The question I have is why are we only pursuing JJ if it lures Bosh? Now I understand that Bosh is pretty much the perfect final piece to this team but just taking our current group and adding Johnson at the three makes us a much better team going into next year. Not only is Johnson a sizeable upgrade to Ariza offensively, he is also no slouch defensively. He gives us a legit option to take the last shot and his 3 point shooting is good enough to comfortably feed off Yao's post play. But more importantly it keeps talent out of NY and increases our chances that next year's pick is a prize. Johnsons natural position is the 2, but I don't really see any reason why we couldnt slide him to the 3. He is an excellent defender and has decent height. Another benefit is if/when Martin gets injured, Johnson can slide to the 2 and play alongside Battier no problem. Suppose we offerred Atlanta: Jeffries, Ariza, Patterson and the 2012 Knicks first round pick for Joe Johnson which I think is reasonable...is this a championship caliber team for the next 3 years? Brooks / Lowry Martin / Budinger Johnson / Battier Scola / Hill Yao / Hayes I think with a healthy Yao, you are at least challenging the Lakers in the WCF with that lineup. With any luck, perhaps a sizable jump in production by Hill/Bud, you could very well be a title team.
Dude, the man made one comment that maybe he shouldn't have made and somehow he now has a bad attitude. One comment!! How many comments have you ever made that you wished you wouldn't have? Does that mean you have a bad attitude?
i am not a professional athlete. nobody cares what i think. and even if they did, i wouldn't get on a microphone or in front of a video camera and say something like that. trashing your team's fans is one of the cardinal sins of a professional athlete. i dont think JJ is a bad guy, i just think Martin is a better fit from both a value and attitude perspective.
please don't trade martin, not until we at least get a look of how he works with yao. on paper it is sooo ideal.
If they both played the same number of games then yes, Martin is the better value. The problem is that Martin historically has a tendancy to get injured a lot more than JJ. You know as well as I do that injury history is a big factor. As for the attitude, I repeat, one wrong comment does not mean JJ has a bad attitude. You would be hard pressed to find anything written about JJ having a bad attitude.
JJ would be a HUGE mistake and I dont see Morey going for it (despite some of the reports that say otherwise). He's not young by any stretch of the imagination and is likely going to be showing visible signs of decline in the next season or two. You might get 1-2 good seasons out of him and 1 mediocre season out of him but you'll have to sign him to a long-term max deal. Not worth it at all. KM is a slouch defensively, but he's a much more efficient player and I think it'll be easier to make an assessment of how he fits in this season.
KM12 > JJ2 This trade would be stupid and I think Morey is smart enough to see that. Some comparisons: JJ FTA: 3.5 KM FTA: 7.7 - JJ FG : 44.3 KM FG: 44.8 - JJ PPG: 21.3 (ON 18 FGA) KM PPG: 21.3 (ON 15 FGA) — JJ FT%: 81.2 KM FT%: 92.4 JJ definitely outshot KM from behind the arc this season, but KM has been able to put up +40% shooting from 3 for the season, and I fully expect something around that number with the return of Yao. JJ is also good for approximately 2 assists and 2 rebounds more per game, but I highly doubt that is significant enough to sign Johnson to a max or near-max deal and trade away Martin. More: 1. Martin is cheaper. Cheaper and shorter deal —> cap flexibility in the future. 2. Answers to injury problems: a. non injury-prone players tend to get injured when coming here anyway (see: Ron Artest). b. there’s no guaranteeing Johnson won’t get injured c. K Mart’s injuries are typically fluke-ish and not something one should count on as being repeat. Not to mention he can add a little more meat to his bones in the off season. 3. Johnson is 3 years older, getting very close to 30. Martin will be 27 this season. He was also drafted 3 years after JJ, meaning he should have a little more time on his legs left. 4. Martin is not as ball-dominant as Johnson is. 5. Martin’s assist and rebound numbers are sure to go up in the presence of another guy drawing box-outs (Yao) and consistently hitting his shots after the lob pass (Yao). Using KM12 to set Yao up in the post neuters a defense’s ability to clamp down on Yao, considering we can have up to 4 open shooters at any one time.
For his production, Martin is obviously the best contract value. He's younger, more efficient, he's cheaper, and he only needs to stay healthy. Easy choice. Spend the money some other way. (please stay healthy!!!)
I have thought about this and I am going to say.... "Martin" While Johnson is better, it is only incrementally better, and his contract would be very large. I would rather keep Martin as we could more easily flip him to someone else if an elite player came along. Both Martin and Johnson are STAR players, but not ELITE players. So, I would rather keep Martin until an ELITE player becomes available. DD
You can look at numbers and see a slight difference but at the end of the day hes a WAY better defensive player. Defense wins rings and thats all I care about
the rockets had an incredible defense with tracy mcgrady at the SG spot. tracy was worse than martin, the vast majority of the time. the celtics are an incredible defensive team with ray allen at sg . . . as long as the team has defensive minded players like shane, trevor, chuck, and kyle keeping things organized, and Yao in the middle to deter penetration and protect the rim, you can easily justify having a kevin martin and aaron brooks on the floor.
I didnt finish reading the rest because you said tracy was a worse defender than martin which is not true. Maybe now, not when he was with the rockets. So I read the rest ray allen plays good D he may not be first team. I dont see Kevin Martin pulling off the same thing Ray Allen can bc they also have rondo. Having our point guard and shooting guard being the worst defenders on the court is not a good recipe for success. Having Johnson and Trevor playing the wing postions is a beautiful thing.
He didnt play well neither did Lebron and Kobe shoots 34 percent in elimination games would you say no those chokers?
What I like about JJ is he can create his own shot better than KM. The Rockets last year truly had only one person (Brooks) capable of doing that. Yao will help this year, but if the defense fronts him in the 4th, or doubles him when he doesn't have the ball, we need someone to be able to punish these defenses like TMAC did in the past. JJ can help here, him and Brooks would eat defenses alive if they double Yao. The cons of getting JJ is not really the amount / year; I'd gladly give JJ 4-5 million more (KM's 11 vs JJ's 16ish) but the length could put me off. If he's signing a 5 years + deal for max, that could be big turn off. But if we strike out on Bosh, I'd really consider trading KMart and maybe a pick or 2 for JJ. JJ might not be a superstar, but if you can get your hands on a guy who routinely averages 20-6-5, you've gotta consider it.
Kevin Martin because of age and money factors, don't think Joe Johnson will be good on a winning team.
