Rockets to acquire Kevin Martin (UPDATE: 3-Way Deal Reached)

daldridgetnt

Source: still "decent" chance TMac winds up with Knicks by deadline Thursday, despite trade to Kings.

WojYahooNBA

Before T-Mac can find himself on a contender, he has to prove he can play --- and he probably won't have the chance.

 

If landry is in the deal then let me do the honors and say WELCOME TO HOUSTON CHRIS BOSH!!!

 

And Taylor....

 

When all was thought lost... one man... in one game... changed everything. Coming this summer... Brian Cook: Free Agent

 

NOOOO WHY DO WE NEED TO LOSE LANDRY!!!!!!1

 

WojYahooNBA

@SpearsNBAYahoo and I will have another updated story soon, including more on chances of TMac moving thru to Knicks and Martin's thoughts.

 

How do you figure?

 

Why Landry? Man I hate this trade another INJURY prone player that doesn't play a lick of defense when are the Rockets going to learn.

 

More KMart to Y!: "I'm definitely excited for a new opportunity with my old coach. That's the funny part."

 

This. Those expecting that we could get someone like Martin for T-Mac's contract and a few fillers were mistaken.

As said, we traded someone from a deep position for a position of need. I love Landry as much as the next guy, but also playing a role in this is his contract situation. I doubt he'd want to resign to come off the bench again. The kid knows especially now, that he could be a star. He would want to start.

I like the trade.

 

I'm pretty Houston won't have the capspace needed to land Bosh. KMart makes too much.

 

You are right on all points. Some of us just really like Landry. And part of it is I'm tired of us hitching our wagons to injury prone players. I mean we ship T-Mac off to bring in another oft injured guard? When will we learn?

I mean, I understand....just don't like giving up Landry for another injury prone dude.

 

We gave the Kings what they wanted..

a QUEEN

 

I honestly don't know. We don't that type of talented big man on the roster. Heck, Hayes is our best passing PF/C. And Webber was the piece that made that team run. Hill could potentially be that guy, but not next year. At best in 2-3 yrs. Unless somehow we now snatch David Lee. I still want one of NYC's picks. If nothing else, that is a huge trading chip.

Isn't Martin currently playing hurt right now. Like he is at 70-80% or something. It makes me wonder if he would pass a physical. And if he does pass and added, do we sit him so he gets healthy and "develop young players" to get the draft pick to replace Landry? I really don't what Morey is doing. I don't think anyone does right now. Not as in he is crazy dumb, as in he is like 8 steps ahead of everyone else who is pawn in his chess match...or at least I hope.

 

Sign & trade is a possibility.

 

Next year we have...


Yao/Andersen/Armtrong (maybe we resign cheap)
Scola/Draft pick (likely)
Ariza/Battier/
Martin/Budinger
Brooks/Lowry

Obviously, assuming we resign Scola (which dealing Landry indicated we'll do) and Lowry.

We still have the MLE to play with after that. Might need front court help depending on how Andersen comes along.

We could always add Manu as well with the MLE.

 

where is the funny part

 

Martin: "I'm definitely excited for a new opportunity with my old coach. That's the funny part."

http://twitter.com/SpearsNBAYahoo

 

I guess this is why Morey is high on him. He is like Lowry with a jump shot.

 

Okay, I'll chime in real quick and then it's off to bed . . .

I'll sum up this (two-team iteration of the) trade with the following phrase:

"You've got to give something to get something."

Kevin Martin is a young, efficient scorer who plays the one position at which the Rockets have the most glaring hole, and he JUST turned 27. He's got a fairly sizeable contract, but it's not unwieldy. To put it in perspective, after all annual raises, in the final year of Martin's deal (2012-13), he'll still be making only about what Andre Iguodala makes right now.

And, as NIKESTRAD and others have pointed out, the Rockets didn't have to take back any bad contracts AND will get below the luxury tax threshold. Thomas, Armstrong and Rodriguez all expire at the end of the year. The Rockets managed to get Martin without having to take back either Nocioni's or Udrih's albatross contracts. Les Alexander has to feel good about that, at least.

And remember, unlike the Knicks, the Kings don't really value McGrady much as a player who can help them on the court. To them, he's just an expiring contract.

The price to get this 20 ppg scorer just hitting the prime of his career, all without taking back any additional long-term salary, was Carl Landry.

Will he be missed. Greatly.

Does it feel good to lose him. Certainly not.

Is this a fair price to pay. I think so.

For as much as Landry was a critical part of this Rockets team, Daryl Morey has been great at accumulating assets. Luis Scola is more than capable of manning the PF spot. I've always thought that he never got as many minutes as he was capable of getting. Well, he'll get them now. Plus, the Rockets will have Chuck Hayes, Kenny Thomas and Brian Cook all backing up Scola. Don't sleep on Thomas at least being a serviceable 10th man down the stretch. The only reason Sacramento didn't play KT more was so that they could develop all of their young frontcourt players.

As for the salary cap implications, I'll have more on that next week when all factors are known. Obviously, the Rockets will have zero cap room this summer now. But who cares, since Martin is far better than any free agent the Rockets could have gotten with their cap room. Based on a quick glance at the numbers, even with Martin's $10.6M salary next season, the Rockets should still be able to re-sign Scola and Lowry AND add an MLE free agent, all without going over the luxury tax. It'll probably be close (depending on what offer sheets Lowry attracts), but it should at least be managable for Les and Morey.


That said, I am sort of praying for a 3-way deal with the Knicks to materialize under the following parameters (which would fall in line with what Ric Bucher was alluding to):

Knicks get: Tracy McGrady, Sergio Rodriguez
Kings get: Larry Hughes, Jordan Hill, Joey Dorsey
Rockets get: Kevin Martin, Jared Jeffries, Hilton Armstrong

The Rockets would still get under the luxury tax and would keep Landry, but at the cost of having to take on Jeffries's salary next year. The downside is that the Rockets would probably dip into luxury tax territory if they want to re-sign both Scola and Lowry.


Okay, goodnight everyone. I'm freakin' tired.