I was just on youtube watching highlights of a lot of our players. Watching Kmart's highlights made me remember what a long offseason made me forget. The guy can score as good as almost anyone in the league! He can shoot from anywhere on the court and he can create on his own. Why is he so undervalued? In the Pau trade rumors all the "experts" were saying that Lamar Odom was the headline of the players that would have gone to NO. I don't understand it at all! Im not saying he is a superstar, but I would say he is a 2nd tier of NBA all-star. I know he doesn't play good D, but neither does Melo, Amare, Pau, even Dirk isn't the greatest defender. So I guess my question is: Why is he not considered as good as Eric Gordon, Lamar Odom, or even Monta Ellis? When he has proven it his whole career almost? It's not a rhetorical question, there has to be a reason that I just don't see... Im gonna make a bold statement and say if we get Dalembert and our D improves and we make a playoff run, Kmart will be an all-star this year.
I guess it´s a mixture of two reasons. 1. He isn´t flashy, he scores points "quietly". 2. He rarely takes over games and normally when the game tightens up and matin doesn´t get to the free throw line he is easily neutralized.
First of all, K-mart is better than Ellis. K-mart's offense is great, but his defense is just horrible. If he could just be a below average defender, he would be an all-star.
He's a truly terrible defender, he doesn't rebound or create shots for his teammates, and he's expensive. And he's not particularly young. He's a very good player though. I think if we had a couple of shot-blocking bigs it would cover up a lot of his inadequacies. I certainly wouldn't give him away for draft picks, as some here are advocating. You can win with him as your second best player.
Defense is weak and he is a foul drawing machine. Essentially not a walking high light reel. Also there is concern he is giving up as many points as he is making, thus not making a positive impact for the team.
If this were football, Kevin Martin would be the equivalent of Larry Fitzgerald, Hakeem Nicks, or Mike Wallace. Aka he's a nice shiny offensive guy that can really put you over the top. But when your middle (aka O/D line) sucks as much as ours does, he's a luxury you really can't afford and one that doesn't make your squad appreciably better in the wins/losses column. The problem is getting enough in return for him in a trade. Do you hold onto him while our team tanks it in, like the first 5 years of Andre Johnson's career, or do you hope that he can stay good long enough to be around by the time you really become relevant again (aka the Reggie Miller pathway, or what Ray Allen would have been had Garnett and Pierce been traded to Seattle instead of the other way around)? Hard to say. I don't get the feeling he would re-up with us at this point though.
I see most of you crediting it to his D, but there are a lot of bad defenders that are all-stars. Like someone mentioned above, I think with a rim stopper (like dalembert) he can be an all-star and someone who can carry a team in the playoffs.
I actually thought his defense improved considerably last season. He is not my favorite player, but I think he is very skilled, definitely a gifted scorer, and he is a very good value at his contract price. I think he is most definitely underrated.
Martin's game isn't pretty. He doesn't create for others... hell, he doesn't even really create for himself. Most of his points come within the offense, when he's moving off the ball, around screens, and shooting off the pass. He gets a lot of transition points because he flanks out to the three point line while the defense crams down inside. But even though he puts up great offensive numbers, and plays efficiently on that side, he's very weak on defense. He falls asleep a lot. He doesn't rebound well. When he's actually trying on defense, he tends to gamble on passes he shouldn't gamble on. He'll try to stay in front of his man, but if he gets beat off the dribble, he doesn't even try to recover. He just completely stops every time he gets screened. That's not to say that I don't like him. I love his offensive game. He's the perfect complimentary player that doesn't need to dominate the ball. But he never has been, and he probably never will be an all-star. He's just not dominant enough.
Thats what I think a lot of us forget. He can create for himself. He can take anyone off the dribble one-on-one, he has a great pull up jumper, and getting to the line is a way to create offense for yourself is it not?
We would have been MUCH worse without him. He scores like crazy. That said, his weaknesses are creating and defense.
Well that's the thing. He has a quick first step that allows him to get by slower defenders, or catch decent defenders off guard. In that way he can create for himself... but if he doesn't get by the defender on that first step, his only counter is to create contact and hope for a whistle. Through most of the game, he gets the whistle. In crunch time, though... he doesn't. Don't get me wrong, I'm not dogging the guy. I have no problem with him being that way. I'm just saying that's a reason people don't regard him as highly as somebody like Melo, even though he puts up numbers that are just as good (if not better).
I gotcha, I guess I dont disagree with you. I just think his offense is good enough that if he were to have someone that could help clean up is mistakes when someone gets by him he could be considered a top 4 or 5 player at his position.
Because the grass is always greener on the other side. Rockets fans don't watch entire games of Monte Ellis or Eric Gordon. The fans don't watch when they play badly and why the Clippers and the Warriors were consistently WORSE than the Rockets the past seasons. They only see ESPN highlight reels of these players. That said, I still agreed to the trade for Gasol because Gasol's a center in today's NBA. Trading small for big IMO is always a good thing. But KMart is very good. If the Celtics had traded for KMart instead of Allen 3 years ago, Rockets fans would right now be ranking him as an elite SG.
Honestly, I think he's already top 5 at his position. Kobe and D-Wade are the only guys I'd definitely put above him. I'd probably put Manu too because he works hard on defense and he creates well for others. After that, it's basically Kevin Martin, Monta Ellis, and Joe Johnson. If he ever became a key piece to a top-record team, I think he'd probably have a shot at the All-Star team. That's a big if, though.
What you are missing is the majority of the people here don't get this one fact. You don't need a superstar if you can wrap a pretty good defense around 2-3 very good scorers, you get very good results.
