Kevin Martin: "Treating players like assests will get you NO WHERE!"

Someone needs to sit Martin down and explain how being a pro athlete isn't like having a regular job.

Unlike pro sports teams, my company isn't gonna trade me to another company in exchange for one of their employees. To my knowledge that doesn't happen in the real world. Sports is different because it centers around a game being played.

In the real world I would be fired immediately for doing some of the bad things pro players only get fined and/or suspended for doing. That's another difference between real world and pro sports.

Someone needs to remind Martin that pro sports operates with a different set of rules than does most of the other businesses in the real world. I guess he's forgotten what it's like to be just a regular joe... if he ever did know that, that is...

 

Cuban did not win because he accepted the status quo. He won because he was willing to do the same things that Daryl Morey is trying to do in Houston. We are fans of the Rockets and if our GM makes a bad move then he should be slammed based on the merits of that move and if he makes enough bad moves then he should get pushed out of that job and critisized for his work.

But perceptions around here have become non stop punch lines that just are not true. No player wants to come to Houston because he treats his players like assets. Another thread says he will be the most hated GM by the time Summer League is over. It has become Chic to slam Daryl Morey regardless of facts.

 

That's not the only reason I want Martin outta here.

I think drafting Lamb makes him expendable, anyways. Why keep him?

 

We shouldn't even discuss this if he doesn't link us to the interview or article where K-Mart said this. I googled and couldn't find anything.

 

Okay, but then don't use the "quote" if he didn't actually say it this way. And don't leave out the "felt like family after the trade deadline," part.

 

I feel the same way about Morey.

Morey needs somebody to sit him down and tell him the way he's ruining relationships with his players is affecting other players coming here. Players talk, and the rumor regarding Houston is we dont have any loyalty towards our guys. There was a point where Morey made 32 transactions in a span of two years without a significant upgrade. That's ridiculous. You cant develop talent when you're constantly shuffling the deck. You also cant build team chemistry when you change point guards every other year. The turnover on this team is the worst in NBA history

 

To elaborate on an earlier point of mine, Morey should sit Martin and the other "90%" down and explained how pro sports work.

These guys need to truly understand that it's a billion dollar BUSINESS. They also need to be made to understand that the business won't be as successful as it is if players aren't treated like assets. It just won't.

One last thing Martin needs to understand: the players are being made RICH playing what's basically a kid's game. If they change the "rules" so players aren't treated like "assets" then the business almost certainly make less money and that means so will the players. Even a dumbbell like me sees this so why can't he?

Martin and others like him need to shut up and play and accept the way things are. It's the cost of doing business and I'm sure he's not b****ing when he cashes those big paychecks...

 

Donate to the tip jar and you can do that and all sorts of other nifty things.

I've had the Martin side of the argument I guess in my prior posts but I do want to say that, my feelings about Morey aside (and I had so much more to say on the subject before it became confrontational and I had to excuse myself), I am shocked that Kevin Martin would be bold enough to make a statement with even a hint of controversy to it.

Were he so bold on the court, he could have been a Kobe Bryant. But he's not a gamer and he doesn't have a killer instinct and he doesn't have the want-to.

He is soft. He is pretty much completely devoid of grit. The sort of grit that Parsons or Dragic or Lowry or Scola have, always playing above their talent. K-Mart plays below his.

As such he is not a good spokesperson for looking over one's shoulder re: impending trades. He's a disappointment wherever he goes. He has one thing going for him (two if you count his FT's but that's double-counting): his shot.

And nobody's shot falls every night. All shooters slump. If K-Mart is our starting SG and his shot doesn't fall, we're playing 4 on 5. Because he doesn't do a damn thing else.

He's kind of like Robert Horry was in the regular season. You know, a p***y.

The kinds of players I hate most are dirty ones, the cheats, the classic Jazz. But, thank goodness, we don't have those players and we haven't in memory.

The kinds of players I hate most that we ever have are the soft ones. I've been very sincerely railing on Morey and I'd have gone on if I didn't get snapped at by someone making it personal.

But Kevin Martin should feel lucky to be referred to as an asset when he is actually a liability.

