Kelly Dwyer: Martin's Injury = Bring In the Dynamite

way too early to throw in the towel on this team. even without k-mart v2, they're still gonna play the same style of basketball. salmons and garcia are gonna bring hella energy every game. they both play better d than martin, and they both take the ball to the rack. consistency might be an issue, but we still have udrih to run the offense. i think this team can still be competitive, and also be able to develop players a little further. it was bonzi wells injury that gave martin more minutes and comfort on the floor. yin and the yang! hopefully we can have a bit of balance with this injury too, and see someone else's game take off.

I believe that you guys are missing the point. KELLY DWYER said we should do it. He watches more basketball than the Kings scouting department. If he thinks we should blow it up, let's blow the thing up. And thank god this guy is able to blog at no expense to henry. Good pull, yahoo.

I get the point. But can we let the team at least play another game before we say blow it up? It's always interesting to see what happens in situations like this. It's a major opportunity for someone to step up.

If there is one strength this team has is its more than fair share of talented wing players.  Kev's injury is gonna benefit Salmons, Cisco, and Douby tremendously, and for me thats most important.  the W's and L's dont matter right this minute for me, with or without Kev, I doubt we're a playoff team, so we're just looking at a better draft pick.  So even if we start struggling filling his void right away, our team will be developing our youth and will still be fun to watch because everyone plays so hard right now and I've been loving that.  I dont think a short term injury will change GP's gameplan on the rebuild at all

The team scored 43 points in the 4th quarter without Martin. They have more than enough pieces to keep it up. They are starting to tighten up the D and are heeding Theus' pleas to go to the hole late in games with positive results. Bibby will add to their depth when he comes back.

Douby, Garcia and Salmons will get more minutes now. All are better defenders than K-Mart, and all are capable scorers.

The team still needs a power forward that can score and rebound like a Boozer or Howard or Stoudamire or Duncan, but obviously those kind of guys don't grow on trees and that's probably not going to happen for a while.

Hawes kind of took a step back last night and Theus was probably smart to limit his minutes. He's going to continue to get 10-12 minutes or less until they have some blowouts, and they are not playing many of those lately.

I was really impressed with Douby in only eight minutes last night. Solid D on Williams, no turnovers, made his free throws, played within the team.

Salmons could really blossom as another go-to guy here along with Artest. Martin is not really a crunch time player yet; he generally did most of his scoring in the first three quarters.

This team used to be so predictable: when they needed a shot to win at the end of the same, Bibby would take it and there was no Plan B if it broke down. Now the Kings can beat you in more ways.

Petrie's patience is being rewarded and Theus is starting to grow into the job. Things are looking up and it's time to stick with this core instead of making moves just to make moves.

I still don't see anything better than an eighth seed in this tough conference and they are going to have to keep Artest healthy and sane to get there, but that would be a pretty good accomplishment for this group and give them something to build on in coming years.

I am not too upset about Martin's injury. The dude needs some rest. He's been looking a little tired/hesitant in the 4th quaters recently. Giving Garcia, Salmons, and Douby playing time to determine if they are/should be a part of the King's future is a definite positive. I will be watching eagerly as to how they respond, especially on the road.  

There were probably better ways to get rest than a groin injury! Dude isn't gonna be able to run for awhile. He'll lose a lot of his stamina too. Maybe he'll get back in the weight room and put on a little more muscle.

Okay some things need to be said in all of this.

First KD. Props to him for getting his own blog. Interesting to see if the hits keep on coming for him now that he's got his own action (and not the 6th best writer on a "bigger sports site".)

As far as K-Mart this isn't good news for the team unless you think Quincy Douby's development is key to this team's future. I don't think it is, but it won't be as if the team, and Reggie most importantly, have a chance to see if Douby can be a vital contributor somewhere in the future. This Martin injury isn't temporary. This isn't going to help the Kings much at all in the long run. Folks are forgetting some things. When has the Cisko Kid ever been consistent offensively? Does Salmons do the kind of things that help the Kings win games (like get to the FT line 15 times in a game?)? Better yet has anybody forgotten, despite the current mark of a 3-1 homestand, that 1 reason the Kings even won because they didn't get blown out over the first 3 qtr's? A big reason for that was KEVIN'S 25 POINTS which was his average. He may have only scored 5 in the 4th but 30 points is 30 points in the NBA. Not alot of guys can do that on a consistent basis.

