Why I Almost Crashed My Car Today

I also don’t think he should be moved to the bench now . In fact I think that would be a desaster( I know I know how much worse could it be?) Kevin’s only problem to me is he concerned himself too much on fitting in instead of playing his game. He put too much pressure on himself. PW should have brought him off the bench for the first 5 or so games in the first place. That way he could just come off the bench & light it up with no pressure to fit in with tyreke or the rest of the team. That would have built confidence. Then you work in line-ups of him & Tyreke . Moving him to the bench now would just make his confidence even worse. PW just needs to tell Kevin to go out there & score the damn ball & try to mix in a little defense.

i don’t think moving him to the bench is the best solution either. Although the thought of this is very intriguing but for the meantime I say have him start. Kevin just isn’t playing his game right now. He is trying to hard to fit into the system instead of just going out there and playing his game. Since we read the national media I’m sure kevin does and I think he is worrying to much about fitting in instead of playing his game. That’s my take on it for right now.

…is that I had the same idea ten days ago. At least until he feels like he’s got his legs back under him again, I don’t think Martin would be the sort to have a fit about it.

but that ship has sailed.

Here’s the thing – the Spurs can bring Manu off the bench because they have Tim Duncan and Tony Parker in their starting lineup. We don’t have an offensive threat as good as either of these guys, so this move does not make sense to me.

Additionally, this is what Beno Udrih should be doing. And if Udrih can’t do it, don’t reward him with a promotion to the starting lineup.

Kevin Martin is one of our two best players. He needs to be starting (and finishing), in my opinion.

In all honesty, we should have the offensive threat to bring Kevin off the bench. But, we’ve seen a lot of inconsistent play from pretty much everyone not named Tyreke. If there were some consistency there and they started playing like they did when Kevin was out then I’d say bring him off the bench. I’ve said for awhile that I think one of Kevin and Tyreke should be on the floor at all times, and both should definitely be on the floor in crunch time. This doesn’t necessarily mean they both can’t start, however. Unfortunately, Kevin has not been himself since his return and apparently when he came back he murdered everyone else’s confidence somehow (that’s sarcasm, by the way).

from Rotoworld:

Kings coach Paul Westphal is urging Kevin Martin to play aggressive basketball and to stop worrying about fitting in.
Kev-Mart hasn’t been his usual self since returning from wrist surgery, but he recently spent some time with coach Pete Carril to work on his shooting form. We expect he’ll be routinely scoring 20+ points in no time

i took a glance at the last 5 games and only 3 of our main offensive weapons have shot better than 40%:

Tyreke – 42-81 = 51%
Omri – 26-52 = 50%
Spencer – 19-44 = 43%

Meanwhile, everyone else has been pretty crappy:

Beno – 12-32 = 38%
Nocioni – 10-29 = 35%
Donte – 11-32 = 34%
Kevin – 19-58 = 33%
Thompson – 14-43 = 32%

The losing started before Kevin came back, but got worse once he did. This team’s confidence was already shot and now they’ve added a new player into the mix who has to work on getting his rhythm back while taking some of the minutes the other guys were getting. Had Kevin come back when were consistently winning and our guys were playing some great ball he could’ve slowly been worked back into the lineup by coming off the bench. But Kevin came back after we’d lost a handful of games and Westphal had hoped he’d be able to give us an instant boost. I think it’s been fairly obvious that he wasn’t ready and his insertion into the starting lineup did not help guys like Beno, Omri,and Donte, all of whom have been struggling, by taking away some of their minutes rather than letting them work their way out of their individual slumps. This is in no way a knock on Kevin. It’s not his fault he hasn’t been totally ready. This is more of a knock on the poor timing of his return. Kevin should’ve been able to come off the bench upon his return and work his way back up, something he would’ve done easily without complaint. Instead Westphal felt the need to put him in right away because other guys weren’t playing their best.

He’s your best offensive player, the last few games not withstanding. The whole team stinks on D, you need to outscore some teams for now, he’s not the problem . . . .
etc etc etc

I like it! I have also considered it, but threw it out because I figured that PW would never do it. When Kevin came back, it was reported that he would be willing to come off the bench. Course, as you say, we don’t really know what goes on behind closed doors.

Agreed: “Had Kevin come back when were consistently winning and our guys were playing some great ball he could’ve slowly been worked back into the lineup by coming off the bench.”

Given how Kevin has performed in his last few games, he might be very open to the idea. If nothing else, it would be interesting to see how this scenario would pan out.

This sounds like Grant is trying to plant another idea into management and/or PW. I am fairly certain that they are frustrated enough that they just might try it.

Your lineups (below) look fine, but where is Sergio? Also, you still want to start Hawes to the starting lineup instead of Brockman? (Brockman’s plus minus stats are better for the team) Whatever, it sounds like an interesting plan.

Starting:Beno, Tyreke, Donte, Jason, and Spencer

Subs(in order of likely appearance): Kevin, Francisco/Casspi, Brockman, Armstrong

-Noc, K9, and Ime in spot situations

I think you should be a championship contender. Simple thought but I think it’s accurate

was when he was coming back. Now is too late in my opinion because his confidence is clearly shot, and sending him to the bench now would not be a good move for Westphal and Martin’s mental health.

Either through trade or through John Wall, if you get a good point guard and move Tyreke to the 2 guard, Kevin could be a great scorer off the bench.

but this is a good place for random thoughts about the Kevin Martin situation.

I’m very dissapointed in the media (huge surprise, I know), especially the local media, because no one is giving Kevin Martin the benefit of the doubt. Instead of actually helping the guy, they keep bringing him down with all these “Reke-Kevin” doesn’t work and all the radio talk.

Maybe I expect too much out of the “voices” in Sacramento (I know I do) but is it too much to ask to just get behind Kevin, and the organization as a whole? I wouldn’t mind some crazy “homerism” right about now. It’s not like we’re talking about some malcontent, spoiled, rich brat who has never played hard and never given a crap about the team and the city, right?

His salary is comparable to the others, so it would not be out-of-line for him to be coming off the bench.