than Bayless' performance.
I guess I'm not as optimistic. He's had plenty of chances and failed lately. He'll face some teams on the road trip with legit front lines. If he can continue the same output from tonight, I'll change my tune.
I understand that one. Bayless' performance was obvious, inarguable, and impossible to miss. Webster's contributions were more "outside the box (score)", making acknowledgement and praise thereof more indicative of "fan IQ". Kinda like Barkley's old Nike commercial. "Any knucklehead can score (praise Bayless), but rebounding (praising Webster) takes brains, and wit, and charm, and..."
I am just really happy my two favorite Blazers, Martell Webster and Jerryd Bayless, had their best games of the career on the same night...It was awesome to see them embrace at the end!
Nice. You just praised by fan IQ. I don't know why people got down on me. I was PRAISING one of our own and some got pissed.
What's really crazy to think about is, that if all the injuries hadn't happened, and Nate hadn't been forced to play Bayless, we may not have ever got to see this kid reach his potential. Nate might not have ever given him minutes. Now we get to watch this kid mature through the season, and that in itself, is very exciting no matter how the season turns out.
Well, that's not a real surprise. Frye is a really tall SF that just happens to be listed as a C, because of a sunstroke by whoever deals with that stuff at PHX.
Nate is fully aware of what Bayless can and can not do. He tried to give him the BU PG as a 19 year old rookie. Did he bring him along too slowly. Maybe. But Nate wants to win as badly as anyone.
I like Howard a lot, as a person and as a basketball player that knows all the tricks. But he is just not fast enough to close on a stretch-shooter like Frye anymore. For a person that is actually getting close to hit his mid-life crisis, he is very athletic, but for an NBA player, not so much, anymore.
I think they pretty much bailed on the idea that JB is a PG first. He is a SG that can score and guard PGs. That's what he is. Once he is used in this role, it will be just fine. The nice thing - is that on this team, with B-Roy on the roster, and other point-guards/distributing guards like Rudy, that's good enough. You use him as B-Roy junior, or you think of him as KP originally said, like Jarret Jack on steroids. That's what he is. He can dribble well enough, he can set up some people as long as he is not the primary setup/creating guy. He can score in bunches. The real question, long term, is, imho - Can we make a 3 guard line that revolves around JB, Roy, Rudy and ? work? If we can, great, if not, Rudy should be trade-bait, and that's a real shame - because he is such a wonderful player.
