Meet the newest member of the Houston Rockets, Kevin Martin. While everyone freaked out about the possibility of trading Tracy McGrady's expiring contract for peanuts, Rockets GM Daryl Morey decided to cash in some of his "draft night steal" chips (Carl Landry) for a much more expensive piece to the puzzle (Martin). Martin is an extremely efficient scorer who will fit well in Rick Adelman's offense (which he has played in before).Here are the positives to the Kevin Martin acquisition.
Martin is very high on the Daryl Morey stat geeks chart. For example, his "offensive rating" (Offensive Rating = points produced per 100 posessions) is 4th in the NBA behind Steve Nash, Chris Paul, and Chauncey Billups.
Martin is also 4th actively (behind Dwight Howard, Amare Stoudamire, and Steve Nash) in true shooting % which is a measure of your combined FG, FT, and 3ptFG %.
Martin gets to the line with the best of them ranking in the top 10 in FT attempts and makes the last 3 seasons. Imagine a Rockets team next season with Yao and Martin at the end of games. It would be a parade to the charity stripe.
Martin is as effcient as it gets on the offensive end.
The negative...
He is not a good defensive player.
He is slight of build meaning he has a tendency to get banged up.
The Rockets were in desperate need for a wing scorer going into 2010-2011. Martin allows Trevor Ariza to return to his more natural role as a defensive-minded small forward. On the 2010-2011 Rockets, Trevor Ariza is the 5th scoring option behind Yao, Martin, Brooks, and Scola.
The Rockets clearly were not confident that they could acquire Joe Johnson/Dwayne Wade/Chris Bosh in the off season and got the best player available to them. Martin is not a slam dunk, but given the Rockets commitment to continuing to build around Yao Ming he is a necessary component to building a contending team.
This trade also moves the Rockets well under the luxury tax threshold going forward. The Rockets will be able to make qualifying offers to both Kyle Lowry and Luis Scola and attempt to get them both at a discounted rate through restricted free agency. The Rockets will also be able to sign a player to a full mid-class deal if they so choose. I would expect Shane Battier to be shopped in the off season for an additional big man.
When you factor in the draft picks that the Rockets are also acquiring in this deal (Swap of picks with NY in 2011 and a 2012 1st rounder and Jordan Hill) this is another shrewd deal by Daryl Morey.
No comments:
Post a Comment