We should not have traded Martell Webster for a D-League player

more than anything, they probably would have kept had he not been getting $5 million….

Webster’s D was far better than he tends to get credit for too…the Big difference between Webby and Wesley is wesley fights over picks better…

The decision to part ways with Martell was more about being a fiscally responsible team than it was trying to upgrade. Everyone knew Webster was a better player than Babbitt when the deal & draft went down. But the Blazers had seen enough to know Martell wasn’t worth what he and his agent would likely ask when his (then) current contract was up. The Blazers already had Roy, Batum and Fernandez with no real way of knowing that Brandon wouldn’t be Brandon this season. Plus they had their eyes on Matthews who is a far, FAR better player than Martell is.

It’s good to remember that trades don’t just happen on a 1-1 basis in terms of immediate upgrades on both sides. Sometimes you trade a player because, for what you SHOULD pay him, he doesn’t fit into your system anymore based on the personnel you already have.

Trading Martell for the 16th pick to free up salary was a good move, and the Wesley acquisition has worked out much better than I expected. At the time, I though Babbitt was a solid pick. The early returns on it aren’t good. Its so far looking like a weaker draft than most people thought— only Wall, Cousins, Favors, Bledsoe and Booker have been anything other than awful so far. Looks like maybe Landry Fields would have been the right pick, but them’s the breaks. I’m not ready to totally give up on Babbitt yet either, but he sure looks panicky and has been horrible ineffective so far.

I hated the Bayless dumping, and I hate that one even more now, too.

The draft of Claver was terrible and the draft of Babbitt was terrible.

All this seems really obvious.

After you consider the cost of Babbitt and paying off Gomes the money issues were very secondary.

We missed on a talented french big man in Kevin Seraphin and he was still on the board. Just like taking Victor Claver in 09 when we could of drafted Rodrigue Beaubois. Ugh.

But Marty is more a head case, IMO, than a baller. Every time I look at Webster, I think that WARP could just as easily be referred to as the Marty discount.

I really believe the guy works hard, gives what he has, but ends up w/ the short stick, game after game. I watched him play. I saw his stroke. I witnessed his effort. And I felt the redundancy of his clank. Then I was sad.

he will be playing in Europe by 2012

I disagree with this post. I hate seeing Martell not on the blazers (has that kind of not right feeling) but it comes down to money and minutes. Martell was incredibly inconsistent and was determined to start over Batum but never could make a case for it.

This caused the Blazers to be somewhat clogged, and then comes the money part. Blazers had to choose who they wanted and it was Batum and Martell wanted more minutes. Babbitt if your classic real rookie, you really dont know if he will be good or not at this point but he can shoot the ball. He is very raw right now, that’s for sure.

Blazers chose Batum as their started… until Wesley Matthews came from the sky.

As for the Bayless trade… I don’t know about that one but the way New Orleans has been playing lately (really bad) that future 1st round pick is looking better every game.

It would seem that Webster and Bayless wanted more playing time, but with things being the way that they are, Webster incessant clanking and Bayless’s lack of court vision, neither was doing much to earn those minutes. I say goodbye and good luck.