In defense of KM, I think there is no endgame game plan at all. If you ask KM to attack the basket, you need to clear out space for him. Not happening with Scola and Yao clogging the lane, that means their defenders are there waiting for the drives of our guards. KM can also take the 3point attempts but without reliable offensive rebounding, that can be our downfall if we start missing. It's been RA's weakness all these years. He doesn't want to call a damn play. Come on, our players need help. Set up good plays for the endgame. As it is, the players are just doing a lot of freestyle and none of their teammates anticipate what the other is doing. On defense, hasn't our coaches heard of situational substitutions? They keep complaining about the defense, well put in the defensive players then. Have they forgotten that's their job?
trugoy, Ive had nba league pass since birth and I'm a late night guy. I have watched alot of kings game and what youre seeing is the big complaint about martin. Now people on this board have said 20pts is 20pts,but myself and other have debated that 20pts arent created equal. The really good players score the bulk of their points during those critical moments during the game. The start or break runs. Last yr, the rockets won games late because landry was one of the leaders in 4th qt scoring. The rockets knew landry could work the 4th by making plays in iso and just plain bullying players. Martin,much like lowry need the refs and theyre not good enough to demand the refs whistles in late games situations or playoffs.
Yeah that's been the most annoying thing with Martin. The guy just can't make shots when we need them in the 4th. Also, he has flat out refused to bulk up even a bit and that hurts his ability to deal with the more physical games and physical play in the 4th. Martin's only an efficient scorer because he can get to the line, not because he is a great shooter anymore. I have no clue what happened to his shot, but it's not good anymore. The 3 season after his rookie year his 2pt% was 50.5% from 2008 to now his 2p% is 43.7%....not good. FWIW his 3p% is pretty consistent at 38.5% in the first stretch and 37.9% in that second stretch.
This really highlights one of the bigger problems the Rockets have, and that is they do not have a 4th quarter guy. Kevin Martin scoring 20 in 3 quarters is not bad, but he just isn't a take-over-the-game kind of guy in the 4th. In fairness, I don't think any of our players are. Part of the reason in the past we were able to get by without one is that we defended the crap out of everyone. Now, with awful defense, this deficiency in 4th quarter scoring comes out even more. This is a big reason why I was very much in favor of a Carmelo trade should it have been possible.
Great closers sacrifice their body to get to the free throw line. Kobe Wade Jordan Iverson Bird Kareem etcetcetc... It's the precise reason why Aaron Brooks will never, ever be an NBA closer.
Hell Steve Francis was a fantastic closer because he would fall on his head and force the refs to make a call. You close games out on defense, and you have a closer that can get to the line/get a bucket anytime they want.
He won't be a closer b/c the refs won't call anything even if he gets hammered b/c he's not a superstar.
This is the biggest reason I didn't want to dump T-mac. For all his flaws, he brings that one element to the table that we really really lack badly - 4th qtr playmaking. He might have been done though, still, it was a sad outcome for all parties. So hard to find people who can indeed playmake. Who could we get? It's the biggest hole we have right now.
Trade him his junk! JK. LOL. The Rockets are out of sink and need some time to get into a groove and a good time to do something about it is Saturday. We do need a true closer in the 4th although, i think Yao is capable of closing games if given the opportunity.
He is what he is, a solid number two scorer, but he's not ever going to be lead dog. He is, though, very good at what he does, and a very valuable player to have on your team.
Is this a case where we as Rockets fans have overrated Morey and just assumed he's made the best deal? This is twice now with Sacramento where we made a trade that we initally thought was lopsided in the Rockets favor, but after time has not worked out as well, and Petrie has gotten the better of Morey. Would you rather have Omri Casspi, Donte Greene, and Carl Landry, plus a ton of cap space, or Kevin Martin and Courtney Lee? I'd rather have the first group. Some of this falls on "The Wizard", imho.
DD, you should trademark your "relies on a third party to score" phrase you came up with and now include in every post. You almost had me thinking for a second that a guy who draws fouls (as opposed to chucking from the outside) is a bad thing.
I'm not pointing fingers. I'm not blaming Martin. The team is flawed because it doesn't have a playmaker. K-Mart is a terrific shooter, but he's not a playmaker.
It is a great thing Dave, Just not going to work late in games....both Lowry and Kevin jump into people, the referees are not stupid and they won't call it late. Heck, some of them won't call it during the entire game. So when your entire game's success is not in your hands, but rather the hands of the official that is a serious flaw. It is not something that can be counted on game in and game out.....give me an efficient shot maker every day of the week. DD
Kevin did hit a game winning layup against the spurs way back when he was with the kings..i know that's just one game though....
Add another crunch time disappearing act to the list. We're up 85-84 with 5 minutes left. We go scoreless over the next 4 minutes, with Martin going 0-3 from the field with 2 turnovers. Scola and Lowry also had turnovers, but where was Martin's high efficiency scoring when we needed it?
