It just seems to me that the game never slowed down for Martell. He always hurries everything. He has never developed that patience that comes when the game slows down for you. He just makes up his mind as to what he is going to do, and then does it as fast as he can.
And there you have just about the only difference between Webster and Batum. Batum is thinking strategy on the court. So he can play defense, shoot a higher percentage, be in the right place, etc. Bayless suffers from the same robotic syndrome as Webster.
yea but he bounced back with a nice solid night. the ship has sailed on him living up to being the #6 pick in the draft but if he could just be that solid role player we need in that spot than i'm cool with webster.
Yea w/out Webster we don't win the game tonight. He played great defense like he has all season and his shot was falling. As far as living up to the #6 pick, I gave up on that a while ago. I just want to see him improve every year. He's only 22 so I think people kind of forget that he has a lot of growing to do as a player. It just sucks because we all see how athletic he is and how perfect his shot is at times.
Webster with +23 to lead the team. Thank God Nate figured it out with 5:00 to go that Blake and the small ball was doing nothing to win the game.
Webster didn't play that well at Orlando, but who did? He did have a nice game tonite. That is being more consistent. I don't expect it to happen over-nite.
Made me do some research... The starting point for my assumptions were: 1) The shooter has to be at least as prolific as Martell, since he doesn't get a ton of shots for our team but still is relied upon to make them when he shoots. Therefore, no guys who are 1-1 this year at 100%. 2) The shooter has to be at least as accurate as Martell, since it doesn't make sense when calling him "not a pure shooter" to say that a guy shooting worse than he is is one. Here's the list of those players. There are 28. Webster (if it matters, which it may not to some) is the third-youngest on this list behind Jennings and Gallinari. Anthony Parker Jared Dudley Paul Pierce Anthony Morrow Channing Frye Matt Bonner J.J. Redick Steve Nash Mike Bibby Mo Williams Danilo Gallinari Jason Kidd Brandon Jennings Peja Stojakovic Rashard Lewis Jason Richardson Hedo Turkoglu Mickael Pietrus Chauncey Billups Ray Allen LeBron James Andres Nocioni Steve Blake Martell Webster Andrea Bargnani Danny Granger Aaron Brooks Ron Artest I removed the following because they are overall "Great", rather than Pure Shooters: Pierce, Nash, James, Kidd, Allen (though he'd qualify as a "Pure Shooter", imho), Billups. Obviously I'd trade Webster for any one of those, but that's not really going to happen. There's a 2nd tier of guys like Bibby, Turkoglu, Granger, Artest, Rashard, Mo Williams, Richardson that are very useful because of their shooting, but not necessarily known as "specialists". Which is kind of what I think about "pure shooters". Then there's the tier (not on here) of guys like Korver, Kapono, Mike Miller who don't qualify for whatever reason (mostly injuries), that I'd say are in the "specialist" range that can be added to who's left: check: for if I personally would call them a "specialist" or "pure shooter", rather than Anthony Parker Jared Dudley - not yet, but we'll see if he can keep this up for a season or two Morrow - see Dudley Frye - if he keeps hitting like this, it'd be hard to keep him out of the "specialist" category, though he's not close to "2nd Tier" yet Bonner Redick Gallinari - well on his way to being a Jennings - soon to be 2nd Tier or higher Peja - Pietrus - probably the closest player on this list to Webster...not a 2nd Tier guy but close Nocioni - farther from being 2nd Tier, but useful and not a specialist Blake - , just not as accurate as in years past Bargnani - could make the 2nd Tier leap, but not yet. He's not good enough yet to be a specialist, either Brooks - if he can add a higher % to his arsenal, could be tough to stop. So what's that, 6 "pure shooting" specialists in the League (maybe another 2 or 3 if you count injuries)? Another 7 who are 2nd Tier players---great shooters but who do so much more that they're not "specialists"? And then the superstars who just do everything well? Blake, Peja, Redick, Parker, Bonner as the only real "pure shooters"? Would you trade Webster for one of those guys? It opened my eyes just a bit to see just how rare and valuable that kind of shooting is (and I'm including Blake in that value), especially when if you factor in his increasing defensive ability and youth Webster is closer to being in that 2nd Tier than a lot of the others on the list. FWIW
Webster = glue guy. I love using that word. It seems Portland is filled with them. But in all seriousness, he really is one. I love him as a defender and position frustration guy. He is really starting to become that "Bruce Bowen" type player, that really gets under your skin.
