When the Rockets traded for Martin, they new that there were risks assoiated with the transition. But prior to this year, Martin's abilities had been demonstrated for all to see. At least for all those who were paying attention, that is. Martin was acquired by the Rockets with the hope and tentative expectation that he would become the Rocket's number one shooter, and their number two offensive option after Yao Ming. If he continues on track, this might make it possible to bring Kyle Lowery up to the staring point guard position, and bring Aaron Brooks off of the bench. Now before anyone has a cow, I like Aaron Brooks a lot, and I think he is an extremely valuable player for the Rockets. But with Martin as a pure scorer on the first team, and Landry having departed the second team, the defensive presence of the first team has been diminished, and the offensive power of the second team has been diminished. Playing Martin and Brooks together on the first team is a defensive liability for the Rockets. Ariza coming off of the bench will help the second team both offensively and defensively, but adding Aaron Brooks would really serve to fill the offensive gap left by the departure of Carl Landry, while starting Lowry would provide the first team offense with an exciting new dimension of play that comes with having a legitimate penetrating pass-first point guard in the starting role. Switching Lowry and Brooks would go a long way to re-balancing all of these issues. And installing an effective Kevin Martin at SG has made it all possible.
if we could've played a lick of D last night, he'd probably went off for over 40pts should he have played more in the fourth. Dude's insane
It's not a question of him being good. You can see a players stats all day and see him in a few games, but you really don't know just how good he is until you see him on a game to game basis. He's the best wing player we've had since T-Mac of 2004! I guess I'm just more suprised by the superstar calls he gets! Dude gets all the calls and that will be a great asset when Yao gets back! I wish Brooks could get the same calls. When Brooks starts to get Martins calls, he will be a All-Star.
RobRoy, If you have league pass, you probably watch several teams, like Sacremento etc... He has been great for years.....we are lucky to have him....gonna be fun...now that we robbed Peter to pay paul we now need to jettison some of our wings for better bigs. Oh, and get Yao healthy....and away we go. DD
I think we all knew martin was a very good scorer. But I do find it ironic. He scores 30+ we lose by 20 and all the fans praise him. Rudy Gay scores 20 the griz lose and most say they are glad to have battier because all gay does is score and doesn't contribute to winning.
Martin is definitely an upgrade over McLazy. His ability to score and attack inside is what Tmac can only dream of doing....this is the exact type of players you want to surround Yao with...someone that not just shoot the ball but attack the basket as well. What we need to do this summer is upgrade the PF and C position to help out Yao and Scola....I don't trust Anderson....dude suck bad!! J. Taylor suck bad!! Jeffries is alright i think.....and i don't know about Jordan Hill yet. But we definitely need to find some good backups at PF and C position for next season OR we're in trouble in terms of depth.
Our problem right now is 100% on the bigs...... We get outplayed there nearly every game.....we are an outside in team. Even last night, our guards outscored Utah's guards....shocking, I know.... But our forwards and center were WOEFULLY behind. DD
He is who we thought he was! <object width="425" height="344"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/7IzbWUJxDZw&hl=en_US&fs=1&"></param><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"></param><param name="allowscriptaccess" value="always"></param><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/7IzbWUJxDZw&hl=en_US&fs=1&" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowscriptaccess="always" allowfullscreen="true" width="425" height="344"></embed></object> AND WE LET HIM OFF THE HOOK! :grin:
As Martin relates to Brooks: Martin draws contact from players while Brooks and Scola avoid contact. AB just hasn't learned how to jump into an opposing defender while driving to the basket. He can learn this though.
With LP I do watch a whole lot of teams. Obviously I'm watching the Kings now more for Landry, but the west coast teams never got much love from me. Mostly due to how late a lot of their games are. I guess I can kinda compare Martin for me to Monte Ellis. I know he is a great player, but when the Rockets play the Warriors he always blows me away! Do you remember the pretty much complete Damon Stoudemire trade back in 1998? Reason I'm asking is cause it another post I mentioned it some people reacted like I was crazy. What year did clutchfans start? I've been on the site since the 90's. Was is ever called something else? Just curious since I know you've also been on forever.
Please tell me this is a joke. It was one game on the second night of a back to back. The jazz were at full strength and were missing arguably 2 starters and our 6th man. Try posting this in a month when we're healthy.
I knew he was a scorer, but hes been shooting poorly. Im not impressed. At least gimme 42% from the field and 35% from deep.
Reasons We Lost: 1) No Yao 2) Utah shot ungodly 3a) No Lowry 3b) No Battier 3c) No Ariza If I continued on down the list it would take me a long time to put our starting SG went 9/13 scoring 32 pts while going 12/13 from the line as one of the reasons we lost.... yes I hear all of you who hate on his defense, but this is a team game and when 4 of your top 5 defenders are out what do you really expect? so yes I will praise our new improved more efficient 2 guard for getting more acclimated to our team in a loss this season and continue to wait patiently for the greatness that will be next season with a healthy roster
For all those complaining about Martin's shooting look at the last 10 periods of play...23/44 not to bad IMO and while his 3's aren't falling it's obvious he is getting much more comfortable which should increase that percentage very quickly. Overall, I was surprised that he settled for the outside shot so much in the first few games but now he is starting to cut and drive to the bucket which was more of his game. This is the Martin I remember in Sac Town so nope not surprised.
I don't see how we can rely on fouls, especially come the playoffs. Imagine if half our points came from fouls in a playoff game, they will stop calling for sure.
