Okay, so the morning has arrived and nothing has come from what we knew going to bed last night. Here are some reactions from other media types along with one quick note to start from Adrian Wojnarowski’s Twitter feed:
Kings front office, do whatever Arn Tellem wants. Can’t risk Tyreke’s decision-makers getting ticked off over something so meaningless.
Now, onto the links:
– First of all, Tom Ziller wrote a great goodbye to Kevin Martin. Ziller has been a Martin guy before just about everybody. Their careers have ascended together in this symbiotic relationship. He was telling you how good Kevin Martin was in relation to most other players before it became a fashionable thing. People pretend they knew about Kevin all along but Ziller has a legit claim to that knowledge. If you were capable of trademarking or owning the rights to those kind of things, everybody would be sending TZ royalty checks.
Every ending in Sacramento is sour. Webber, Bibby, Richmond, Peja, Artest, Wells, Miller, Orien Greene, Ike Diogu. I always thought Martin would survive that, like Bobby Jackson did, that the fans were so endeared to his game he’d go out only when it made perfect sense. At this point, that’s not the case. This is an impatient separation (with blame to both Martin and the organization). And time won’t change that. But whining about it won’t reverse it either, will it?
– Rahat from Red 94 (Rockets blog for the TrueHoop Network. Go ahead and check. He’s in the drop down menu above. Go check.) gives bullet points throughout the day on what was going on with the Rockets. He offers this bit about deal with the Kings:
For the Kings though, this was just an absolute grand-slam. Petrie has to feel ecstatic about adding a big, physical piece like Landry to that young nucleus.
– Matt Moore form Hardwood Paroxysm think the Kings are making out well in this deal just like I do.
And if the reports are true, he was having trouble adapting to deferring to Evans. EVEN THOUGH EVANS IS BETTER. That’s key here, hence the caps. Evans is a better player, right now, than Kevin martin, even with Martin’s scoring ability. Because Evans’ impact is felt not only in points, and in assists, and in rebounds, and in steals, and in defense, but in the overall flow of the offense. Evans makes things happen. He’s a game-changer. Martin? He’s a shooter. A scorer. A nice little gunner that’s going to add a lot to Houston, because that’s what they need. But he’s not the savior. Evans is the savior. And if Martin had even an itch of uncomfortableness about that being the case? Gotta go. I expect Petrie to turn this into either a deal with Chicago or New York by the end of the day that will get them more cap space and more assets. And in the meantime? They’re going to be running the pick and roll with Evans and Landry. Ye Gods. Landry will be a revelation for Kings fans, who are going to learn it’s nice to have a guy who, you know, stays on the floor and will kill anyone that gets in his way. Landry’s a machine/dog/beast. A Robo-dogbeast, if you will.
– Tom Martin from Dream Shake on acquiring Kevin Martin:
1. Kevin Martin Is No Joke
I think we know how good Martin is. He’s a helluva shooter, is an incredibly efficient wing, and just turned 27. This is the best single player that the Rockets could have acquired, now and in free agency. He’ll be the perfect complement to Yao once he returns. Martin’s only shortcomings lie in defense, where he’s pretty average. Then again, this is a team featuring Trevor Ariza and Shane Battier, so we should be fine nonetheless. It’s not as if we gave up any defense in the first place.
– And one more link from Ziller on what the Kings are acquiring with Carl Landry:
Like that Martin, Landry isn’t renowned as a defender or passer. He can’t touch Roy or Duncan, obviously, in either category. But he is a really, really good scorer. And efficient! I’ll repeat: we’re basically trading for the forward version of Martin.
That’s all for right now. Will have more updates throughout the morning as we figure out what’s going on with this New York aspect of the deal.
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