Last year, his offense dropped off and his defense stayed the same. With his offense back and Martin looking like he's gonna actually play defense, he's great value either for the team or as a chip in a trade for a contender or a team looking to rebuild with his expiring.
Check in at around the 53:00 mark of Clutch's and my last podcast: http://rockets.clutchfans.net/3161/podcast-rockets-dwight-howard-trade-aftermath/ Been on the record that Martin would be good for this team this year.
The contract year in this point in a players career always does something to them. Going into this season you could see player value fluxuate tremendously going into next Summer. Look at the free agent list of 2013- There are the few obvious hot commoditie candidates that probably will not really be on the market for teams like the Rockets unless something drastically changes- -CP3, Howard, Bynum, Harden(If not traded or RFA matched) Then there is the tier 2 and this is where it gets interesting. You have the likes of- -Josh Smith, Manu G., Kevin Martin, Al Jefferson, David West, and maybe Millsap & Mo Williams. Now we know that the top tier guys are for sure going to get paid max dollars, but what about those second tier guys? I would think that Josh Smith is the most likely to get overpaid out of this group, but after that I wouldn't be shocked if Kevin Martin gets offered a larger contract than any of the other free agents in that tier 2. Manu will probably take a huge pay cut to stay with San Antonio, and I wouldn't be shocked if David West did the same to stay with the Pacers. Contending teams will probably try and get a discount with Big Al and Millsap to sell them on winning a title vs. being a team like Toronto's best player and carrying the load in the post. In a free agent class with this many legitimate foundation players, its crazy to think that the guy so many people on Clutchfans hate & want traded might be the 6th highest paid free agent in the Summer of 2013 IF, and thats a big IF, he can stay healthy all season, and produce what he's essentially produced over his entire career.
To follow up from my previous post, I know alot of people are going to say "what team is really going to give Kevin Martin a large contract next year?" I do want to say that you might be surprised. Teams with cap space that might be interested in bidding- -Philly is an interesting team that might really value Martin's wing scoring. Re-signing Bynum is priority #1, but after that, its imperitive that they look at a wing scoring option who can have a field day on the perimter when Bynum gets double teamed... Kevin Martin my friends would be a great #2 there. After re-signing Bynum to the max, they will have "some" capspace, but not enough to give huge bucks to Martin. Still, he could get a very nice 3 year deal for around 25Mil. -Dallas might STILL think they can make a compelling run in Dirk's twighlight, and folks from Dallas' media circle (Mark Stein) have said multiple times that they have had an interest in Kevin Martin in the past. Next Summer they will have major money to burn. Given they strike out on the tier 1 star players, Josh Smith and Kevin Martin could get offered nice payday's to come to Dallas for one final playoff run with the big German. -Atlanta- If for some reason Josh Smith re-signs with the Hawks, they will probably look at putting more pieces around their frontcourt of Smith/Horford. The missing piece might be one or two more elite wing scorers. Oh, and with only 13 Million committed next Summer, they will have major money to burn on a contract for Smith and someone like Martin.
I've loved K-Mart since he arrived here ....guess I'm just the minority all he needs is someone else to break out around him, K-Mart is the real deal when is comes to pure scoring Reggie Miller-esque
If the team becomes reliant on Martin's scoring, that is, the 2nd and 3rd options offensively are unreliable, then yes, Martins will get keyed on and the whole team will look bad. But, if there are those other options and we prove to teams that we can still score if they divert resources to stopping Martin, then not only will the team look good but so will Martin.
Off topic and extremely positive. This young Hippo is a true fan and thus gets my rep. Post of the thread!
I definitely still want him out. He is no use to us now. We don't have a center to draw double teams and kick out, we don't have a high motion offense, we don't have the flopping rules of 2 years ago. He isn't a bad player, he just is no longer suited for this team...
Uhhhhhhhhhh... Its preseason bro...calm down No doubt hell be better than last year because of his contract, but Kevin at best is a 6th man on a contending team. The guy practically gives back everything in the defensive end
I honestly think you're overrating Martin's ability to help a team win when he has little help. The Kings managed to be perennial bottom-feeders with him as their top dog. The Rockets will be severely overmatched regardless of Martin. And rookies generally are notorious for making mistakes both on offense and defense. Martin probably end up being the difference between a 10pt loss and a 8pt loss. Don't get me wrong, I think Martin can make a huge difference on a contender. Just not a bottom feeder like us. The only way I see us having another .500 season is if at least two youngsters perform otherworldly. If that's the case, I'd happily take another 14th pick because we already have our core. I really doubt it though.
I will stick my neck out and say that Martin's defense has improved drastically from a few years ago if we're using preseason as a sample. I also think the prevailing sentiment that he is 'one dimensional' is silly. He is fairly versatile on offense and even moves well off the ball when playing with a good facilitator. The knock on him during crunch time is valid but with an asterisk. The other team simply has to key in on him on defense and there is no major second offensive threat to earn him any space. Recipe for disaster. But for every pure anti-Martin post (see: Bublanski, above), there are posts complaining that he helps the team win and we should hate victories... there's no good way around that kind of complaining.
MArtin is fools gold.... no defence and silent in 4th period... sell him high... we need 1st round pick under 20 and a backup center or point
