Moderators: LyricalRico, nate33, montestewart
Induveca wrote:Sadly I can confirm that from friend of a friend here in the DR (his father is from here, and they own a home close). Ariza apparently indeed hates DC and wants out.....
Sucks being a Dominican, was excited for him there....but it is what it is.....
Induveca wrote:Apparently he thinks the city is "boring". No freaking clue how he considered New Orleans more appealing. Maybe his New York and LA stints ruined him, he has in fact been all downhill after leaving LA.
Too bad, millions of people are rooting for him down here. First Felipe Lopez, now this....sigh.
nate33 wrote:Just wanted to bump this thread. Webster is our one glimmer of light in this miserable year.
Per 36, he is averaging 14.7 points, 6 boards, 2.3 assists, .9 steals and .7 blocks while maintaining a TS% of .639%, a 3P% of .405 and a PER of 15.5 on low usage. He is also a very good defender. Basically, he is doing everything we wanted Nicolas Batum to do, but for about 1/8th the cost.
The encouraging thing is that his improved play over his career averages might be somewhat sustainable. He started his career very young and logged several seasons before he understood the game. By the time he figured the game out, he got hurt. This might be the first time we've seen a mature Martell Webster who is injury free. Also, one of the main reasons for his improvement in efficiency is that he has nearly doubled his FTA rate from his career averages - something that might be sustainable.
And he has done it all with no PG play. Hopefully, he'll get an opportunity to start and prove that his numbers aren't a fluke. He might even improve once Wall gets back.
Martell Webster? He's new. And so, in the aftermath of his first Wizards "road" home game of the season, he had a message he wanted to convey.
"Did you guys not hear the announcements?" he asked rhetorically. "It's like, [when they called] Chris Singleton, it's like (he says yay softly). They call LeBron's name, and it's like, jeez."
A reporter finished his sentence to say, "the house came down." Then, Webster continued with the punchline.
"Tonight was an away game, and we won. We won on the road at home. Crazy."
Later, he was asked how those loud cheers for James made him feel.
"I mean, it's horrible. It's a horrible feeling. You want your fans to be loyal. You want to see more red, white and blue jerseys out there in the stands than you do the away team," he said.
Webster is hardly the first player to express his frustration at the bipartisan Washington Wizards crowd, and he certainly won't be the last. Such is the nature of being a bad basketball team in a transplant city made up of fans of all NBA franchises. But of all the players that have spoken out, Webster seemed most determined to change the narrative.
"It's not going to happen [overnight]. Rome wasn't built in a day. We have to continue to win," he said. "Next time Boston comes in here, there will be green jerseys up in here. When Chicago comes in, there will be red jerseys up in here. We have to take advantage of these games. That builds loyalty with the fans. When we do that, more times than not, they'll be roaring when our names are called instead of theirs."
Some random troll wrote:Not to sound negative, but this team is owned by an arrogant cheapskate, managed by a moron and coached by an idiot. Recipe for disaster.
TGW wrote:He's okay...again he's a semi-bright spot on a terrible team. We have to be careful about heaping praise because he is in a contract year.
Dat2U wrote:TGW wrote:He's okay...again he's a semi-bright spot on a terrible team. We have to be careful about heaping praise because he is in a contract year.
Exactly. He's okay. Good for him. I hope he can parlay this in to a long term deal, with someone else.
While we focus on finding the next Martell on the cheap in free agency.