If there was ever a time, and I don't think now is any less better of a time than say, last May, then proof of Petrie's senility is proving pointless. The more & more he waits the longer other teams say fuck it this is pointless. This guy wants something we ain't givin period! If you were Pat Riley and were interested in Mike Bibby would you do anything less than Jason Williams and some low draft picks? Why would you? What's it in for you to do more than that? Why would you attempt to get another team involved in a 3 way deal to up the ante to Petrie's satisfaction. If petrie doesn't let his patience go NOW, this team will be fucked long beyond Kenny Thomas' contract.

If "blowing up the team" means trading Bibby and Miller, then go for it.

Also, time for Quincy Douby to step into the "Bobby Jackson Memorial" microwave sixth man position.  We know Salmons can hang as a starter.  Whatdya got QD?

I agree Section, and Garcia got off on the good foot with those 2 late 3s. While Garcia is not the scorer nor the speedster that Martin is, what he does have is better ball handling, passing, clutch shooting, defending and bow staff skills (oops wrong sport!). He does get a lot of ticky tack fouls on him, though. But he should learn to control that with the extra time he'll be getting.

Why not try to hold the fort and see if we can be still competitive while Kev is out? If not, then blow it up. Nobody expected us to be this competitive but we are. I am really having fun this season and I cannot fathom the thought of tanking. We have a lot of guards, I'm sure Salmons our Garcia would relish the thought of starting. I say we give this team time

It may be more of a personal issue than anything else, but I have a real fundamental problem with the logic of "blowing it up." My fundamental problem? It never f*cking works. Seriously when has a team gutted its payroll, gone after draft picks and cap space and blossomed into something super competitive? Even if you do have free money and are in the market for a Rashard Lewis there has to be somebody on your roster that makes Rashard Lewis want to play with them. Rashard Lewis ain't going to Orlando without Dwight Howard, and remember the Magic lucked into drafting Howard in the same way the Blazers lucked into drafting Oden. I like the nucleus of this young Kings roster but if you lose Artest there's no one that anyone would elect to play with. Would anybody honestly elect to play in Sacramento, for Coach Curfew, when the players you're enticed to play with are Martin? Hawes? Douby? Particularly when so many G.M.s are trigger happy and sign even mid-level players to insurmountable contracts? I'm not saying they shouldn't ship out Bibby, or the Cower Forwards,  but I think the Artest dealing is more delicate. In part because, based on prior personality problems, you're never going to get equal trade value for him, and in part because, as the team's showing during his 7 game suspension showed, love him or hate him, Artest is the proverbial straw that stirs the drink with this team. Kevin puts up great numbers and makes some great shots and there's no question he's the soul of this team. But he's still a skinnier Miller or Hamilton, and both of those guys needed bulk around them. Also Artest isn't that old, if the logic is losing players to free up big money to sign other, younger guys, you better be sure the other, younger guys you're signing in theory are better than Artest is in execution.

The Kings need to rebuild. But rebuilding is different than blowing up. Blowing up is what you do when your star player wants out or your entire roster is garbage. And even in the latter's case Portland didn't trade Randolph until they knew they had Oden. I think the Kings can't fundamentally blow up because in this case blowing up necessitates something that the extension of Martin and even the signing of Moore indicate to the alternative, that this team is a work in progress. How we're any different than Memphis, which has a star "older" player surrounded by burgeoning younger talent, is beyond me. And there are no entreaties to Memphis to blow it up. Even though I think Gasol is far more liability than Artest.

And let's remember Martin is out a f*cking  month. 4 weeks. If he was out all season this conversation might be different. But a month is a month is a month. The Kings were deplorable through February before the Artest trade and still made the playoffs. Even if we play poorly without Martin for the next few weeks it's not necessarily something we can't recoup from. Or for that matter want to recoup from. This team is still more than capable of making the lottery without the aide of Petrie dynamite.

For a tutorial on the dangers of betterment through perpetual blowing up and early lottery picks see the Golden State Warriors from Todd Fuller to Mike Dunleavy.

Okay some things need to be said in all of this too that I think is forgotten. KD points out that Mikki Moore is a BYC player, essentially meaning that any team with cap room (the Charlotte Bobcats) is the only team who can make a play for the guy.