This is my sentiments exactly. I was genuinely impressed with his acumen for dunking and serviceability, but he had free rein under Silas’ no coaching style. With accountability basketball, KJ Martin and Kenyon Martin might flip a switch and lose it… I still think it’s gross how Kenyon Martin screwed over his son’s NBA potential. With all the raw talent sitting on the bench, why go to KJ Martin when you can get those minutes to Whitmore and Amen - as they haven’t even seen the floor all that much.
KJ is another young player who wasted his developmental years in Houston. I actually don't blame his dad for wanting him out. The problem with KJ is that he doesn't have enough offensive skills to warrant PT. So his more realistic ticket to stick around would be on defense. Unfortunately, he learned pretty much nothing about playing defense in his three years with the Rockets. Now this is his fourth season at age 23. Nobody is going to give him developmental minutes. He will have to show enough in practice and hope for injuries of his teammates to crack the rotation.
As an undersized frontcourt player his best hope was to model his game after PJ Tucker defensively or be high-motor high-rebound-rate like Montrezl Harrell. He needs to wow coaching staffs on defense and be serviceable from a corner/wing 3 and getting his put-back offensive rebounds.
If Tate can develop his game overseas KJ can develop his skillset anywhere. It's even less of an excuse for him since he has an NBA father. Like I said before I never bought that development excuse. Playing on the court is just 48 mins max what you do besides that is a large part of your development.
Maybe KJ would have developed better playing overseas than playing with the Rockets. Ironically, now that he isn't getting a lot of chances in the NBA, he might have to go overseas anyway whether he likes it or not. He definitely has more physical tools than Tate. What guys like Tate and Beveley have is the tenacity to use their limited talent to carve out a decent NBA career. KJ needs that kind of mindset.
