KMart can lead the league in scoring this season

[RalphySampson]

At 23.7 ppg last season, he was 7th in the league in scoring despite taking 7 fewer shots than the leader, LeBron James (who shot 22 a game). With Artest gone, there is no reason why Kevin shouldn't attempt at least 20 shots a game. On top of that, his game has improved from last season.

I would expect him to be in the top 3 for sure, with a shot at being the scoring champion. This may be one of the highlights of our season if things continue to go like they have in preseason.

 

[=LarryLegend=]

at a glance, he is the only offense at the moment. he will avg 26pts i think. but will be the TRUE focus of every teams defense.

 

[RalphySampson]

Yeah, he will be the focus on defense for other teams, but I think he's good enough now to overcome that. We'll see...

 

[=LarryLegend=]

His handle is finally good, his asts will go way up. like 3-5 a game.

still no defense. but i think his improved handle alone will help him improve his scoring, thats always been one of his big issues.

 

[Prince_XY]

With Artest gone, there is no reason why Kevin shouldn't attempt at least 20 shots a game.

Yeah, Artest is gone, but we still have Salmons who seems like wanting to prove he should be the first option and leader ( ala-Iverson ) in offense. I just hope Salmons will give the ball to Martin more, or hope coach Theus makes Salmons come off the bench for Martin.

 

[RalphySampson]

I don't there is any chance Salmons comes off the bench this year barring a disaster for him. The job is his and I am expecting big things from John. Yes, he is a bit of a black hole on offense, but I still think Kevin should look for his shot more this season and put up 20 a game.

 

[NewArena]

Thats all well and good but everyone here knows that it doesnt matter because we arent going to win many games. We will be constantly critiscized by ESPN and other media outlets no matter what. Whether or not it is warranted doesnt matter. The saying/cliche that is always thrown around is "he lead the league in scoring but the team didnt win". It will be discounted and disregarded and whatever other words you can think of...and rightfully so.

 

[OptimusRhyme]

I agree Martin has a great chance at being the scoring leader.... I liked the quote from GP saying "Martin needs at least 15-20 shots a game".. I think Salmons is a lil bit of a black hole but he CAN score and we will need everything we can get from him scoring wise. I'm hoping for big things from Martin & Jonny this year.

 

[Arby's Roast Beef]

We all know KMart can (and probably needs to) score in order for this team to rack up more wins, but I'd be more impressed if he finally gets to developing that all-around game others such has Rip have developed once they established themselves as extreme scoring threats. We've seen that potential in the past--Kevin as a rookie/soph would unexpectedly pull up 10 boards in a single game--and he's also used his length and speed better in the past for defensive intensity, racking up more steals. I know our team construct is such that he probably needs to exert 90%+ of his energy to scoring solely, but unless we add a top flight all around player in a future draft, he needs to diversify that game.

 

[kf4l]

Yeah, Artest is gone, but we still have Salmons who seems like wanting to prove he should be the first option and leader ( ala-Iverson ) in offense. I just hope Salmons will give the ball to Martin more, or hope coach Theus makes Salmons come off the bench for Martin.

actually Salmons mentions how great of a leader Kevin is on the court / off the court and that Kevin is going to be the goto guy on offense on this article. So hopefully Salmons realizes he's not everything.

http://www.hoopsworld.com/Story.asp?story_id=10312

"Kevin's a great person off the court and he's a great player on the court," says Salmons. "He's definitely a person that you would love to play with. He's going to be our go-to scorer and we're going to put the ball in his hands a lot. He's going to make everyone else better, too."

 

[Kingzrool]

Great chance of being the top scorer in the league and easily in his position. If he were on a team that gets media exposure, he would be an all star for sure, but not here.

 

[Mr. S£im Citrus]

Great chance of being the top scorer in the league and easily in his position. If he were on a team that gets media exposure, he would be an all star for sure, but not here.

You misspelled "good."

As far as his chances for leading the league in scoring, Martin doesn't impress upon me as an unstoppable player. When defenses dedicate themselves to shutting him down, quite frankly, he'll be shut down.

 

[HighFlyingMonkey]

I don't think he'll win the scoring title, but he'll be top 5 for sure.

 

[Gary]

Jeez people.. SALMONS IS NOT ARTEST..

Huge difference between taking a lot of shots than holding the ball for 20 seconds than taking a shot. Salmons is better at distributing the ball than Artest is. Now don't go saying Artest has more assists which makes him better because that doesn't fly. Artest had assists because most of them were bail out assists when he passed the ball after not getting a shot he liked, and the shot clock was low. Salmons assists are of the ball sharing variety. Not saying Salmons is good either.. I would rather not have him because I think Garcia fits with the team chemistry more, but Salmons is NOT Artest be any means.

 

[Kingsgurl]

I used to be quite hard on Salmons and his offense, which I dubbed J.S.1 and J.S. 2, since there were basically two options once he had the ball (drive to the hoop, ignoring the fact that the defense has collapsed on you and several of your team-mates are open, take the shot OR dribble, dribble, dribble, looking for the drive to the hoop, settle for the jumper) I've now concluded that John just doesn't see the court well. I'm going to stick with the 'no court vision' theory for this year. I like it better than calling him John Selfish, because that really isn't very nice.

