The real question is if the trade was done at the beginning and martin was hurt for those 20 games, what would the record be? I think it wouold probably be worse.
We would've been 10 games better than we end up with this season w/ Martin having a full year with the team and system. Hill would've developed into a solid bench 4 getting spot minutes behind Scola (who would be playing about 35-38 minutes a game w/ out landry). Yeah we wouldn't have had landry's scoring but if Martin is giving you 20+ a game automatic you don't need landry especially with luis showing us he NEEDED full time minutes. Remember our biggest problems this season were DEFENSIVE SIZE/HEIGHT and OFFENSIVE SCORING DROUGHTS. Hill and Jeffries = Defensive height and rebounding Kmart = Offensive scoring Fulltime Scola = Offensive/defensive/rebounding tenacity every night Our downfall this year was injuries...if we hadn't lost LOWRY for 3-4 weeks we would be sitting at 7th in the west.
40-44 wins doesn't give us the 7th or 8th spot. We're on pace to be a little better than a 40-44 win team RIGHT NOW, and the playoffs are a long shot. I would say we would be around 48-50, since I think a lot of the later-season losses against teams like Sacramento and Indiana wouldn't have happened. I think that would be good enough for 6th-8th in the West.
the rockets would have 6 or 7 more wins, so that means we would be in the playoffs. And people saying that we wouldnt have Landry scoring, but how many players did the rockets have with more than 30+ points before the trade, and how many times a player has scored 30+ points. Martin is scoring the points that Landry was scoring.
