Martell Webster has back surgery -- OUT 3-5 months

[fishercob]

Great day to be a Wizards fan!

[tweet]https://twitter.com/JMichaelCSN/status/482595481608916993[/tweet]

[fishercob]

Horrible things about this:

(1) Increases likelihood of panicking into an overpay of Ariza
(2) While Webster is going to miss all of summer conditioning, camp, etc., he may not end up missing enough time that the final year of his contract won't be guaranteed

Sink or swim time for Otto

[FAH1223]

He'll be out till the All-Star break, tbh.

Looks like we have to re-sign Ariza because they will not have Otto and Rice be the primary wings.

Panic re-signing for Ariza coming up.

[keynote]

[nuposse04]

The only really bad part about this is that we lose leverage for a bit. That type of surgery should put someone who works in physical labor back to work in 2 months tho. My guess is that it will take 4 months. For all the **** i'll talk about the FO, they've been better in handling injuries.

[FAH1223]

Your new starting SF and backup SF/SG...

When Ariza goes back West...

[LyricalRico]

Wow, tough break for Martell. If he's out the full 5 months, then he'd be back around December 1st (which, as FAH said, for this team probably means All Star Break).

Ted's gotta use the $1.8M he picked up last night on a backup shooter now.

[verbal8]

Horrible things about this:

(1) Increases likelihood of panicking into an overpay of Ariza
(2) While Webster is going to miss all of summer conditioning, camp, etc., he may not end up missing enough time that the final year of his contract won't be guaranteed

Sink or swim time for Otto

This is terrible.

I hope they hold Webster out until he is 100% healthy and in shape. At less than 100% he won't help the team to justify the health risk or moving closer to guarranting his final year.

[Kanyewest]

The only really bad part about this is that we lose leverage for a bit. That type of surgery should put someone who works in physical labor back to work in 2 months tho. My guess is that it will take 4 months. For all the **** i'll talk about the FO, they've been better in handling injuries.

Ideally the could have had the surgery a month ago since the season ended May 15th.

[bealwithit]

Sucks for Martell but I'm pumped to see Otto get that minutes bump.

[keynote]

Wow, tough break for Martell. If he's out the full 5 months, then he'd be back around December 1st (which, as FAH said, for this team probably means All Star Break).

Ted's gotta use the $1.8M he picked up last night on a backup shooter now.

Ted/EG knew about the surgery *before* the draft -- and, I'm sure, had a good sense of Martell's initial recovery timetable.

They could've taken a flier on the best shooter available. Maybe he makes the team; maybe he doesn't. Instead, they sell the pick for zero future considerations.

[Dat2U]

The worse timing possible. My guess is he needed the surgery during the season but gutted it out until the offseason so he wouldn't miss any time, which is why his play fell off a cliff the 2nd half of the year. And that's also why tying guaranteed money to a minimum number of games played can backfire in a team's face.

You could say the same for giving 4 years to a guy with a very checkered injury history...

The fact that it basically makes Webster untradeable is even a bigger downer.

[LyricalRico]

Wow, tough break for Martell. If he's out the full 5 months, then he'd be back around December 1st (which, as FAH said, for this team probably means All Star Break).

Ted's gotta use the $1.8M he picked up last night on a backup shooter now.

Ted/EG knew about the surgery *before* the draft -- and, I'm sure, had a good sense of Martell's initial recovery timetable.

They could've taken a flier on the best shooter available. Maybe he makes the team; maybe he doesn't. Instead, they sell the pick for zero future considerations.

Agree, but Ted wanted the cash instead. Really disappointing.

[keynote]

Also: so much for dangling Webster in any cap room-clearing trade packages this off-season. I suppose we can still try to move him before the deadline, but he may not have had enough time to display his full recovery to the rest of the league.

[nuposse04]

The only really bad part about this is that we lose leverage for a bit. That type of surgery should put someone who works in physical labor back to work in 2 months tho. My guess is that it will take 4 months. For all the **** i'll talk about the FO, they've been better in handling injuries.

Ideally the could have had the surgery a month ago since the season ended May 15th.

The quickest they could have done it was last week, when it was injured. There isn't any pressing need to rush him back. He wasn't playing D or shooting as well towards the end of last season and we got by...albeit on excellent play from Ariza. Question now becomes if we have to pony up 9-10 mil for Ariza, wouldn't we rather do some poison pill **** with Parsons than Ariza?

[fishercob]

The issue worth examining here is not the draft -- it's Webster's contract.

Webster's on the books for 3 more years. The final year is fully guaranteed unless Webster misses 62 games over the next two seasons. This will get bad. The Wizards are going to end up with a financial incentive to hold Webster out and Webster is going to have a financial incentive to suit up before he's fully ready. That dynamic is going to create problems between Webster and the team.

Poorly thought out contract.

Boo.

[Rafael122]

Wow, tough break for Martell. If he's out the full 5 months, then he'd be back around December 1st (which, as FAH said, for this team probably means All Star Break).

Ted's gotta use the $1.8M he picked up last night on a backup shooter now.

This is huge. Martell has to play in 102 games in the next two years to activate the last year of his contract. Wizards are going to be extremely careful with him, and I wouldn't be shocked if he's brought back next February like others have said. Rough estimate showed the Wizards played about 55 games before the All Star Break, so basically Webster would have to play in some 25+ games this year plus 77 in 2015-'16

[keynote]

Ted/EG knew about the surgery *before* the draft -- and, I'm sure, had a good sense of Martell's initial recovery timetable.

They could've taken a flier on the best shooter available. Maybe he makes the team; maybe he doesn't. Instead, they sell the pick for zero future considerations.

Agree, but Ted wanted the cash instead. Really disappointing.

Pointing the figure at Ted fits your board character; I get it. Feel free to split hairs between Ted and EG on this one. Stay "method."

I don't care. There's plenty of blame to go around on this one.

[keynote]

The issue worth examining here is not the draft -- it's Webster's contract.

Webster's on the books for 3 more years. The final year is fully guaranteed unless Webster misses 62 games over the next two seasons. This will get bad. The Wizards are going to end up with a financial incentive to hold Webster out and Webster is going to have a financial incentive to suit up before he's fully ready. That dynamic is going to create problems between Webster and the team.

Poorly thought out contract.

Good point. However, if Webster has any setbacks in his recovery, I'd rather have a salty Webster seething on the bench in street clothes than be on the hook for the full term of the deal.

Of course, one could argue (and many *have* argued) that we could've/should've just signed him to a shorter deal.

[truwizfan4evr]

This means we sign a undrafted player now?