http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/sports/bk/bkn/7201174.html One way or another, Kevin Martin pledges to be unrecognizable. Having heard the speculation that the Rockets would be interested in acquiring Carmelo Anthony and knowing such a deal might have to include him, Martin made an offer to at least look the part. "If Houston wants Carmelo that bad," Martin said, "on Halloween, if I'm still here, I'll dress up as Carmelo." Martin said that even without the Anthony get-up, he will bear only a vague resemblance to the player who finished last season with the Rockets. "I'll be very different," Martin said. "I'll be back to my pre-wrist-injury form. I'm feeling better, more like I was before the injury. That was the main goal, to get back there. My goal when I got traded was to fit in with a great group of guys, not try to be that person that came in here thinking he was going to take every shot. That fitting-in phase is definitely over. Now I'm ready to get back to being myself. "Nobody has seen the real me yet. I'm ready to take off." Martin was the Rockets' leading scorer, averaging 21.3 points, in his 24 games following the trade-deadline deal that sent Carl Landry to Sacramento and Tracy McGrady to New York. He had missed 32 games with the Kings because of a hairline fracture in his left wrist, then struggled when he returned. He also missed five games with the Rockets because of a left shoulder sprain and was inconsistent down the stretch, going from a three-point night in his first game back to a 39-point outing in his return to Sacramento. Up for the challenge After a long offseason spent training with longtime personal coach David Thorpe, Martin not only is fully recovered from the wrist injury and a left ankle sprain/bruise that occurred early in the 2008-09 season and still hindered him last season, he also put in more work in the weight room and tweaked his shooting form. "He worked hard, but the biggest thing is he is totally healthy and back to being a really, really athletic player," Thorpe said. "He looked like a 21-year-old the way he was running and jumping and sprinting. The results were phenomenal. He never shot like this. He never had a better summer shooting the ball than this summer. I'm more hopeful than I ever have been before about him shooting the 3. "He wants to be an All-Star, wants to be one of the best shooting guards in the league. He knows he has things to improve. He knows he has to stay healthy. He's not afraid of the challenge." Surprises in store More than that, Martin said he and the Rockets will surprise people. "I'm very confident in the makeup of our team now to do damage in the playoffs, not just get there," Martin said. "I've never been more motivated than this summer, with Yao coming back and a new team. We're primed to take off." Still, the rumors persist, to the point that Rockets general manager Daryl Morey told Martin he is not looking to deal him. "We talked in general about the future," Morey said. "For sure, we're certainly not looking to trade anybody on the team right now. "We feel like we have a very good team, and we're very excited about it. It's just the reality of my job that when any top player becomes available, I have to look at it. But … I really worry that players take something negative from that. I would like to avoid that." Martin does not seem to mind. "That's just part of the business, especially with somebody like (Anthony)," Martin said. "Of course my name is going to come up with his name. You look at that as a compliment. You stop looking at it as a compliment when they're talking about trading you for a second-round pick in 2016." jonathan.feigen@chron.com
http://bbs.clutchfans.net/showthread.php?t=191498 http://10.0.0.66:9015/actionpage?ba...tiondesc=&replayhash=mcXwozMNoyqgOVp2zSU38Q==
I would rather us AB as bite for CA. Rockets had KL and martin/KL should be fit better with Yao. if healthy, Martin is better than AK too. But martin's attitude is kind of like Tmac.
KM... is talking the talk with confidence, b/c he can walk the walk. Tracy is all talk..... talk is cheap.
i'm willing to give this group of guys we have now a chance to show us what they can do on the court, i really like Martins game and attitude, hopefully it will payoff when the season starts, another month and half!!
i'll believe it when i see it, kevin martin. tmac has jaded me (and many other rockets fans). i saw the thread title and thought: who is this guy? tmac?
lol to top it off, he has a history of injuries. but the comparison stops there. he also doesn't seem to talk to the media as much as Mac did.
He's not just wandering off on D, he plays as much as he can. You have to remember he's pretty lean, not much bulk to pressure his man. We needed a scorer and we got that in him. The Rockets play as a team, if anyone gets past our defender they always switch off. I really like the one two punch that we have at the SG position, Lee will come in and pester his man on D, and at the same time make him work on offense. Martin has never been surrounded by this type of a squad. I expect him to be more motivated than ever before, expect for him to give his all night in and night out. Come playoffs he will be our X-factor.
Martin is just excited to show people how much he's improved since he's put in all this hard work during the summer. Martin is no T-Mac. No one is like T-Mac...
The IP address with a network ID of 10 is non-routable. You might want to change the URL to point to youtube instead.
I really don't know why but I agree that I'd rather use AB as my center piece. Gut feeling I guess. But then my gut told me that Mo Taylor was a good signing. I really don't see the attitude similarity between Martin and McGrady. Martin and Tracy both worked hard to come back but Tracy was done. Martin was still putting in 20pts a night injuried. Tracy couldn't see or didn't want to see reality. Kevin is saying all the right things IMO. I love the... "That's just part of the business, especially with somebody like (Anthony)," Martin said. "Of course my name is going to come up with his name. You look at that as a compliment. You stop looking at it as a compliment when they're talking about trading you for a second-round pick in 2016." You'd never hear Tracy say that - even now.
