Need another vet? Why not Kevin Martin?
Written by Garrett Catalana – @GarrettCatalana
Quick, who did the Houston Rockets trade to the Oklahoma City Thunder to acquire James Harden in 2012?
The answer would be Jeremy Lamb, two first round draft picks (Steven Adams and Mitch McGary), a second round pick (Alex Abrines), and veteran shooting guard Kevin Martin. Martin was seen a short-term solution at the shooting guard position in the absence of James Harden, while Jeremy Lamb was seen as more of a long-term solution for OKC. Three years later, neither player remains on the Thunder. Lamb was traded this past offseason to the Charlotte Hornets and Martin’s contract expired following the 2012-2013 in which the #1 seed Thunder lost in the Western Conference Semifinals to the #5 seed Memphis Grizzlies in five games. Martin signed with the Minnesota Timberwolves in the offseason, a hefty contract worth $28 million over four seasons. He was viewed as a reliable shooting guard that would work well with franchise players forward Kevin Love and point guard Ricky Rubio. After Martin played just only one year with Love, the Timberwolves traded Love to the Cleveland Cavaliers for the franchise’s next star in guard Andrew Wiggins. The Timberwolves finished the 2014-2015 season with the worst record in the NBA at 16-66 and the TWolves struck lottery gold and were awarded with the #1 overall pick, selecting big man Karl-Anthony Towns.
With the additions of younger talent, like Rubio, Wiggins, Towns, Nemanja Bjelica, Zach LaVine, Shabazz Muhammad, Adreian Payne, Gorgui Dieng, and Tyus Jones in the past few seasons, the Timberwolves are glowing with young, developing talent. The Timberwolves have also brought in older veteran players at different positions to help mentor these younger players, including Kevin Garnett, Andre Miller, and Tayshaun Prince. Entering the 2015/16 season, the only other players remaining from previous forms of the team were Nikola Pekovic (has been injured) and Martin.
Martin came off the bench to start the season while Andrew Wiggins started at shooting guard and Tayshaun Prince at small forward. Then by late November, Martin became a starter as the Timberwolves won its next two games over the Sixers and the Kings. The following eight games, however, the Timberwolves won only game, beating the lowly Lakers by just one at home. Martin did not play the next game versus the Knicks on December 16th but came off the bench for the three games averaging 17 minutes per game. On December 21st, Martin played 18 minutes against the Celtics but only shot 1 of 6 from the field in a 14-point loss. Since then, Martin has been a DNP – Coach’s Decision in seven straight contests. His services no longer seem to be needed in Minnesota and there are numerous reports that he is on the trading block. It is in my opinion that the Sixers should trade for the veteran shooting guard. Kevin Martin’s contract is not easily moveable, however. He is owed $7,085,000 for the remainder of this season and has a player option worth $7,377,500 next season, as he also turns 33 in February. The Timberwolves clearly don’t have the leverage in any trade scenario to try to get rid of Martin and his 2-year, $14 million contract. The Sixers, however, may be the right team for the 12-year veteran.
Here are 10 reasons why the Sixers should pursue Kevin Martin:
1) He’s a veteran.
– A blatantly obvious point as Martin as been in the NBA since 2004. In the past month, the Sixers have added veteran leadership at three different levels: management (Jerry Colangelo), the coaching staff (Mike D’Antoni), and players (Carl Landry, Kendall Marshall, Elton Brand, & Ish Smith). Kevin Martin has connections in all three levels. For starters, Colangelo has expressed on multiple occasions since his hire the need to the media for veteran leadership and Martin certainly has the experience to fit the bill. Martin has also played in the Western Conference for his entire career, a place that new associate head coach Mike D’Antoni is very familiar with. Martin has played for the Kings, Rockets, Thunder, and Timberwolves, while D’Antoni was the head coach of the Suns from 2003 to 2008 and the Lakers’ head coach from 2012 to 2014. Martin played in the same division that D’Antoni coached in during his entire Suns’ tenure (playing with the Kings from 2004 to 2010). If anything else, D’Antoni is extremely familiar with Martin’s abilities on the basketball court after game planning for him and his teams for over a decade. At the player level, we have already seen the difference that veteran players like Carl Landry and Ish Smith can make. Martin would be just adding onto that experience.
2) He’s a veteran at a position that the Sixers have the least amount of NBA experience.
– I mentioned Kendall Marshall, Ish Smith, and Carl Landry in the last point, talking about the veteran experience they bring to the table. But keep in mind that Smith and Marshall are point guards and that Landry is a frontcourt player. Those players are able to help players who play the same position as them. What is missing is a veteran player on the wing to help mentor the young players the Sixers have at that position. This group includes Isaiah Canaan, JaKarr Sampson, Nik Stauskas, Hollis Thompson, and Robert Covington whose average age is 23.4 and average NBA experience is 2.8 years in the league. This young, developing group could really use the veteran help from someone like Martin who was once a great scorer in a tough Western Conference.
3) He wouldn’t be taking major minutes away from a franchise player.
