Kevin Martin Roster Review

[jonathanlambert33]

Kevin Martin came to the Timberwolves via a July 11th sign-and-trade deal, inking a 4 year, $27.75 million contract, and immediately became the best shooting guard in Minnesota history. For a team that ranked dead last in the NBA in perimeter shooting in 2013-14 and in the bottom half of the league in free throw percentage, K-Mart was a sight for sore eyes. Employing unconventional (though effective) shot mechanics, the tenth-year man from Western Carolina brought a 38.5% career mark from outside the arc to Minneapolis. Between Martin, a healthy Kevin Love and a healthy Chase Budinger, the Timberwolves had every reason to hope their offensive woes would be solved, at least partially, by the sheer force of success from three-point land. Observers also wondered if his ability to get to the foul line (where he converts 86.9% of the time, 24th-best in NBA history) would return after a year of being utilized primarily as a spot-up shooter in Oklahoma City.

The results were somewhat mixed. Statistically, Martin turned in a season on par with his per-36 minute career averages. He scored 21.5 points, grabbed 3.4 rebounds and dished out 2.0 assists on 43/39/89 shooting splits. Over his decade in the league, those numbers are 20.9 points, 3.8 rebounds and 2.3 assists on 44/39/87 splits. On the surface, he seemed like the same guy hes always been, but once you look a little closer, you begin to see that wasnt exactly the case.


Martin derives much of his offensive value from his ability to shoot threes and get to the foul line. While he did get to the line at a higher clip than either of his previous two seasons, his free throw attempts per-36 in 2013-14 (5.6) were still well below his career rate (7.0). And despite the fact that he made 39% of his threes, he attempted those at a lower rate as well (4.9 tries per-36, his lowest output since 2009-10). Instead, he took a lot of contested midrange jumpers, often out of isolation sets; among players who tried at least 350 midrange shots, only Josh Smith made them at a lower clip than Martins 35.9%. The result was Martin posting his lowest True Shooting percentage since his rookie year.

When it came to defense, Martin was exactly as advertised he was pretty bad. The numbers say his defensive rating wasnt as terrible as you might guess and 82games,com asserts that he allowed opposing shooting guards to produce only a 12.8 PER, which is pretty good, I suppose. I hate employing the I watched the games approach without significant empirical data to back up what I think my eyes told me, but I feel pretty confident in saying Martin was bad on defense this season. His footwork was slow, rendering him a swinging gate on the perimeter. He was also prone to lapses in concentration, and while I hate summarizing half of a players season with a GIF of a single play, what follows is representative of Kevin Martins body of work on defense in 2013-14:

http://www.awolfamongwolves.com/2014/05/roster-review-kevin-martin/