 

I don't think Morey treats plays any more differently or talks any differently than any other GMs. Here, for example, is Jerry West talking about Harrison Barnes like an asset even before he was drafted: http://www.mercurynews.com/warriors/ci_20919490/warriors-nba-draft-approach-best-player-available. Also, when I hear Morey interviewed, he never says more than the generic "always looking for improvements" that every other GM says and never says he's shopping the players on the team.
Go search for some interviews with NBA GM, Morey basically talks the same way as all of them.

The issue is not Morey talks about shopping players in public (he doesn't), it's that he actually explores and make trades and is willing to sacrifice roster stability in pursuit of an upgrade in talent. I think Kevin Martin is absolutely right about this hurt's the team's level of performance.

I mean, it's funny that while the NBA is a "business," the narrative we have for team sports is "us vs. them, going to battle with your comrades." Knowing that you could be one of "them" at any time doesn't exactly promote unit cohesion and fighting spirit.

Besides, guys probably don't want to worry about moving themselves or their family across the country midseason.

However, what exactly is the alternative? Signing the guys who perform to long term contracts at market value and hold on to them as much as you can? It'll make for happier players and better team spirit (I think even multi-millionaire NBAers want to feel like a part of a team), but you end up with contract situations looking like what they got in Atlanta, Philly or Milwaukee and teams that are stalled at a certain level (be it 40 win, 45 win or 50 win) with no way to improve.

It's a hard choice-- I'm sure Morey doesn't want to break up his team constantly, but that's kind of the choice that the salary cap forces you to make when you are not already a title contender (an already contending team can afford to stay the same with minor additions and locking up its core long-term, non-contending team really cannot).

 

In Morey's defense, he is under pressure to swing a deal for a superstar in an atmosphere where most stars only wanna play in LA, Miami, or NY.

If Houston already had a major star on the squad, Morey wouldn't have to try and make all these deals in order to get enough assets to acquire a superstar. Unfortunately, guys like Yao couldn't stay healthy so getting a star to play in Houston without "tanking" requires a trade and the only way to make that trade is to build up the team's assets. Morey is forced to make several smaller trades in hopes of getting enough to make that big trade.

It's a vicious circle. He's almost damned if he does and damned if he don't.

The only other way to solve it is to draft a player who becomes a superstar and unfortunately Houston hasn't been able to do so in 10 years. Unless they get lucky somehow, they will need to tank for a season or 2 and hope they draft the right guy during those bad seasons.

That's a lot of "ifs"...

 

This is a nice one on the Tyreke / Drummond post

The GM being faulted for acquiring and shipping off assets left and right, is SCARED to make transactions?

 

Martin's problem on the court (IMO) is that he seems to have focused all his energy on improving his offensive game and he didn't spend much time working on the defensive side of his game. Lord knows he should have.

If he had, he would probably be viewed as untouchable by his team and not as an asset to be traded back and forth...

 

Even his offense is suspect though. He has butterfingers, he throws bad passes, he's not an assist man. He's just a shooter. Like seriously only a shooter. So when his shot's not falling, he has nothing.

This was not the case before Les/Daryl showed the Rockets coach with the highest winning percentage in Rockets history the door. Martin knew Adelman's system and he thrived in it. But Adelman had to make him want to learn it, want to work hard, work hard to succeed. Since Rick got the boot (and Martin's name became the main one to dangle) all of those qualities are gone in him.

 

I've responded to three of your posts indicating that contributing members get edit privileges.

 

He also won because his superstar stayed healthy. Had Nowitizki gone down with a career limiting/ending injury as did Yao, it is doubtful that Dallas would have won a championship. In addition, Cuban would probably have attempted to turn his 'assets' into a superstar.

"Moneyball" appeared to be working prior to Yao and Mcgrady going down.

 

The problem is that Morey goes public with his strategies and with his moving of players like they are chesspieces makes many people feel they are in fact an asset. Even Asik should feel like he's an asset because there's no way we keep him that third year of $15 million. The three rookies are in fact assets, D-Mo is, even Parsons is.

I agree with Dreamshake 1 regarding loyalty and not being available to develop when your constantly shuffling the deck. This team has changed so much over the last few years that there's not even a core of 3-4 players guaranteed to stay. Scola is the only player left from 07-08 and possibly Lowry from 08-09 who are also about to leave.

Morey's strategy is so obvious it's not even funny. He's going to say we want Camby long term and surely want him back. What does he do, bring in another center. We can go on and on about his talk and the way he walks but everybody knows this can't go on for much longer.