I have one quick observation about Kevin Martin's D the other night against Golden State. He couldn't gaurd a fly stuck in molasas to save his life. He is putting in better effort and he did get that nice block when he was D'in up the ball. His secondary (help/team) defense leaves a lot to be desired. His tertiary defense is insanely good however. By tertiary defense, I mean how he drew 3 quick defensive fouls on Ellis in the second half. If I recall correctly, it took Ellis out of the game for a while with foul trouble. If Martin was more assertive in the first half with Ellis on him, Ellis might have fouled out. I know relying on the ref to call fouls doesn't fly in the final seconds of a game, but damn, it was visible that Ellis was getting frustrated. I could easily see Martin as the player that other team's fans hate the most.
I thought Martin had a few good stretches against Kobe in the opener. However, still wondering why Martin was on Kobe in the opener?
I'm thinking matchups. Martin is mismatched defensively on Kobe and Odum. I think it was the lesser of 2 evils. Martin vs. Kobe / Martin vs. Odum.
Martin has a habit of picking his spots alittle too much....it's almost like when he decides to turn it on is pre-determined. That's probably how he manages to score so well within the flow...but if he's getting bucket/fouls we need to forget the offense and keep going to him, much like he was going late against GS.
On a related note, imagine how many free throw shots the Rockets would have gotten with Yao and Lowry, who are also really good at getting to the FT line.
Be careful what you ask for. I can see Artest inadvertantly putting his shoulder into Martin's chest thus calapsing one of his lungs or something.
LOL. Still, I'd rather Martin play off Artest and give him the 3 pointer as opposed to having Martin try to defend Kobe with the ball. Let Battier fool around with Kobe and let Artest have all the threes he wants.
Really? You know, it was primarily Battier and Lee guarding Ellis, and Brooks guarding Curry. The few possessions Martin was on Ellis I thought he did fine. Able to keep him in front, unlike Battier. Maybe his help side defense needs improvement. But as far as man to man, who exactly was lighting him up so much to warrant your above statement?
I'd rather let martin guard artest over kobe. Just let artest take over...we've all seen that before right?
That's just how good of a defender Artest is. But if Artest decided to drive or post up Martin, he'd be done.
artest is a fool, but not a fool that would give up the chance to post up martin all night to shoot 3's
Agreed... Amazing how people can make comments without watching the game. If he says he watched the game than he didn't watch Martin. If he says he watched martin than he is an idiot. Martin is playing hard on defense. He will get better IMO because playing hard isn't all it takes to play god defense. You have to learn all the nuances of your opponent and you have to acquire all the bag of tricks like Hayes and Battier have. And that doesn't happen over night. Martin will be a better defender by the end of the season because He is already taking the most important step;he is trying to be better. P.S. The same can be said for Lee. IMO Lee will surpass Battier as our best defender. And with more athleticism and a better vertical leap should become part of the starting rotation by season end. P.S.S. I like Patrick Patterson's defensive effort. He clearly has a lot to learn but again he is another player taking the most important step in making the effort. It is my hope by season end he is close to Hayes as a defender so he can take Hayes minutes. That would make us better at the 4.
Good Observation.. That's the reason I think that if the rockets are going to make a trade for Melo, Iguadala, whoever; Brooks should be the traded player not Martin... Brooks can score 21+ a game but his defense is horrible, he does not put anyone in foul trouble ( Martin Does ) and Brooks gets easily frustrated when he's being outplayed by the other team's PG... Also Brooks in crunch time is when he goes nuts playing 1 on 5, turning the ball over and making way too many mistakes.. Martin is a lot more valuable than Brooks and Lowry should make that decision a no-brainer for the GM.