Regarding his "consistency", anybody who expects him to have a solid game every night is going to be disappointed, and the same can be said about 90% of the players in the league (perhaps more). That said, if you look at his game log--specifically at the "game score" (a statistical conglomerate akin to PER), he's more consistent than you might think. The first five games, he started, and had a GmSc above 5.0 in 4 of them. Then he was benched, kicking off a string of 18 games (9 as a reserve, 9 as a starter) were mostly bad. All had a GmSc below 5.0, except the games against MEM and MIN, all of which were above 5.0. Then, over the past six games, he's had a GmSc above 5.0 in all but the Orlando game. So, he basically had a bad month (11/6 to 12/9), which I (an admitted Webster apologist) might attribute to loss of confidence over his inexplicable benching. Outside of that span, he's been decent statistically in 10 of 12 games, and he's been decent defensively all year. I think he's been more consistent than most are giving him credit for.
As a starter? I think by the end of the season he'll be much more consistent. Remember he started out when he was 18 I believe. Then miss all of last season, which I think would have been his break out season if not for injury, except for 5 mins. Usually when you get someone straight out of HS it takes four years before they get it going. There are exceptions, but in general that is true. Last year would have been his 5th, but injury kept him from playing and sitting out a year puts him behind more than just that year. I think he is doing well considering everything. You are just pissed because Martell cost you a T-bone steak dinner.
I'm not saying that Martell doesn't try on defense and that he doesn't hustle on the court, but this idea that he's turning into some kind of lockdown wing defender is mind boggling. He's turned himself into a pretty decent weak-side shot blocker and man to man he does OK for a guy without elite lateral quickness, but he does not rotate well, he doesn't close out on shooters well and he's just plain lost at times on D. You were right about one thing though, he does get under my skin.
Why do folks continue to act like we can't have our cake and eat it too. You can have both a player who defends, and scores his share of the load on a consistent nightly basis. The key being consistent. The best teams in the league have consistent players. You know what you are going to get out of them every night. Not 15 one night and 2 pts the next 3 games. The Blazers are going on about 5 years now without a SF worth a damn. Meanwhile, some other teams have up to multiple SF types who are better than ours.
Theres only 28? I call bullpucky on that. Webster is currently 99th in the league in 3 point percentage, and is shooting a horrible percentage from the floor. How the hell can he even be called a shooter if he isn't making buckets? Remember, the key part about being a shooter, is actually making a shot. He currently is shooting .378 from 2 point land and .359 from 3 point land. You would hope, being in the league for several years you would see improvement from year to year, but in fact, this is one of his worst years since entering the league. Those numbers are flat out horrible.
I was baffled by that comparison as well. Martell does have his moments. And there are times he works his tail off on D, but he doesn't sustain it. He has lapses, and and when he makes mistakes at the other end he carries that over. I will say, he's gotten better about that. Still not in the same conversation as a guy like Bowen. Besides, Bowen got under guy's skin by doing a lot of things that were borderline (or sometimes blatantly) illegal He'd grab your jersey, run underneath you when you went up in the air - he had the reputation as a dirty player. He wasn't all that athletic, but he was crafty and really intelligent. I can't think of one thing about his game that reminds me of Martell.
http://www.basketball-reference.com...t&c3val=&c4stat=&c4comp=gt&c4val=&order_by=ws Kinda sucks when your perception isn't really reality, right? And if I did Webster's actual stats (41 3pm and 35.9%) there are 22. http://www.basketball-reference.com...al=&c4stat=&c4comp=gt&c4val=&order_by=fg3_pct
