Sigh. Another intelligent, perceptive, and articulate team player... Damn it, Daryl, get me some malcontents already!
It seems Miller and Martin will make a real nice duo. As long as Miller can be aggressive on the boards as well as keep the defense solid, I am comfortable with Yao being limited on his minutes.
my complaint is even last year when he didn't have to score 25 a night to lose by 10 points, his defense still sucked. I didn't watch him his first years when he supposedly got pt for his defense, but hopefully he'll be better this season.
Very Insightful Q & A's. "How do you rate yourself as a defensive player? Great question. I've never had anyone ask me that. I get judged a lot on it. I try to work hard, but the last three years I was a guy who had to put up 25 points a game just to not lose by 10. But my first two years under Rick Adelman, that's how I stayed on the court. It was because of defense. And I could because I had four offensive players around me. I Will Get back to that, but I also think Houston is a better place to allow me to get back to that because I won't have to be the No. 1 option every night. Now I can do other things on the court." FIXED
I think this is about how the Kings basically sent him packing after seeing Tyreke drop 20ppg for a couple months. He probably has a chip on his shoulder because of it, which is a good thing. I like how methodical he is about reading defenses. It's like the offensive mirror of Battier's defensive preparation. I hope he's right about how his defense was only poor because he was asked to be the main scorer. It doesn't bode well, however, that our defense got lit up for 110-120 points near the end of the season. Hopefully it was due to Battier and Yao's injuries. Still, very glad to have Martin and don't really want a ball-hog instead of a guy who can score off the ball.
nice interview! Kevin seems like a thoughtful, intelligent player. the Rockets would be nuts not to make a stab at getting Carmelo.
Both Battier and Chuck weren't healthy late in the season. I liked your comment about Martin's offensive preparation being similar to Battier's defensive approach to preparing for the next game. Now if they could both get as good on the other side of the floor, we'd have something!
Interesting tid bit on Brad Miller in the interview. If he's as good a mentor as Martin says he is, great for our progression especially on the Yao front. I'm just glad that the FIBA championships are going on now because the incoming season can start soon enough.
Good interview........but I'll believe the defense part when I see it Kev lol Looking forward to this season
My only concern with Martin is that he is really thin and has had a history of getting a lot of nick and knack injuries. He takes a lot of punishment when he goes inside, and his body seems to breaks down. Luckily these aren't recurring injuries. But still.... I hope that with Miller and Yao at the center position, it is going to make a lot of his drives less painful; and he won't get banged up as much during the season. But the day the Rockets traded for Martin was awesome!!! Getting Hill also provided solid speculation about a rookies potential, which is always fun. But Martin is sharp and solid!!! Such an efficient scorer.. Simply amazing to watch. OH, yeah this is absolutely the most entertaining interview I recall ever reading. I was thoroughly captivated by the whole article. Thanks for posting Dave!!!
1) he defends better even if he doesn't try as much 2) he draws way more double teams anywhere inside the 3pt line - A BIG UPGRADE 3) he provides another post presence as a perimeter player yea... not much else right?
I'll give you 1. 2 and 3, well you with Scola and Yao already in the paint I don't see how yet another double team attractor in the paint is gonna help much. Also you want your perimeter players in the perimeter...that's why they're called perimeter players in the first place. You can have your swingmen in the post, but if that happens your big men have to be perimeter players and you can have a sort of inverse offense where the big men are spotting up and the swingmen are cutting inside and posting up. Otherwise, its not a good fit cuz everybody just clogs the paint and bogs the game down. As far as Kmart is concerned, health is the only reason he's down a peg, if it weren't for his myriad injuries he'd probably be earning max money as well, since he's like the pf version of Bosh in terms of offensive efficiency. He's played really crap defense the past few years but he was a solid D player when he first started out, averaging 3(!!!) steals a game and playing good man-to-man D.
