Agree with most of that, but the point of my thread here was not about the injuries or things of that nature, but rather, that the team always fought hard through the injuries, and this year, they are not doing that. And the only things that have changed for the most part are the additions of Martin and Miller, and it is not coincedental in my opinion that they are the worst defenders on the team. All other players have a good defensive reputation, or have been on good defensive, or scrappy teams. I think they have changed the culture/identity and not in a good way etc. Martin is a great scorer, but that is it.....and he can be easily nuetralized by playing an athletic wing on him and denying the ball, because he does not have the handles to get by his man on his own. Miller, is a very good offensively skilled guy too, but he just grabs people on D, never even attempts to play large or get his hands up. What I was wondering, is have these two guys, killed the scrappy culture this team was known for? That is what it looks like to me. DD
DD, would you re-think not wanting to trade Martin for Melo? I mean, Melo can get past his guy at least.
Martin has come in and hurt the identity of the team the most. The bad thing is that Adelman continues to let it happen. He needs to give more PT to players that give no less than 110%, especially to finish the game. Giving 110% is what being a Houston Rocket is all about, but I'm not so sure anymore.
100% agree. He lacks broad shoulders which makes his frame very fragile for the NBA grind. He is a very unique player in more ways than one. Reggie Miller was similar but Kmart's shot or clutchness is nowhere near Reggie. He is horrible on the defensive end and efficient on the offensive end. His foul drawing technique looks dangerous because you never know when he'll fall and crack to pieces. Him and Brooks in the back court is a huge liability on the defensive end.
C'mon people, ever since Martin joined the Rockets, we started to play crappy. Last year when the season started, No Yao and No Tmac, we were beating convincingly teams that we were supposed to beat and making top teams sweat to get a W. Then scounts realized that our weakness was rebounding, we slowed down a bit. And next thing we got, Landry was traded for Martin. We thought it was going to get better, but it did not, we got worse, we missed the p0layoffs. Now, we're in a deep hole.
It's too late, DD. Word on the street is that Melo discovered ClutchFans and came across your campaign of vilification and denigration. Stunned, his feelings hurt, Anthony reportedly was forced to go on a strict regimen of Valium, Prozac, and Pepto-Bismol. Hell would presumably freeze over before he would consent to a trade to Houston, even if only for the rest of the season. When interviewed by a Denver weekly rag, Melo was quoted as saying, "Maybe if they boot that damned DaDakota fellow, strip him naked, and make him run around the Toyota Center bare assed!!" At least, that's what a friend told me.
The curse of Kevin Martin is worse than I originally imagined. Not only have the Rockets struggled since he joined the team, but my fantasy team also was affected by his losing ways. I started the season 0-2 but I was able to trade him before he ruined my season. Since the trade I'm 3-0. Moral of the story...the Rockets should get rid of Kevin Martin ASAP *disclaimer: success in fantasy sports is not contingent of success in real sports, so this post should be taken with a grain of salt. I repeat, DO NOT TAKE THIS POST SERIOUSLY! (<---maybe I should bold it to make sure I get my point across) :grin:
I haven't read all of this thread, but I am going to have to say yes to this. In the beginning I thought that getting KMart was a good acquisition but after watching these first few games of the season, I've realized that this is not true. Giving up Landry we gave away a lot of that fire that the team is missing now. KMart's offense, with the exception of his jumpshot, is just too reliant on the refs bailing him out because honestly he is not that great at attacking the rim. And the refs have not been giving him those little baby bumps anymore that he's use to getting. He's not a defender at all and he doesn't change the game in anyway he just quietly scores his 20 or so points and he disappears in the final minutes. I am all for him to be part of a trade that would bring in a star. Like someone said in another thread, we need a game changer someone that will define the identity of this team. Unfortunately for us, those are extremely hard to come by. We all want that diamond but right now all we can get is the cubic zirconia.
Pfft, I know it is a falsehood now, you have no friends. And I am just as fine with Melo not coming here as well...so there... :grin: Kevin Martin, is he Juwan Howard part 2?.....the Curse of KMart !!! DD
Martin's best defense is getting his defender in foul trouble. Yes, he leaks out. No, he doesn't put in maximum effort on the defensive end. No, he doesn't scrape. He saves it for the offensive end. All agreed. The problem is we have TWO GUYS that cannot defend. Brooks cannot defend either. And the same argument that you have made about Brooks at least being able to neutralize his opponent by outscoring him can be made about Martin. Except Martin outscores at a much more efficient clip. It's unfortunate Brooks got hurt early. I was intent on watching how well he got to the FT line this season and was prepared to give him the nod over Lowry if he could get to the FT line effective and bump his PPS up to about 1.3 or more. That kind of offensive efficiency offsets poor defense. And that's why Martin's terrible D is much more palatable than Brooks' D, because Martin's offensive efficiency is far better than Brooks' offensive efficiency. So, if you're going to have scorers that don't defend, then at least those scorers should be extremely offensively efficient. Martin is. Brooks isn't. Now, you go back to the argument that if the refs quit calling fouls, then Martin's game loses it's effectiveness. My counterargument is if the refs quit calling fouls then Brooks' efficiency goes down as does every player's efficiency in the whole league. The refs aren't going to pick out Martin to quit calling fouls on. They're gonna quit calling fouls in bunches across the league. And at the end of the day, although everyone's efficiency will be down, Martin will still be at the top because he creates so much contact that they have to call some of those plays. And Martin is smart enough to know how to get those calls. Brooks, on the other hand, has trouble buying a call now. He's even got T'd up multiple times because he alleged he was fouled and the officials didn't buy it. This is why I feel like we would be better off to start Lowry (more D, more fouls called for us, increasing Martin's and Yao's effectiveness), and would be best off to get a big time SF in here that can shoot it, draw fouls, and yes, play some D. That is, unless Brooks figures out how to get to the FT line and become much more efficient. If Brooks did that, then I would be all for bringing in a couple horses to defend at the SF and C spots.
Brooks skillset is unique and harder to replace, he is the only one that can get a quality shot for himself or others. Martin is an efficient scorer, but his lack of being a go to guy, limits him significantly. Martin's scoring can be picked up by others on the floor that are good at scoring too, Lee, Budinger, Brooks, Scola... However, late in quarters, or shot clocks etc....Brooks is unique. DD
Brooks may not be a great playmaker but he can at least be useful when his shot is off. Martin is just a huge detriment to the team unless he is shooting lights out. It's almost as if Adelman should do a heat check with him. If he isn't shooting well in the first the half, the team has a better chance to win if he doesn't play at all in the second half. People still don't seem to get it. It's not just that Martin is a poor defender, it's that he can't help a team win in any other way than by scoring the ball. He's the anti-Battier. Looking at his numbers, (23ppg, 45% fg%, 40% 3pt%, 90% ft%) and then actually watching games and evaluating his impact should be a lesson to everyone of how overrated shooting efficiency stats are. Compare that to another western conference SG's stats (25.6ppg, 43% fg%, 33% 3pt%, 88% ft%). There is a grand canyon sized difference in the impact of that second guy's offense.
To do what? Advance the ball to half-court? Let's face it, these guys are both 1-dimensional players. One's a midget and one's not.
If Kevin Martin is fool's gold, then Yao Ming is also fool's gold. He's big alright. But he's slow, and hardly plays. And the Rockets have only gotten past the playoffs first-round once(Portland) with Yao Ming. So he's definitely no Hakeem Olajuwon.
