The Martell Situation

There is a growing debate here in Rip City about what to do with Martell Webster. His play in the first month filling in for the injured Brandon Roy ranks somewhere between "rubbish" and "dreadful" depending on which game you watch. Here are his numbers through 16 games this year:

22 minutes a night, 6.8 points, 0.7 assists to 1.13 turnovers, 2.4 boards, shooting 40.4% from the floor and 41.1% from downtown, while playing arguably the worst perimeter defense you will ever see on the professional level.

The three point shooting is fine, everything else sucks. This is where the questions start. When Brandon Roy comes back, he'll obviously take a ton of minutes away from Webster. Outlaw has to keep playing the 3 and hopefully we see his minutes increase north of 30 per night. Webster appears destined to one of the following fates here in Portland.

1. Traded. He's very young still, could turn into a Steve Smith, Glen Rice type, which was his ceiling in the first place and he'd probably look just like they looked in college if he was playing for the Huskies. He has a ton of value, and if you attached him to The All Star's expiring contract or LaFrentz's big contract, you could get a good player in return.

2. Bench Sniper. He backs up Roy, plays 15-20 a night overall and rains down 3's when he gets on the floor. He'd have to get far more aggressive with his jumpers if he's to be this player.

3. Starting Small Forward. This option takes playing time away from Outlaw, but with Jack, Roy, and Z-bo on the floor, he'd get countless open looks at 3's and could help the team get off to quick starts. It also adds a lot more explosiveness to the second unit with Outlaw out there.

4. Benched, they sit on him and hope he's just too young to be useful right now and busts ass at practice and gets better.

Personally, I see 1 or 2 happening. He looks like a young Wes Person in training. Not that there's anything wrong with that, and I could see him in 2011 knocking down dagger 3 after dagger 3 in a playoff series for whoever LaBron is playing for by then. I'm not in favor of giving up a kid that's 19 years old and trading him, but it depends on what's available. Let's say Portland plays well the rest of the year, finishes with 35-37 wins and is in the 10 range in the Lottery. That's probably too low to get an impact 3, so why not a sign and trade of Martell, Miles, LaFrentz, and your #1 for Vince Carter? Next year a starting 5 of Jack, Roy, Vince, Z-bo, and Aldridge can be a 45-50 win team and in the playoffs again. What I'm saying is he's not untradeable, just don't trade him for trading's sake, that's all.