Quarter Season Awards: Most Disappointing

I never thought he'd be a star, but his early season play hasn't even lived up to my expectations.

He is showing some great signs lately, though.

Webster had him by a nose going into the last two games, but he slowed his disappointment train up recently.  Mags has been playing like garbage, but he still gets minutes.  I can't fiqure it out.

Martell has been dissapointing. But I still see a lot of potential in him. I don't watch much East Coast B-Ball so I don't know Mags history. I just can't believe that someone paid him THAT much money. He must have been good a few years ago. He isn't now. He's the definition of "sucks". I'd rather have Chris Dudley posting up.

I just keep thinking, "This will be his night" and it's not.  Then, "This will be his night" then it's not. I am only looking for some consitency here.  For a guy with more ability than Moses you would think the Blazers front office would get this guy enrolled in some classes on concentrating and focusing, or some ritalin, I don't know why he can't figure out the schemes and how to work within them!  I probably wouldn't be so hard on him if it weren't for the two games of brilliance this year, it makes be yearn for more when I see the flash of potential, but it is his IQ that needs help!

I was thinking of Webster, but he's one year removed from high school and is really lacking fundamental that will take years to learn. My expectations don't start until year 4 or 5.

Then I though Outlaw. But he has a severe type of asthma and is so heavily medicated that it reeks havoc with his game as the medication acts like a sedative.

Then I considered Godzilla, but he was hurt and had surgery and it's not fair to single a player out for those reasons.

So it came down to Maglorie or Zach.

Maglorie actually may be the best choice as he has been all too often weak & ineffective.

However, what steams me about Zach are two things. First, his off court problems DO have a negative effect on the team and he can easily do something about that- but won't. Second, he still refuses to play defense. He can score all he wants to, but if he gives more on defense than he scores on offense, then it's still a negative effect during the game. And, again, he can do something about it- but won't.

but he's showing very real signs of snapping out of his funk.

This team would be better with the players that were traded to get him.  Hard to understand how he could have been an All-Star just two years ago - he isn't old enough to blame it on age.

did not expect much from Magliore

a little better as of late, but too many TO's.

hope we get something good for him.

i want aldridge getting tons of minutes.

because he sucks, period.

dump on class act magloire yeah
you websterholics he's not a bust
yeah he's really lighting it up
being a towel waver that is
yeah when you give an often
injured stiff 30 mil while the
guy you people are dumping on
will be trade anyway and has
shown nothing but class and
professionalism not getting
many minutes while the boy wonder
clank off the rim gets a free pass
i believe he's 1 of the reasons
people are not coming to the games
because he's been the poster boy
and has done squat nothing so
keep lighting that candle
websterholics while roy,sergio,
aldridge and jack will be in
vegas martell will be sulking in
the gym practing what he does best..

He just doesn't look like a very good player. At least his contract is valuable.

If not for Magloire I'd have gone with Travis. Travis does some good things, but he still looks timid the majority of the time, and in professional sports, timid doesn't win, ever.

early pick in the draft, and hyped up this offseason. Last year I understand, this year no excuse. I know he is young but all the highschoolers who have came in the league and have been succesful show a little consistant sign of having talent in the first two years and Martell has not.

Get past a few points here:

- He's only 20!

He was also picked 6th in the draft.  That considerably ups the expectation level to the point where you should be contributing more than he has.

- He's been injured

Sounds like his spasms are mostly gone, and it's a mental issue at this point.

____

Now that we have that out of the way, I think Martell is disappointing because his poor performances have nothing to do with his concentration (See Darius), level of athleticism (See Magloire), or anything to do with his game.

At summer league, I saw a guy take over the game.  He was commanding the ball most times down the court, and on defense he was ordering people around. In the huddles, he was harping on people for not getting back, and generally displaying all the leadership that you'd expect from a guy that a team passed up Chris Paul to get.

This season (whether it was a result of his back spasms or not) he seems to have heaped so much expectation and pressure on himself that he's unable to plug into the game mentally.  This is different from Travis Outlaw syndrome, because it's obvious that Martell is a very bright and intelligent player... probably on the upper end of NBA players.  He just overthinks out there.

It's funny, because the fans watch the games and wonder why Martell doesn't shoot more often.  The easiest conclusion to draw would be that it's something that Nate told him to do, but we know that Nate has had to pull Martell aside several times and tell him to hoist up more shots.

Fortunately, Martell seems to be coming around, with 19 points last night and 18 the night before.  Even during his 4 point stint against Detroit looked aggressive--he was taking it to the hole... he just couldn't get the shots to fall.

It's crucial that Martell continues to progress in these next few games and get his confidence back up, because when Brandon Roy comes back in a week or so, those SG minutes are going to dry up and Martell won't get the same amount of shots that he could be getting right now.

...but maybe that's just my expectations.

Magloire takes it, but Martell, who needs more experience and to hit the metaphorical books to learn the game a bit more, and Dickau have been disappointments. again with the man from Gonzaga though, maybe too high of hopes and decent NBA 2K7 ratings (he's starting for my dynasty over Jack because he can hit the three-ball) are clouding my view. shrug