The Future of Kenyon Martin
by CombatChuk on Mar 8, 2010 10:39 AM MST
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PrintI have a gut feeling that this knee injury to Kenyon Martin will probably alter his career in a significant way especially if he decides he can play through this. KMart's play this year has been a career best and it's no coincidence that the minutes he's been playing at career high as well. A lot of this has been attributed to George Karl's tight 8-man player rotation, which is why we're seeing KMart and Birdman grappling with knee tendinitis. Here's a couple of Plans I came up with
Plan A:
Next year is the last year of KMart's max contract so he'll have a massive expiring contract that will look certainly attractive to any team ready to unload money at the start of the 2011-2012 season (which will possibly locked out). So with that in mind this may very well be the last year of KMart playing for the Nuggets. We saw last night what Nene was talking about when he said PF was his natural position as he was dominate around the rim yesterday with Petro playing Center. So the front office might be looking around next year for a team with a dominant Center and cheap ass owner looking to save a lot of money (Chris Kaman of the Clippers come to mind) for the lockout.
Plan B:
The other scenario that I really hope to see is using Kenyon to come off the bench in a Lamar Odom type of role (signing a contract extension that's in the park of 5 mill a year) . This way he can save his knees by playing some where in the neighborhood of 20 mins and be the sledgehammer that will make the 2nd unit of the opposing cry for mama. Nene would start at PF and maybe we can develop someone at Center (Petro might get there with enough meaningful minutes) who can box out and grab rebounds. Doing this gives us a 4 man rotation at PF and C which will equalize the minutes for all 4 of them and save their knees. I see a dynasty built with something like this
What do you guys think?
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Plan C: Other
I think that you’re probably right, if this injury keeps Kenyon out for the rest of the season it alters the Nuggets next steps significantly. Joey Graham will have to be the fill-in and probably see some significant minutes depending on the team the Nuggets are playing against.
Long term, I don’t want to speculate at this point because Kenyon has given too much to this team for me to think about tossing him aside like yesterday’s garbage for another player. I understand that you always have to look ahead but at least until we hear what’s happening with the nature of his injury, I think we can at least give him that.
Swats.
Pretty decent post
Agree that we do have to start looking at the future.
I don’t see Petro as a starter in any future plans though. And I hope K-Mart retires a Nugget too.
It doesn't have to be Petro
But with a starting lineup consisting of CB1, AAA, Melo, and Nene. The Center doesn’t really need to score. Just box out get some rebounds and play defense. Which I think Petro is capable of with enough playing time.
Plan C: Other part2
It is too early to tell what is going to happen with Kmarts knees. Signing him to an extension could be a huge mistake if he can’t come back healthy. Think Chris Webber after his last knee injury. If he’s healthy, then a reasonable and short extension could be good. If not, dump him at the deadline for as much as you can get.
Your plan B leaves out some options. They will have both the midlevel and biannual exemptions next year. If the owner is willing to spend, you can do plan B plus sign two players. An older center that would sign for the midlevel and a younger more athletic PG to replace A.C. That would be my plan- Keep Kmart plus two free agents.
Doesn't have to be a 5 year deal
2-3 years at the MLE should be doable. There is a way my Plan A and B could work together is that K-Mart get’s traded then bought out (crap shoot) and comes back to the Nuggets.
This why the Nuggets needed depth at the PF/C position
There was always a chance that either K-Mart , Nene and/or Bird could go down due to their injury history. Good luck K-Mart.
yeah great plan
but GK and front office are retards
Karl just needs to learn to play a team, i mean thats why we signed balkman to a extension right?
at least dantley plays our WHOLE team even if time is minimal, i say keep him as head coach and let karl stop coaching and just control his cancer
Dantley once said that he usually plays a tighter rotation than GK
Karl > Dantley at coaching. We would have won the Rockets’ game with GK, as Dantley didn’t call timeouts at the right times and let Houston rally from a double-digit fourth quarter deficit.
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