Bee: Theus says Martin can be great

[VF21]

Theus: Martin can be great
The 4th-year player is on fire offensively, and he is developing in other areas.
By Sam Amick - samick@sacbee.com
Last Updated 12:25 am PST Sunday, November 18, 2007
Story appeared in SPORTS section, Page C1

Kevin Martin was doing his best to explain his sizzling start, running through his routine answers that ranged from increased opportunities and hard work to how they were meshing in quite a productive way.

Then Shareef Abdur-Rahim walked by his teammate, stopping to inject his own analysis of Martin's latest outing without being prompted.

"Wasn't that the easiest 32 points you've ever seen?" the Kings forward asked. "At halftime, he had 20, and I didn't remember the 20. Then he had 12 (more) in the third, and I didn't remember those, either."

Martin would finish with a career-high 43 points in the Kings' 123-118, double-overtime win against New York on Friday night at Arco Arena. The performance made Martin second in the league in scoring (28.2 points per game) in what has been one of the early bright spots of a dim Kings season. But it was Martin's 10 rebounds that drew the most praise from some teammates and – more to the point – Kings coach Reggie Theus.

The rest of the article

 

[VF21]

This is the part of the article I like the best:

Yet Theus' tactics can be nothing short of aggressive, and the former New Mexico State coach said he's learning which methods work best with which personalities.

"I'm learning him, and he has to learn me also," Theus said. "I think the guys know that it's not personal, that I just want to get them better. Am I engaging and get in your face? Yeah, but I'm growing, too, here. I have to let that happen naturally.

"I just see so much potential for him to be a great basketball player. Not good, but great."

It's no secret that I really like Reggie Theus and I really want him to do well. I want our Kings to do well and I really want Kevin Martin to reach his maximum potential.

This could end up being the beginning of a beautiful relationship between an NBA coach and an NBA player - and we've got ringside seats.

 

[BMiller52]

Yea and I like what Ron said also. But Reggie should be able to get the most out of Kevin I think as far as coaches getting him to improve goes. Because Reggie was a star in the NBA before and knows how Kevin can improve, but also he seems to be able to motivate him. He's not just going to forget about Kevin like Muss did.

 

[cfechter]

I"m excited to watch as well.

At this point of the year, his 5 year, 55 million dollar contract is looking like an absolute bargain. Can you imagine how much money a 28 ppg scorer would get in today's market?

 

[AriesMar27]

I"m excited to watch as well.

At this point of the year, his 5 year, 55 million dollar contract is looking like an absolute bargain. Can you imagine how much money a 28 ppg scorer would get in today's market?

thats what i was thinking... do you know how much we would be paying martin if he put up those numbers last year? deng and gordon probably feel like crap right now... there is no way that they can use martin's salary as a base for their new contracts now... thats if he ends the season being top 5 scorer... if not top 3 at this pace...

its funny how so many people around here thought that garcia was better than martin... i love francisco but damn... he's kinda like a dominican luke walton....

 

[Bricklayer]

Martin won' touch the ball as much, so his statistics will drop. BUT, if he gets better at rebounding, and give 7-10 a game, his 20/10 would satisfy me incredibly

Ok, like the Hawes comment, I seriously hope this was meant in jest.

 

[The Hammer]

All you Reggie skeptics take note. And all who jumped to conlusions about him as well. I'm not a Reggie bandwagoner, but I must say this: many people say he criticized his players in the media (I think he was just saying how it was, i.e. Miller needs to shape up, etc.), but you must see how he praises publicly too. See, it comes back to trust. If a player trusts what the coach is saying, the negative things will be hard to take, yes, but then there will of course be praises when things go right, and trusting that from the coach is just as important. This is the flip side of "accountability". It's not just that people pay for their mistakes, they reap the benefits of their successes as well, and, apparantly all of it, with Reggie, is getting communicated to the media.

Many people thought Reggie was using the media a "negative" weapon to motivate his players. In other words he was coming to the media with what guys were doing wrong. But now we see, as time goes on, that he also is public about what is going right, and how he feels about it. And also, a touch of humility, which was great to see, as he admitted to be "learning". That's a good sign to me.

Now it appears as if Reggie is just willing to say honestly what he's seeing and feeling about his players. Being straightforward. Not trying to cut you down. Says what hes sees. Praises when you do well. Rips you if you screw up. That, I think, will lead to the trust everyone has been talking about.

 

[PurpleHaze]

Well said, Hammer. I've been saying the exact same thing here consistently - just as Coach Theus has been consistent in telling it exactly as it is. Now, GO KINGS!!

 

[Glenn]

Hawes may be good for 15 points depending very much on his role in the offense. I am afraid 5 to 7 rebounds is a tad more realistic. In other words he will grab most of all the balls that land on his head.

He probably will demand a double team down low and I hope he can pass the ball well. So far it seems that he has that skill or at the least he understands that he must pass. He will need to be honored out deep so as a whole I think he will help our offense without necessarily putting up huge numbers.

He may not be like a Vlade offensively but will be most important in much the same way. But then he's 19 and who can really tell? He probably hasn't even stopped growing. We are all really guessing about a guy that I am sensing most people on the web site thought was a bad choice.

This is certainly more interest than Martin or Garcia got in their first year but then they were far deeper into the draft and I suspect nothing much was expected of them..

 

[Glenn]

Ah, and then Martin. Theus said he could be a great defender as well as offensive player. This is a paraphrase but I never thought there was anything wrong with that comment. It seem to be true as long as he has the energy to put out at both ends of the court.

The season gets long.