On Kevin Martin, and Why It's Foolish To Buy Him a Train Ticket

Have you ever noticed how Martin usually creates most of his own attempts, which would by definition diminish the lead to find him on offense, since he can just get the ball out on the perimeter and attack from there?

Ummm … no. They don’t watch this team, otherwise they wouldn’t make such dumb statements.

I wondered how the Kings chemistry would be when Martin returns. Would Reke or the other guys still take shots or would they defer to Martin? It will definitely be interesting to watch the Kings once Martin returns.

and hope it will be sooooon!
but -

Maybe they build snowmen in El Dorado Hills.

I hear it did actually snow there this morning – so there’s that.

Seriously, I don’t think there’s too much debate that when healthy (if) we’re more than a little wing heavy on this roster as Casspi and Donte’ both seem to have a future.

On most folks wish list is Another big man to fill in in case of:
1. injury
1. foul trouble
2. bad nights
3. bigger rosters
4. just to take some pressure off
5. in case one of our young bigs just isn’t a starter

I personally think KM is untouchable in all but a “Wow!” deal and that we have some pieces that can probably translate into a servicable 3rd big man without touching our core.

This is what I envisioned when I posted the fanshot. Glad to know I wasn’t crazy when I thought that analysis was pretty ridiculous.

Kevin is sitting on the bench during games, and not off in the baseline corner with Cisco. And his suit jacket was cool. The pants and shoes did not quite match, but the jacket was happening! Its called GQ style, look it up. Anyway about his new seat, I think this is a conscious effort by the coaches to incorporate K-Mart as much as possible in anticipation of his return. K-Mart can get a better sense for strategy, coaching maneuvers, and pass along words of wisdom to Tyreke and anyone who will listen.

Hopefully, K-Mart returns one month from today!

As far as this scout, he must work for the T’Wolves, Dubs, or Clips. But I think he makes a valid point in which teammates would tend to watch when K-Mart has the ball on the wings. And play would come to a stand still. Sometimes. Not always.

But lets not kid ourselves. We have a player in Tyreke playing the game at one level. An all-star, game-defining level. And then we have teammates playing at a lower level. A contributory, yet inconsistent level. Occasionally, a player will rise up and play on same level (see Donte Greene outburst versus Knicks), but not often. To beat quality teams, we need another player playing at the same superior level as Tyreke. And a player who can be counted upon to play that way most nights. That player is Kevin Martin.

Last two games K-Mart was the missing piece. Come back soon, Kevin.

please point out for me a time (on or off the court) where Kevin Martin has given us any indication that he is a me-first, get mine ballplayer? Can someone give me one example that would cause us concern that he cannot “fit in?” Would we perhaps like to have a an offensive player of Martin’s caliber on the floor when our offense bogs and we need a hoop?

This guy figured out a way to play with Artest and Bibby when they refused to defer, managed to co-exist with the ball-pounding John Salmons. Martin has been through hell with the Kings, the one player that was a rotation guy on the last playoff roster and has been along for the ride all the way down to 17 wins.

Someone has to explain to me why/where we perceive that his return will cause problems. We’ll have too many productive players? More, please.

Perhaps this is just another reason why the Kings are performing so well this season…the other teams are obviously not scouting them very well…

Once Martin comes back the Kings will be better, and considering they are already playing well, I look forward to the day.

But everyone knows that having too much talent is a terrible burden, and not a single talented squad has won an NBA championship since before the Civil War.

So, Martin comes back, plays his game, Evans scores 5 less a game, but gets 3-5 more assists a night. How awful for us.

Martin spreads the floor, and when he drives, he collapses defenses. Someone will be open. This scout couldn’t find his ass with both hands and a road map.

(By the way, before I forget, did you get that e-mail I sent you?)

Martin is the best shooter on this team. Tyreke needs shooters around him. Donté’s improved his stroke this year, but most of his improvement has come from attacking the rim. With Kevin on the floor, you have to pick between two very lethal poisons in Tyreke or Kevin, unless you’re a team that happens to have two exceptional backcourt defenders (Off the top of my head, only pair I can think of is Westbrook and Sefalosha).

Kevin Martin is the reason I loved the Tyreke pick. We have a chance to have one of, if not the, most lethal backcourt in the NBA, in terms of scoring the ball, and getting the other team into foul trouble. Kevin and Tyreke are like Yin and Yang: One shoots the ball with extreme accuracy, the other gets to the rim at will. One needs the ball in his hands, the other excels at playing off the ball. I honestly think this could be a matchup made in heaven, and I think its why Kevin Martin had been campaigning so hard for us to pick Evans in the draft (as he’s mentioned several times during interviews).

People just got too caught up with how well the Kings had been playing without him, and comparing it to the Webber situation back when he came back from microfracture. This is not even nearly the same, Webber was never the same player after that, because it took away a lot of his athleticism, while Kevin’s out because of an injury to his non-shooting wrist. If it had been Kevin’s ankle again, I might have been a bit more worried. But I’m not. And Kevin has been the consummate professional, you always see him cheering his team on, giving his teammates words of advice during timeouts, I just don’t see him breaking any chemistry when he comes back.

Come back soon K-Mart, we’re going to need you, because the going is about to get a lot tougher.

Good stuff all around.

We know he improved this year (markedly) but you can’t very well expect every scout to know that. It’s fine.

Besides the fact that it’s their job? I mean this is what they get paid to do. To KNOW these things!

I think they do a good job given the limitations of being national writers. (And they do aim to get things right.)

I think the scout is stupid. Well said TZ.

The fact that the Kings are 1-4 with Kevin Martin and 8-6 without Kevin Martin is not proof that the team is better without Kevin Martin. Unless you can see into some alternative universe where Kevin wasn’t injured, you have no way of knowing whether the team would have gone 6-8, 2-10 or 14-0 with a healthy Kevin Martin.

scheduled for Martin yet?

I’d like to buy a pair of those for Spencer and maybe another pair for Kevin to use as legs.