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.
The minimum contract of an NBA player is what, 3M? You can totally afford your own development team with that amount of money esp for KJ cuz his dad is an ex NBA all star. I don't really buy into this "team development" thing cuz most of development happens outside of games not really in game. In game is usually just confidence booster the skills you learn in practice and drills outside of games.
In the 3 seasons with the Rockets, KJ Martin had a Win share of 10. In his second season after he was traded, his total win share is 2.2. That 3rd season with the Rockets, he posted a 4.7 WS which is extremely good. But then again, it was under Silas, who showed extreme favoritism in his rotation. Silas didn’t do things because they made sense, he did them because he had his favorites whom he took care of with playing time. The conspiracy part of me thinks, maybe Kenyon Martin always knew his son sucked and he was trying to secure a massive payday by capitalizing on that 4.7 WS in the 2022/2023 season.
Crazy thing is he got drafted in the 50s..... the guy literally would have gone undrafted and never made any money if he didn't make it to the Rockets, where he could free-lance and dunk all day.
Bronny before Bronny. He's a freak athlete but skills wise I can't really say he's any better. That said, having an NBA father got him a "designated salary matching" contract. Must be nice.
Sr. is probably the only reason he's still in the league though. Was he really better than Nix, Garuba or Christopher from those days? To me they were just equally expendable but he's the one getting big contracts. I think nepo kids should just embrace their Bronny-ness. All of these guys are still better than the ultimate Bronny: Kostas Antetokounmpo.
