I had supported this trade then. Not because I dislike Martin. Quite the contrary. I really liked all the effort Martin had put in to become one of the best scorers in the league. In particular, I was really impressed when he said he spoke about Rip Hamilton's tape, and how he learnt moving without the ball from it. And then all that effort showed on the court. Sure, we all wanted him to play better defense and what not. But he was still our best player, a hard worker and a decent bargain.
The main reason I supported the trade was that I liked Landry. I felt he shall bring a toughness to our front line, which, with Hawes, was very soft (though the Brockness monster helped there). I also felt that a second ball handler in our backcourt would be helpful with Reke, and that was one of Kevin's limitations. Increased minutes for Beno/Cisco, shall partly compensate loss of Kevin. That was my theory at least.
In hindsight, it's turning out to be a bad trade for us. Rick usually has a history of getting more out of his players. So, it's quite possible that had the trade not gone down, Martin would not be as attractive, and Landry would be looking very good. Right now though, it seems that if Rockets want, they can get much more for Martin than Landry.
Plus, I'm not too enthused about the cap space that we shall get. We're not getting some A list FA. We have to look at the draft to get our franchise player(s). Whether we already have them (in Reke and DC), or shall get one in the draft, with one or both of these guys taking the rung below, time shall tell. But we won't get that player as a FA. We can use the space to sign some solid vet, but the MLE would have been adequate for that.
The only advantage I could see for our space is if the new CBA is much tougher. Then, as one of the teams with cap space, we might be able to get some better FAs, or let other teams dump some salary to save tax, and reward us with picks (like OKC has done over the last few years).