[CHRONIC] New Rockets ready to seize opportunity

http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/sports/bk/bkn/6876440.html

Martin ecstatic about the trade; Adelman tackles rotation changes

Kevin Martin was benched and could not have been happier about it.

He had played a solid first half, though the Sacramento Kings were struggling again, when he was told to sit out the second half and to keep the reason to himself.

But he could not hide his happiness, until friend and soon-to-be former teammate Francisco Garcia pressed him for an answer.

“I thought I was doing something wrong in the first half,” Martin said after he, Jared Jeffries, Jordan Hill and Hilton Armstrong were introduced as the players the Rockets acquired with Thursday's trade-deadline deal with the Kings and Knicks. “The coach told me. ‘You're the main piece in a trade and it's about to go down.'

“My first question was, ‘What team?' When he said ‘Houston' I started smiling for the first time in three weeks.

“I wanted to come here. I'm just happy to be here because they want to win now. The goal is to win, win and win as much as we can. Hopefully I'm the shooting guard for the next 10 years.”

Three days later, he was still smiling. He raved about playing for Rick Adelman in the first two seasons of his career with the Kings and again with the Rockets. Martin, 6-7, spoke confidently about his readiness to run the offense again, to fit next to Aaron Brooks and to handle the pressure and expectations that come with his role as a player coveted in a trade to in many ways succeed Tracy McGrady in the backcourt.

But more than anything, he reveled in the chance to be featured on a team that is competing for a playoff spot, leaving the rebuilding Kings after 20 losses in 24 games in which he seemed to struggle in an offense retooled around rookie Tyreke Evans.

“Oh, man, things just start to wear on you,” Martin, 27, said. “It was time to make a move.

“The most fun I had in my career was in my second year (Adelman's last in Sacramento) when we went to the playoffs and I was only averaging like 10 points … instead of the last four years scoring at will but wasn't getting the results that are more satisfying to me. (Joining) a team that is on the rise, I think anybody in my situation would be happy.”

For the other players in the deal, the Rockets offer opportunities they were not getting, with Hilton saying he needed a chance after rarely playing since he was dealt from New Orleans to Sacramento; Jeffries seeking opportunities to bring his length defensively to an undersized frontcourt; and Hill to begin his NBA career after playing little as a Knicks rookie.
Immediate test

The Rockets face the immediate challenge of reworking their rotation, beginning a back-to-back tonight against the Indiana Pacers before their new players could practice, and with a void left by trading Carl Landry.

“It comes with the job,” Rockets center Chuck Hayes said. “You get new guys through the course of the season. You have to adapt to them. They have to adapt to us. If we can jell fast enough, we can put something together here and make a late run.”

Adelman said he is unsure how he will work in his options, even if he will immediately change his starting lineup to include Martin.

He also is unsure whether he initially will replace Landry with one of the frontcourt players acquired this week or by going small and using Shane Battier as a power forward.

“We're starting from scratch,” he said. “We had a lot of big guys before. Now we have a lot of wings.

“We're going to have to see how everybody fits. Everybody has to be very receptive and everybody has to understand there is going to be a learning curve, but you still are trying to win games.”

But he raved about Martin's ability to cut, draw fouls, run the floor and score.

Battier, who typically had been assigned to defend Martin, said Martin can be the scorer the Rockets have often lacked.

“He's a tough guy to guard, he really is,” Battier said. “Doesn't look like much, but he's really quick and his ability to draw fouls is really impressive.

“He's not afraid to draw contact, and when he goes to the line, he's a 90-percent free-throw shooter. That will give us a way to break runs.
Not afraid of contact

“We need a shot maker, someone who can get us out of our offensive droughts. That's really been the killer for us, the huge runs we've given other teams because we couldn't score. Hopefully Kevin can relieve a lot of that.”

Martin seems happy to do it, and about everything else.

“I'm just happy to be here,” Martin said. “When I found out about it, I was all smiles. I'm just ready to take on this next opportunity.

“This is what I wanted. I had great years in Sac. I'm just ready to move forward.'

Their Tracy McGrady era over and their needs clear, so are the Rockets.