would be nice but he ai’nt no BG7, we are going to need the scoring of ben nxt year

why Gordon? with rookie sensation combo guard …
Jerryd Bayless who scored 28 pts in first summer league game.

Blazers want to follow the Bulls blueprint and let a veteran like Ben Gordon eat up minutes from a talented rookie who basically does the same thing as Ben?

Lets move on to the next proposal.

It seems like a reasonable trade to me for both sides. Expect mixed responses though.

I’m a Webster fan, more than I am an Outlaw fan, and he improved a lot this past season and showed some glimpses of the player he could become.

First off, Webster should have gone to college. He wasn’t ready for the NBA and during his 2nd season he played pretty poorly, and was rumored to be mopey, depressed, lost his confidence, all that fun stuff. The Blazers hired a sports psychologist to be available for all of the players, and Webster started going during the offseason and got his head on straight.

He came back during pre-season, won the starting SF spot away from Outlaw, and had a decent season highlighted by a 24 point quarter against Utah and much improved defense.

Here’s my basic scouting report on the kid:

He’s already a good shooter, which he was drafted for, and he has as pretty a shot as you’ll ever see. He hasn’t been as consistent with his shot as he is supposed to be, but when he is confident and when he gets shots he always produces.

And that’s a big point: when Martell gets 10-15+ shots, he produces. He gets in a groove in those situations. He played with the starters however, who feature LMA and Roy, so he was a 3rd option at BEST with those guys, so he mainly got the scraps and kick outs and waited for the pass. When Roy was hurt or Martell became the main option at times, he always produced.

That might be what he needs if he doesn’t remain a Blazer, to become a star. Like any shooter, he needs shots, but as long as he isn’t as good as Roy/LMA/Oden, he won’t get many shots.

Unlike most athletic young dudes, Martell plays within the team offense and doesn’t take bad shots very often. It’s not that he isn’t aggressive or doesn’t want to shoot (you can tell he wants to shoot), he just does what the coaches tell him and he defers to the better players.

And Martell is actually really athletic. He gets up really high, had plenty of nice dunks, is in the best shape on the Blazers team, and had the fastest times in the pre-season conditioning drills. He’s much more athletic than people think.

He’s a bad ballhandler, which is a big reason he has played mostly at SF. Lucky for him, he has really good size, and when drafted at age 18 he was 6’7” (I think he is at least 6’8” now, but I don’t have access to any current measurements). He has a great NBA body, and has terrific size for a 2-guard but just doesn’t have the ballhandling ability.

I personally prefer him at SF, and it doesn’t help Webster’s case as a SG that we got Brandon Roy.

Webster has shown the ability to get to the rim and finish, and when he is used as a first option he does this decently enough; mixing it with his nice outside jumper. He is supposedly working hard on his dribbling ability, so he can use his size and quickness off the dribble more. If he does improve there, it will open his offensive game up. Penetrating and getting to the rim isn’t a strength, but the ability is there.

For a SG/SF, Webster has had some really good rebounding games. He gets up really high and likes to rebound.

When drafted, Webster’s defense was ABYSMAL. Last season, his third, he was much, much, much improved. I dunno what the numbers say, but you can see the difference in how he defends other SFs and SGs. He uses his body more, knows where and when to rotate, and wasn’t directly targetted as a weak defender like in his first two seasons. He isn’t all-world just yet defensively, but he improved GREATLY.

He did a good job on Lebron, and does well against big players like him. He’ll struggle against a quick dude like Kobe, but so would anyone. Martell is prone to rookie mistakes, but he is decent at sticking to his man and knowing where to be, at a young age.

In contrast, Travis Outlaw is entering his 6th season and still has no idea where to rotate on defense and is very slow laterally. Webster’s defense was a big reason he started over Outlaw.

Not to overstate his defense though, as he isn’t making the all-defensive team anytime soon. But, the improvement is clear, he tries on defense, and is solid for a very young dude.

Is he a SG? Maybe in a year or three, if he can work on his dribbling. He isn’t a bad passer, but is too unsure of when to penetrate or how. He doesn’t push the issue enough and just TAKE shots, and plays within the offense too much. This is good of course, but also frustrating because he needs shots to be Martell Webster. A lil’ more aggressiveness, selfishness, would help him out.

He averaged 10.7 points a game as a 3rd/4th option, compared to Travis Outlaw’s 13 ppg as the 1st option off the bench (when Outlaw came in, he came in gunnin’). He has a lot of potential left to grow.

He works very, very hard and WANTS to be a star. I dunno if he’ll be able to do that in Portland, and his end-of-rookie-deal cap hold endangers our cap space next summer doesn’t help things, but I think he could be our SF of the now-n-future if he remains a Blazer.

I think he’s still too raw to do well in Chicago perhaps, and he’s still probably best used as a SF. I’m pretty sure he’ll end up a good player, and a really good scorer. Learning under Nate McMillan has been tough for his first few seasons, but it’s forcing him to develop a more all-round game and that will help him get where he wants to be.

He’s not as exciting as Travis Outlaw, but if Martell was used in the 1st-option 6th man way, he’d put up better numbers. Unfortunately, from afar I’d say Martell is still too fragile confidence wise to “lose” his starting job.

He needs time, but he’ll be good, at least as a scorer. How many smart, really athletic, hard working, big, natural shooters don’t find success?

Shoulda’ gone to college, though. He just wasn’t ready for the NBA.

I don’t think the Blazers will use the RLEC on anything but a piece they really need. Gordon is a great scorer, but not what we’re looking for I think. It’ an interesting idea though, and Martell is probably more forgotten amongst national fans.

Mortimer

I think something needs to happen between the two teams. We both have a lot of young talented pieces. I wounder what it would take to re-aquire LMA. The Blazers need a PG and we have Kirk?

................................ KP is giving every indication of liking the cards in his hand and not wanting to do any discarding. A deal involving, let us say, Rose for Bayless and Frye might have some legs, but that’s not happening… The same reason Chicago doesn’t want to trade Rose is the reason the Blazers don’t want to mess with their roster too much at this point. First we play, then we see, then we adjust…

Marty was drafted straight out of HS, so he is physically just coming into his own. The Blazers feel compelled to SEE if the wildly high draft-pick they invested years ago pays off in the end. The Blazers had young Jermaine O’Neal straight out of HS and traded him too soon and that is a MASSIVE obstacle to any possible trade of Webster. A deal involving him would have to be one-sided in the Blazers’ favor, I think.

Anyway, those are my thoughts…

t