Martell Webster

I'll be in Vegas to watch the Blazers' summer league in a couple weeks. One player I'll be particularly interested to watch is Martell Webster.

I was a little miffed when Portland traded out of the #3 spot of the '05 draft to take Webster. I wanted Chris Paul. I was disgusted when Paul tore through the league as a rookie. I was even more disheartended when Deron Williams proved to be an all-star caliber point guard this year. (disclosure: I had Raymond Felton rated ahead of Deron Williams, because I thought Williams was too slow.) We made a terrible trade and missed out on two fantastic point guards - apparently because we already had Sebastian Telfair on the roster.

I give that history, because I acknowledge that it probably negatively impacts my assessment of Webster, which is that he sucks. In the 21 undeserved minutes per game Martell played last year, he managed to shoot 39% from the field. And he didn't contribute anything else.

But there is some hope for Martell. He's only 20 years old. He's got a big NBA body, and a sweet shooting stroke (at least during practice). He can even finish a little bit around the rim.

My concern about Martell is for his mental game. Jason Quick predicted that Martell has played his final game as a Blazer. (It's in this chat: http://www.oregonlive.com/blazers/jason_quick/index.ssf?/live/blazers/quick_041907.html )
Quick reports that Martell doesn't fit the culture, isn't coachable and isn't working to improve the way his teammates are.

I'll be looking for two things this summer from Webster: a positive attitude and some sign that he's improved. If I don't see those two things, I'll be ready to get rid of him and try to forget that we once had the #3 pick in the '05 draft. The one silver lining: If we'd had Chris Paul or Deron Williams this year, we'd have won way too many games to land the #1 pick.

Check back here in mid-July for full sumer league coverage.