Your Daily Kevin Martin Adulation Thread

by Tom Ziller on Nov 28, 2006 8:25 AM PST in Commentary

I should just make it a running feature, right? Obviously with the gaudy numbers he's putting up out-of-nowhere for non-Sacramento fans, he's getting tons of attention around the league. Even the venerable Rick Cipes at the Los Angeles Times' Clips Blog is calling the Kings Martin's team. Lofty praise, considering #10, #93, and #7. (You all know who I'm talking about.)

Cipes also mentions that Martin may be a shoe-in for Most Improved Player. The other challenger I'm hearing bandied about is Golden State's Monta Ellis (who is a phenomenal talent - maybe the best young piece Don Nelson has there, along with Andris Biedrins).

Let's compare the current state of the race. First, Kevin:

YEAR PPG RPG APG MPG FG% 3% PER
2006 10.8 3.6 1.3 26.5 .480 .369 14.8
2007 24.9 5.1 2.2 38.1 .545 .490 27.0
-----------------------------------------------
CHNG +14.1 +1.5 +0.9 +11.6 +.065 +.139 +12.2

Damn, it looks even more ridiculous when you lay it out.

Here's Mr. Ellis:

YEAR PPG RPG APG MPG FG% 3% PER
2006 6.8 2.1 1.6 18.1 .415 .341 11.1
2007 17.7 2.9 4.4 33.9 .469 .297 15.9
-----------------------------------------------
CHNG +10.9 +0.8 +2.8 +15.8 +.054 -.044 +4.8

Great improvements, no doubt. But it's no contest, right? Ellis got a bigger increase in minutes, and Martin still shows bigger increases in every category but assists. And with PER becoming a more mainstream stat thanks to its founder's place at ESPN, that jump (which will likely diminish somewhat as the season wears on) in Kevin's PER is impossible to ignore.

As of today, Kevin Martin is the league's Most Improved Player. No contest.

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Comments

Re: Your Daily Kevin Martin Adulation Thread

TZ - do you still have our guesses of what K-Marts stats would look like this year? I know it's early, but I wanted to take a look at them. Do you remember what day that post was?

by evanmeagan on Nov 28, 2006 9:10 AM PST reply actions

Re: Your Daily Kevin Martin Adulation Thread

It's right here. Everyone underestimated him, even guys like us who were already drinking the Kool-aid.

by Tom Ziller on Nov 28, 2006 9:21 AM PST reply actions

Re: Your Daily Kevin Martin Adulation Thread

There is no doubt that martin is leading the MIP race but there are other candidates
Utah's Deron Williams is on a tear
Emeka Okafor is playing like a DPOY
Carlos Boozer is putting up stellar numbers
J.R. Smith is in the groove
and Andris Biedrins just decimated Duncan in their last game
is Monta really 2nd to Kevo?

by kingme on Nov 28, 2006 12:31 PM PST reply actions

Re: Your Daily Kevin Martin Adulation Thread

How their numbers compare to Kevin's in terms of actual improvement?

by Kusian on Nov 28, 2006 12:43 PM PST up reply actions

Re: Your Daily Kevin Martin Adulation Thread

biedrins
last year 14 min 63% fg 30%ft 4reb 0.4assists .7 blocks 3.8 points
this year 30 min 65% fg 57.8%ft 10 reb 1.3 assists 2.9 blocks 11.2 points

williams
last year 29 min 42%fg 70%ft 2.4 reb 4.5 assists 1.8to 0.8steals 10.8 points
this year 36 min 48%fg 76%ft 3.2 reb 9/0 assists 2.9to 1.3 steals 17.1 points

okafor (bear in mind he only played 26 games last year)
last year 33 min 41%fg 65%ft 10reb 1.2 assists 2.0 to .9 steals 1.9 blocks 13 points
this year 38 mis 54%fg 50%ft 12 reb 1.5 assists 2.7 to 1.0 steals 3.4 blocks 19 points

boozer (only 33 games played last year)
last year 31 min 54%fg 72%ft 8.6reb 2.7 assists 2.1 to .9 steals 16 points
this year 35 min 56%fg 74%ft 12.5 reb 3.1 assists 2.1 to .6 steals 22 points

JR Smith
last year 18 min 39%fg 1.0 3s made 82%ft 2.0 reb 1.1 assists 0.7 steals 7 points
this year 29 min 46%fg 3.0 3s made 83%ft 2.6 reb 1.9 assists 1.3 steals 18 points

--------

I don't know if Boozer and Okafor would benefit a lot from the fact that they have improved their numbers while still playing almost the same number of mins last year (+5 mins for both of them this season)but I think Deron is his biggest competition

I still hope our King would wi though
go Kmart!!!

by kingme on Nov 28, 2006 10:50 PM PST up reply actions

Re: Your Daily Kevin Martin Adulation Thread

Kevin Martin is single-handedly saving my fantasy ball team.

(Roy and Josh Howard are/were out; Dalembert is a douche-nozzle.)

Thank you, Kevin. Thank you, TZ.

by jeskeets on Nov 28, 2006 3:10 PM PST reply actions

Re: Your Daily Kevin Martin Adulation Thread

Checks (cheques?)/money orders may be made out to...

I'll tell you when the sell high on Martin. I don't think that time has approached, though.

by Tom Ziller on Nov 28, 2006 3:34 PM PST up reply actions

Re: Your Daily Kevin Martin Adulation Thread

Will it ever? His production might dip, but even if it does, how much? I don't see alot of reason for it to dip significantly.

by Deleran on Nov 28, 2006 4:05 PM PST up reply actions

Re: Your Daily Kevin Martin Adulation Thread

I think his production is likely to dip a bit if Miller and Bibby get back to their normal selves. Bibby demands a lot of shots. Miller less so but as he takes up more of Kenny's minutes will take more shots. (I think Reef's going to get his shots and minutes regardless of whether he's a starter.) Still, I don't think it's a huge drop off. I just don't think he's going to be at 24 - 25 pts/game the entire year.

Then again, I only guessed him at 18.5/game when we were guessing earlier in the year so what the hell do I know! :-)

by Kusian on Nov 28, 2006 4:31 PM PST up reply actions

Re: Your Daily Kevin Martin Adulation Thread

Don't under-estimate the 'scouting report' effect. Although it shouldn't take this long, NBA teams, despite having people to scout teams even when they're not playing them, tend to use last year's scouting report until they play a team this year. So... look for teams to change the way they defend him in the second and third meetings. If he starts drawing the 'best' perimeter defender (instead of Bibby), life will get a little tougher. Don't get me wrong... he's on my fantasy team (as is Monta Ellis at this point) so I want the party to keep going. But last year the Clippers would have definitely put Ross on Bibby - tonight, he might be on Martin.

The Clippers - the Best NBA Team in LA!

by Steve Perrin on Nov 28, 2006 5:57 PM PST up reply actions

Re: Your Daily Kevin Martin Adulation Thread

I agree to an extent that Martin will begin to draw better defenders. But that might not be the smart thing to do, as the Kings aren't running many plays for Martin right now. So many of his points are coming in transition and from the foul line when he's freelancing on semi-transition/broken plays. And with the way rules favor fast, crafty, athletic guards on offense, how big a difference will Ross make?

I think we'll see tonight.

by Tom Ziller on Nov 28, 2006 6:35 PM PST up reply actions