I'm sorry but how has Martin been inconsistent? He has been our top scorer almost every game and getting to the free throw line 8+ times a game. He has been scoring very efficiently.
Landry is an average rebounder but he was a great rebounder in the 4th quarter. Plus Landry put up insane number of points to win Rockets games. With Landry, you can play AB or Lowry or both in the 4th. Since Landry was asked to play from bench, I don't see any point to bring up his Sacramento stats.
Good god, just because Landry lost a tooth or two, people think he is the missing piece. Landry was a fine player but he was traded for a legit scoring 2 that we desperately needed. With Landry we probably are still 1-6, Ariza would still be our 2 guard and we'd be having the same exact conversations on why this team is struggling.
I remember we had better record than 1:6 with Landry and Ariza. "probably" not 1:6 That legit scoring 2 is as good as 1:6. that's for sure though.
Right before we traded Landry the squad had gone 4-7 and 8-12 over the last 20...not very good either.
Martin's biggest issue is that he is not a leader and never will be. I'd say he's our best player and possibly worst defender and least vocal. That doesn't translate well to wins and were seeing it now.
If Martin is such a good fit for the Rockets, why do we have the worst record in the league? Martin has a special talent for being the best player on bad teams. You can try to ignore the obvious for as long as you want but we had special chemistry in 08 with Landry, Artest, etc. That team fit. This team with Martin at the helm does not fit, and if you don't believe me, look at the record. And this year's team has not been playing with passion. Brooks, Yao, Battier, and Adelman are already on record as saying the team hasn't played with the passion they need to be playing with. I'll take their word over yours. Martin is obviously a better statistical player than Landry, nobody is doubting that, but it doesn't only come down to stats, as we can see this season. Had anybody told you before the season that Martin and Scola would combine to be averaging 45 ppg after 8 games, you'd say we were rolling right? Being a high scorer on a bad team doesn't mean much.
Look at this way since poeple don't seem to understand. The rockets had several pieces in place that included a good starting pg, the return of yao, scola, lowry returning, and good young prospects. They wanted to add another piece that could give them 20+ a night consistantly. They didn't add Martin and say "this is our guy that wil lead us to a championship." He's here to be another piece to the puzzle. But since those other pieces are falling a part, he can't fill those other pieces becuase that wasn't why he was brought here to do in the first place. GET IT?
How is 5 games under and 3 games or 4 games under .500 that much different? Sorry, eleven games before we traded Landry...better?
Martin, in my eyes, is the perfect combo to an All-Star player that has an ability to finish in the 4th and find an open man. It's a long shot but once we get that player, Martin's value increases a bunch. After getting "that player" we will also need to get a tough presence that doesn't take crap from anyone. It seems like we are SO far away from getting that but, we are not. It's incredibly hard being patient when we are on the losing end of things, but just be patient.
The rockets will be 5-20 soon and rv6 and daryl morey only fans will only blame it on injuries and continue the denial even with the lack of leadership coming from Martin or lack of defense or lack of offense in the 4th (That basically killed them off so easily in the 6-7 games so far). And good luck with his injuries track record and him being the best player of losing teams. ANd when he did win with the kings, he was just a rookie and wasnt even a core part of the team. COntinue your denials..that we got the wrong guy, and removed really valuable players in Artest, Ariza, and got Martin and Lee in return. Lee sucks but he's gettin paid 1 million while martin is gettin paid 12 mil+ each year for the next 3 years.
Bad luck, inability to properly execute or adjust, and poor rotations, both in minutes and on defense as result of having too many guys, are for me much more important then stuff about will, which has some importance but is below technical things like that. You start executing, you win. You win, you get chemistry. That's what gets the will up, when the team feels good about themselves, which this team isn't doing because they're not doing things correctly. Same with those Rockets - they won because everyone knew their place, something which has not occured on this team due to the fact that everyone's minutes are uncertain. That's what matters, and it has nothing to do with the laughable idea that Landry is a better fit with the Rockets or is a better player. As I have said, with Scola playing as well as he has, and with the fact that we have so many PFs, how would Landry fit on this team? Explain that. I think that this team still unfortunately needs time, and we really are going to do something about both the frontcourt problem (too many guys, too much inconsistency) and the PG problem (Lowry playing like crap, Brooks injured). We fix those, we'll win again, but I guess I'm more confident in this team then most people here.
The key lesson is that you can't play two guards with no defense. Either AB or Martin has got to go. It's pretty clear to me that neither AB nor Martin is ever going to be much of a defender. You just can't give up that much dribble penetration and expect to have much defensive cohesion. They needed to trade Landry. Finding PT for both Landry and Scola was a waste of two good PFs. And they needed a SG. That's a pretty good deal. I look at that trade as a transition deal to see if AB and Martin could form our backcourt for a year, if they don't gel, AB gets traded off after he's gained some value in the L. Martin needs to play with a distributing PG with strong defense and a SF with good help D. The PG can't also come off to help on Martin's man.
Martin has impressed me since his time here. He can shoot the hell out of the ball at a very efficient rate. My only problem with him is his defense (of course), his rebounding, and his effort. He reminds me a lot like T-Mac where they never do the dirty work or the little plays to help a team win. Maybe it's just his calm demeanor but damn can the guy show some emotion at least once?
While I liked Landry, many on the board overrate him. As a starter, the holes in his game are/were exposed (rebounding/defense) and that is why he now plays for Sactown. Great off the bench energy guy. Nothing more.