– The main reason that the #TrustTheProcess cult were fans of Hinkie not signing veteran free agents was the concept that these types of players would be taking major minutes away from players who need to develop by playing legitimate NBA minutes. For me, trading for Kevin Martin wouldn’t result in that sort of problem, much like Carl Landry isn’t taking away big minutes from Jerami Grant, Jahlil Okafor, Nerlens Noel, or Richaun Holmes. Out of the three players I define as shooting guards (Canaan, Sampson, and Stauskas), only one of those players has a real potential future with the team, and that is Stauskas. Love him or hate him, we know what Isaiah Canaan is. He can shoot three pointers and that’s it. JaKarr Sampson can grow some as a legitimate NBA defender, something I wrote about before the season started, but even someone like him can only bottom of rotation minutes. Nik Stauskas is in awkward position at the moment. While he would clearly gain experience by playing major minutes, he has been so ineffective that playing him more probably is worse off, which leads to my next point.
4) He can help Nik Stauskas.
If anybody on this Sixers team needs a major confidence boost, it’s Stauskas. Coming into the season, I thought Stauskas had a great chance to be a part of the Sixers youth movement (even if he was the third-best asset in the Sixers-Kings trade in the offseason). The core for me was Noel, Embiid, Okafor, Grant, Covington, and Stauskas. For me, the borderline player was Richaun Holmes, as in the last young player in the youth movement. Through 37 games, however, the script has flipped, Holmes has clearly outperformed his second round draft status and Stauskas has been the most disappointing Sixer this season, and it hasn’t been close. There are big time questions on whether Stauskas will even be on the team next year, let alone three years from now. Someone with the team told me in training camp that it is all confidence when it comes to Stauskas, not his ability. He needs some help from a mentoring point-of-view. Martin can provide that. They both are similar player types. Martin is 6’7, 200 pounds and came into the league as a ball-handler with playmaking ability, as he developed his jump shot over the years going from shooting 20% from three his rookie year to 40% by his fourth year in the league. Stauskas came into the NBA with many of the same abilities, even being drafted by the same team (Kings). If there is any two-guard that could help Stauskas, it’s Martin.
5) He’s a better player than the other shooting guards right now.
– Martin has been in the NBA for more than a decade and even though he isn’t playing for an under .500 Timberwolves team and is 33 years old; he is still better than the current group of Philadelphia shooting guards. The underwhelming play at the shooting guard on both ends of the floor was been a major reason why the Sixers started the season 1-29. He has recorded better statistics than Sampson, Canaan, and Stauskas in nearly all categories. From something as basic as FG% or 3P%, Martin ranks second of the four in FG% (37%) and first in 3P% (38%). Martin averages the most free throw attempts per game (4.0), he has the highest PER (12.2), the highest offensive win shares (0.6), and is second in VORP (Value Over Replacement Player) (-0.3). Martin has never been known as much of a defender, but based on Defensive Win Shares, they are all equally as bad, all tied at 0.3. While Martin has benefited from a better roster in Minnesota, he has been just as good (or bad, however you define it) as the three current SGs.
6) His contract gets the Sixers over the salary cap floor.
– While there is no large penalty for an NBA team to be under the salary cap floor, the Sixers find themselves in similar territory for the third straight season. With the recent release of Tony Wroten, the Sixers now are paying ten players not to be on the Sixers and are paying those players a combined $28.2 million. The team total salary is at $60.1 million right now, which is still about $2 million below the NBA salary cap floor ($62 million) and about $10 million under the salary cap max ($70 million). By adding Martin’s $7 million 15/16 salary, the Sixers are over the NBA salary cap floor, with a cap number of $67.2 million without trading or releasing one of the fifteen players currently on the roster. Since the Sixers are under the salary cap max, they have the ability to add Martin without sending any salary back.
7) If Martin exercises his player option for next season, it’s not that big of a deal.
– Everyone already knows about the extra cap space that will be available to teams next season (an increase of $20 million), so all but a handful of teams will have major cap space next season. A team such as the 76ers, with $28 million of dead money coming off the books, will have to spend some serious money in order to reach the salary cap floor. With the combined salaries of 13 players and not counting for any draft picks, the Sixers only have a cap hit of $32.3 million. The Sixers have to spend money on somebody and if Kevin Martin exercises his player option, his $7.3 million cap hit next season is just a blip on the radar, whether or not if the Sixers decide to waive him, like they previously had with JaVale McGee or Gerald Wallace.
8) Sam Hinkie has Houston ties to Kevin Martin.
– Sam Hinkie worked in the front office of the Houston Rockets from 2005 to 2013 and Kevin Martin was a member of the Rockets from 2010 to 2012. Hinkie had a role in bringing Martin to Houston in February 2010 in the trade that sent Tracy McGrady to the Knicks, as well as capitalizing on Martin’s trade value in 2012 when the Rockets acquired its franchise-centerpiece James Harden. If anybody in the Sixers organization knows Kevin Martin, it’s Sam Hinkie.
9) The Sixers don’t have to give up much value for Martin.
– The Timberwolves have three young players taking all minutes at the wing instead of Martin, with Andrew Wiggins, Zach LaVine, and Shabazz Muhammad. Minnesota doesn’t plan to play him at all until he gets traded. The team really doesn’t want to pay him the money next season so they won’t ask for much of a return for someone to take him off their hands.
10) It doesn’t do any harm for the franchise long-term.
– Martin will be 33 years old in February and hasn’t been very productive this year but his contract will be off the books after next season. If Martin doesn’t work out after this season, just waive him like McGee and Wallace. If Colangelo is serious about adding more veteran leadership, then why not Martin? He has ties to both D’Antoni and Hinkie and he can provide more value this season than the current crop of shooting guards. Trading for Martin would not be bailing out on “The Process,” rather it could help those currently in the middle of it.
So why not Kevin Martin?
#TrustTheProcess
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