1:19pm: The injury is a “bone spur that’s rubbing up against my labrum,” Webster said, according to Michael, and Webster said that it’s a caused a tear in the labrum, as Castillo relays within his full story.
12:38pm: The Wizards aren’t planning to apply for a disabled player exception if Webster ultimately opts for surgery, Michael hears (Twitter link).
10:42am: Martell Webster told reporters today that he has a hip injury that would knock him out for four to six months if he undergoes surgery to repair it, note Jorge Castillo of The Washington Post and J. Michael of CSNMidAtlantic.com (Plus Twitter links). The 28-year-old small forward said he’ll try to play through it with the use of balance-correcting glasses, as Michael details. Michael nonetheless added that the injury flared up during practice Tuesday, according to Castillo, who termed it a partially torn labrum in Webster’s right hip, while Michael called it a bone spur on the hip. The $2.5MM partial guarantee on Webster’s salary for 2016/17 would jump to a full guarantee of more than $5.845MM if he plays in 70 games this season, a prospect that appears decreasingly likely.
The failure of Webster to lock in his extra guaranteed money would grant the Wizards added flexibility for their pursuit of Kevin Durant and others next summer, though surely they’d like to have Webster available for much of the season. Webster dealt with the injury throughout the preseason as he failed to appear in any of Washington’s exhibitions. Back surgery helped limit him to only 32 games last season, and while he pondered retirement a year ago, he backed off that idea this past summer, saying that he wants to play beyond the expiration of his contract at the end of the 2016/17 season.
A six-month timetable would mean he’d miss all of the regular season, so if he elects surgery, it’s possible that the Wizards would apply for and receive a disabled player exception worth nearly $2.807MM, a figure equivalent to half of Webster’s salary for this season. Alan Anderson is also out for the Wizards with an ankle injury, challenging the team’s depth at the wing, but Washington hasn’t suffered enough major injuries to make a hardship provision for an extra roster spot a possibility at this point.
Back surgery and hip surgery are very serious procedures to have in consecutive years. Even at 28, Webster may never be the same player again.