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Portland Send Two Players to Developmental League

Why does a team like the Portland Trailblazers send a couple of its layers to the development league? Aren?t they in a development stage? Where are they going this season that they can?t afford to give minutes to their younger players? For a successful team with a winning record to send its young players to the development league is understandable. On the other hand, for a losing team this sort of move doesn?t make any sense.

The Portland Trail Blazers assigned both Sergei Monia and Martell Webster to Fort Worth of the NBA Developmental League. Webster, 19, joined the Trail Blazers as the team`s first round pick (sixth overall) and the No. 1 overall high school selection in the 2005 NBA Draft. Webster has started in seven of 28 games played this season and is scoring 4.2 points per game, while grabbing 1.1 rebound per outing.

Monia, 22, has started in 15 games for the Trail Blazers this season, playing both the guard and forward positions in his first NBA season out of Russia. The Trail Blazers` first round selection (23rd overall) in the 2004 NBA Draft, Monia is averaging 3.3 points and 2.2 rebounds through 23 games.