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

[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.

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.

I'd rather have a salty Webster than that final year, too. But I also am not unconcerned about the effects of a guy like Webster getting disillusioned with management. The potential exists for some locker room distractions.

[LyricalRico]

This means we sign a undrafted player now?

I'm assuming they'd be doing that anyhow. IMO where this probably makes a difference is in their use of the MLE.

Since this was known pre-draft, that may have been the team's motivation for selling the pick. Maybe they weren't planning to use the MLE but now they will likely need to use at least part of it, and this will help defray the cost. I still would have preferred that Ted open his wallet, but it's his money not mine.

[Rafael122]

Any and all moves the Wizards make won't even get them near the luxury tax. The luxury tax isn't the problem, you don't need to spend $80 million to put together a team. They spent $70 million last year and were like $2 million under, and the tax is up to what..$77 million this year? Unless they massively overpay Gortat and Ariza, they should be fine.

It's also in Webster's best interest to get healthy first. Okafor had a herniated disk that ended up giving him a neck injury and he was gone for the season.

[Dark Faze]

best news i've heard all day

now if only this could have happened last year

Otto time baby

[queridiculo]

The Porter draft pick makes total sense now, he was supposed to take over Webster's bench minutes in case of injury.

[keynote]

The Porter draft pick makes total sense now, he was supposed to take over Webster's bench minutes in case of injury.

You kid, but there's certainly no trading Otto at this point. The pipe dream of a Nene/Porter/future pick(s) package for Love is now officially extinguished.

[miller31time]

Happiest 2 men on Earth right now - Trevor Ariza and his agent.

[payitforward]

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.

Huh. Just before I saw this thread i wrote about how you were trying to dump Martell -- after being vocal about what a great signing he was last Summer.

Tell me, were you wrong then? And, was there any reason to think Martell might be very likely to have back problems? Given that when we picked him up he had already had back problems? More than once?

I guess, along the same lines, one could ask -- did we have reason to think Nene might be a significant injury risk when we were willing to pick up his enormous, long-term contract? How about Okafor?

Were these good moves? Let me ask that a little differently -- should we make some more moves like these? Yes or no?

[TGW]

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.

This.

I'm not surprised this happened...Webster has had back issues his entire career. I remember thinking just how terrible that contract was when they resigned him, and how stupid it was to sign a player of Martell's calibre and injury history to multiple years.

Oh well, another FAIL under the Grunfail regime.

[gambitx777]

The bright side is, this kind of injury is not a death sentence for his career. It's a relatively quick fix compared to some injuries and should help him in the long run, this might explain his preference some. Fixing it could even help him get back in form!

[nuposse04]

i'd rather sign cj miles on the cheap then ariza at 10 mil per

[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.

Huh. Just before I saw this thread i wrote about how you were trying to dump Martell -- after being vocal about what a great signing he was last Summer.

Already responded in the trade thread. No need to derail the discussion by making stuff personal. It's all in fun, brother.

Go Wiz!

[queridiculo]

Ariza is not getting $10 million a year, not from anybody, so relax…

If that does however turn out to be the asking price, then Grunfeld better put the money where his mouth is and go into the season with Porter as the starting SF.

It's not like Grunfeld ever planned with Ariza past the 2014 season anyway.

[LyricalRico]

The bright side is, this kind of injury is not a death sentence for his career. It's a relatively quick fix compared to some injuries and should help him in the long run, this might explain his preference some. Fixing it could even help him get back in form!

Yep, hoping this is true.

[payitforward]

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.

Huh. Just before I saw this thread i wrote about how you were trying to dump Martell -- after being vocal about what a great signing he was last Summer.

Already responded in the trade thread. No need to derail the discussion by making stuff personal. It's all in fun, brother.

Go Wiz!

Nothing personal about it at all! I just want to know what you think. After all, since we began the rebuild our biggest targeted veteran acquisitions were Nene, Okafor, Ariza and Webster. Three of the 4 have proven big-time injury risks. Of course, we also acquired Gortat who doesn't look to have the same problem, even though he too -- like Nene, Okafor and Webster -- was coming off an injury season when we acquired him (having to give up twice his salary and a R1 pick to do so, precisely because of signing an injury-risk veteran and having to replace him in an emergency).

I'll go take a look at the other thread. But, really, I do mean this -- no personal perspective here at all. Just trying to arrive at the correct analysis of the situation and what our team should actually be doing in order to...

... Go Wiz!

[payitforward]

Ariza is not getting $10 million a year, not from anybody, so relax…

If that does however turn out to be the asking price, then Grunfeld better put the money where is mouth is and go into the season with Porter as the starting SF.

It's not like Grunfeld ever planned with Ariza past the 2014 season anyway.

Don't know what he'll get -- but it'll be more than you seem to think! And there is no way now that we won't re-sign him.

[Chocolate City Jordanaire]

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.

The cynic in me says waiting til now reduced the Wizards opportunities to make a deal involving Martell. Very strategic move. I think Webster is a great guy, but this timing stinks.



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[Hidden Eye]

Not surprised by this when he was playing SF just sped up the process. Not sure if Otto can play the 2 so just start Rice.

[Chocolate City Jordanaire]

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?

Injured last week?

He played as if he were injured for quite a while through the playoffs.

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[Chocolate City Jordanaire]

This means we sign a undrafted player now?

I hope it means we get to see how good Glen Rice Jr. and Otto Porter can be.

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