Martin's a great efficient offensive player but just as easily as he can put up points he gives up equally as many. It's ridiculous how many SG's and PG's get by him but we need to involve him more in 4th quarters. I've noticed that as soon as he's reached a 20 point plateau he stops looking for his shot and becomes more passive, therefore making him a non factor. Without his offense he really doesn't contribute much to the team. I think what's impacting this team the most out of everything is that fact that most of the players are probably insecure about their spots on the team. It's no secret that Daryl wants to trade some of his players for a franchise player but those players don't come along that often. How would you feel if you were working for someone who openly admits that he's trying to move you to another location for a better employee, in a heart beat? I enjoy watching these Rockets score 100+ points a game but it's just as difficult when the team seems to lack any sort of heart or desire to win. They usually try to stage comebacks but more times than not its usually too little too late when they realize it.
I think Kevin needs to be more confident about his shot in the 4th. As already aforementioned in many threads like this, he disappears too much.
Those of us who played the game and are defensive minded know that it is hard to make up for others if there are too many holes... That said, if each player looks in the mirror and decides to man up, we'll be ok.
Kevin Martin should be sent to the Jazz, he would fit in perfect. He is the opposite of the Rockets identity.
The Rockets need scoring. The Rockets never scored over 100ppg in a season until he came. And the Rockets defense was bad before he got here.
I know from a used to be inside source that this is exactly why Les fired Van Gundy- he was tired of our ugly ball, low scoring games when we played hard defensively every night, Les wanted an offense minded team, he wanted Adelman to put together the Kings in Houston, but we don't have the talent to put together the Sac Kings team that should have beat the Lakers in the Conf. finals. Plus, when Adelman first came here I had the opportunity to have lunch with him and he told me he wanted to see the Rockets play his offense, more of a transition running type game, he told me he wanted to use Yao more as a passer in the high post. I had a hard time getting behind him, but I supported him because he coached well in Portland. I have a very hard time watching the Rockets because they are soft and out of position so much on defense. I really like the way Gundy made us the team no one liked to play, a pain in the rear to play because we played hard nose defense every game. We just needed more talent and fewer injuries. I hope the next coach is good with young superstar talent and we have some on the roster.
Team no one liked to play in the regular season maybe. When you treat every game like a super bowl from a game-planning standpoint, I could see that annoying some teams. As far as the playoffs, well the record just doesn't support your statement. As far as 'fewer injuries' - Adelman signed on to coach McGrady and Yao - how has that worked out for him?
We need a PG that is big enough to guard the 1&2 positions and a SF quick enough to guard the 2&3 positions. Then they could make up for K-Mart's horrible defense. I say Martin should be a 6th man off the bench... He plays like a 6th man. All offense, no defense.
Nice post. The GARM, unsurprisingly, is suffering from a collective bout of schizophrenia. These losses are driving us all round the bend, with the attendent threads searching for someone, somethings, or some people to blame, as we see here. Martin is what he is. He is what he was before we ever traded for the guy. Coming up with a "grand conspiracy" that dumps the reason for the current collapse of the team on him, with a side detour for Adelman, as well as Miller, and whoever else played like crap in the last game might be fun, but ignores reality. This is not the team Adelman was hired to coach. It is a team beset with injuries to key players, both before the season started, and during it, with some of those injured players attempting to "play themselves into shape" on the court. This all sucks. Losing sucks. Frantically trying to stick the blame on a convenient target is a waste of time, in my opinion. A healthy team, practice time with a healthy team, and some wins will work wonders, if we ever have a healthy team. I'm beginning to wonder if that'll happen sometime before some of us fall over dead from having to suffer through this.
This is my guess, but I don't think Morey believed this team was a true contender this year. This current losing streak hurts, but it doesn't affect his long-term goal. Rather, I think Morey sees this as a season for Yao to work back to his peak form and for the Rockets to get the proper pieces in place for a serious run in 2011-12 and beyond. It's of course on the assumption that Yao can become a dominant big man again. You wrote that "With Yao at peak form, Martin would be deadly on offense" and "The inside out game plus the foul-drawing talent would be a serious weapon". If you really believe this, wouldn't you want to wait out what is a transitional season to see Martin and Yao play together? Yes, maybe trading Martin for a guy with "good defense and decent offense" will net a Yao-less team a few more wins this season, but what would be the point in the long term? My take is that if the Rockets believe Yao will get back to form to make that one last run at a ring, they'll do whatever it takes to make that possible, even if it means sacrificing wins in the short term. (Unless, of course, Blake Griffin magically appears on the trading block.) Personally, I am not completely sold on whether this is the right way to go. Ultimately, waiting for Yao to be the healthy center again could be like "Waiting for Godot" - an exercise in futility. But I also believe that short-term tweaks like trading Martin for a middle-of-the-road SG is also meaningless.
