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
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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
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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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