It isn't sudden. People have been hating ever since he demanded a trade before last season. I enjoy KJ and I would probably rather see Tate shipped out if I had to pick between the two, however, in phase 2 the Rockets are going to have to make some tough decisions on which young guys to move on from to make room for Amen Thompson, Cam Whitmore and up to three veteran free agents. Some of them are going to be very good or promising young players. And, honestly, it may even make more sense to move guys who actually have some value around the league than to let some of the up and coming guys go who haven't built up any value yet (if the FO believes they will build their value over time). We can't keep everybody from last year's team. Obviously we can easily make a couple roster spots by letting guys like Kaminsky, Boban and Nix go, but we will need a few more spots still. And KJ has proven he will be disgruntled if he doesn't get the same kind of minutes he got last year (or more). With Whitmore and possibly a guy like Dillon Brooks, Grant Williams or Cam Johnson coming in - he ain't getting those minutes.
We only have to move on from KJ Martin if we bring in another free agent wing (e.g. Dillon Brooks). There’s plenty of minutes for KJ, Eason, and Whitmore to have a productive season. The only forwards we should think about moving are Tate and Garuba. I really hate the idea of moving on from Martin so that we can bring on Brooks. I wouldn’t be complaining if we were moving on from Martin to bring a more quality player to the team (e.g. John Collins, Kuzma, Grant, etc.).
