I see Martin a lot like Belinelli in some ways you mentioned.
He knows how to work on the offensive side very well. He knows where to pick his spots in the offense and he has an amazingly high IQ. I acknowledge that Martin is years ahead of Ben if added to this offense, but we have to look at his overall play
this year.
26 mins 12.7pts 2.4rebs 1.3asts
Let's compare that with Ben:
22 mins 8pts 2.2rebs 1.2asts
Ben has had a much better year, but Martin is still the better offensive player. However, I feel like if you really want more production out of your starting SG spot, you need to get him the ball a lot more often. Take a look at the difference in shot attempts a game between Ben and Martin. I think the real problem with Ben is that his teammates don't have faith in him. He's been shooting the ball well in limited samples. He's also showing more confidence in himself(much more aggressive and less hesitant). However, it seems like once he misses a shot, his teammates completely block him out from their offensive flow. We've never seen this happen with Belli. Belli misses a wide open 3? They'll get him another shot in the next possession. Ben misses a wide open 3? He's not getting another look for the entire game.
I don't think Martin is the answers to Ben's flaws at SG. I think that's what a lot of us want to find. The team just need more PT and practice together. We started the season off extremely sloppy, and we've started to tighten it up. Last 10 games, 5-5 which is pretty remarkable. I'm hoping things can continue to click.
I think Kevin could be a great addition to our offense, but my biggest concern is his health and his defense. Can he have a healthy season? I think he can, but I'm not completely sure since he doesn't have a good track record. I agree with you on his defense. Being 32 has a toll on him defensively. I think it's more about him preserving his energy on the offensive side, but that'll kill you when you have to guard guys like Klay, Harden, Knight, Reddick, and McCollum. He got away with this because he played alongside very good defenders in KAT, Wiggins, and Rubio. He's not going to get away with it playing with Rondo.. His defense is worse than Belli's. Belli's problem is that he gets caught up in screens a lot, and sometimes he loses his man, or he's late on a switch.
So, would you trade offense for defense?
As one of the best scoring offenses in the NBA, I don't think that I would.
We're 5th in 3pt%, tied for 16th in 3pt attempts, 3rd in points, and tied for 5th in FG%.
I think this team has heavily depended on team ball. This is what we've been waiting for a very long time. Multiple guys contributing. If Cousins is out, chances are, we're going to lose the game either way. It's really hard to recover without your best player. We saw Rondo out for 1 game, and while the Rockets haven't been lighting it up, we saw the rest of the guys stepping up. Without Cousins, we only won 1 game, but we managed to keep the Heat, Rockets, and GSW game extremely close and down to the wire.
In short, I don't think we should trade for Kevin because he brings absolutely 0 to our poor defense. I think we should hold onto McLemore as the starting SG until a better one comes up. Kevin is not that much of an upgrade on offense if you really consider his numbers.. It's also the same reason why fans have stopped asking for Belli to start..