As far as his chances for leading the league in scoring, Martin doesn't impress upon me as an unstoppable player. When defenses dedicate themselves to shutting him down, quite frankly, he'll be shut down.

Did they just not care about him last year? I'm pretty sure they all got the scouting report that he could (and would) score. I don't see his scoring going down.

 

[Mr. S£im Citrus]

Did they just not care about him last year?

He didn't exactly lead the league in scoring last year, either, did he?

Granted, he draws a lot of fouls, and gets to the free throw line a bunch, so that helps to keep his scoring consistent, but unstoppable players don't consistently get held below their average by good defensive teams.

Or maybe you'd like it better if I just said that Martin could lead the league in scoring*





* as long as LeBron James and Kobe Bryant miss at least half the season...

 

[Merdiesel]

at a glance, he is the only offense at the moment. he will avg 26pts i think. but will be the TRUE focus of every teams defense.

good then he'll rack up the assists as well.

Great chance of being the top scorer in the league and easily in his position. If he were on a team that gets media exposure, he would be an all star for sure, but not here.

Mitch Richmond killed on offense on our team which sucked at the time and made the all-star team no problem. I'm not saying Martin is on the level of the Rock by any means, I'm just saying...

 

[kf4l]

Martin is the real deal. I mean he just always finds a way to get good shots off even when the defense is playing him tight. He also shows he can set his teammates up which is impressing because thats the one area I thought he needed some work in. He's going to be one of the top leading scorers in the NBA but I wouldn't necessarily say he's going to be number one in ppg and honestly he doesn't have to be because whats important is that he leads the team with leadership.

 

[Mr. S£im Citrus]

at a glance, he is the only offense at the moment. he will avg 26pts i think. but will be the TRUE focus of every teams defense.

good then he'll rack up the assists as well.

You'd like to THINK that, wouldn't you?

 

[NewArena]

You misspelled "good."

As far as his chances for leading the league in scoring, Martin doesn't impress upon me as an unstoppable player. When defenses dedicate themselves to shutting him down, quite frankly, he'll be shut down.

Oh my god. Are we really going to go through this again? Everyone keeps saying that but i havent seen it yet. There was always plenty of atttention on martin and he always did well. Yes there will be more attention obviously, but shut down? Never.

 

[Mr. S£im Citrus]

Oh my god. Are we really going to go through this again?

Damn straight we are. When your shooting percentage in successive games against a team goes from .412 to .333 to .167, you got shut down. When a team holds you to better than six points below your average against the rest of the league, you got shut down.

When Martin drops 40+ on the Spurs, or the Pistons, or the Celtics, then I can call him unstoppable. Until then, I'm going to pull a Positive K and say, I'm not tryin' to hear that, see.

 

[Gary]

The only guy that can stop Martin from scoring is Martin himself. You can tell when he is not feeling it, and lays a 5 point game out there in the midst of the 30-35-40 scoring nights. He gets his shots but sometimes they just don't fall. I don't attribute that to the defense, just him not making his shots.

 

[1kingzfan]

When Martin drops 40+ on the Spurs, or the Pistons, or the Celtics, then I can call him unstoppable.

Ha! Too much...

Kobe had many more games than KMart to do this last season, including playoff series against SAS and BOS, and didn't score 40+ once against these 3 teams.

Lebron also had a bunch more opportunities with his EC presence and series against BOS and did achieve this lofty feat exactly once last year vs the 3 teams, 45 in his last game of the season, the final Celtics playoff game in which the Cavs bowed out.

Unstoppable is a misunderstood term.

 

[1kingzfan]

He didn't exactly lead the league in scoring last year, either, did he?

True, but take a look at last year's scoring leaders above Kevin, give him 5 more shots a game to replicate the rest of the bunch, and he's right there with the top 3.

Pretty simple.

 

[Bricklayer]

If Kevin starts facing double teams like a LeBron or Kobe, this isn't happening. If teams take the approach we don't care how many Martin scores because he can't beat us himself, there is always the possibility. He'll get plenty of shots (and one more time Kevin takes a LOT more than 15 shots -- he led the league in FTs and you divide that by roughly 2 (or maybe 1.5 to account for 3pt plays and technical shots) and those are all shots too -- meaning he took about 20 a game last year), and if he is single covered with the ball all of the time his average will go up, and it was already at 23.7. 25+ is easy to see.

But Kevin does not have the tools to beat the constant hounding double teams that take the ball out of the hands of even HOF players and superior ballhandlers like Kobe or LeBron. If people want him to not have the ball, he won't have it. Just depends on how much they want to sacrifice their defense to make that happen. There is nobody else for teams to focus on now, so its just a strategic decision and question of philosophy -- stop the lesser players and let Kevin score what he is able, or stop Kevin and dare the lesser guys to beat you.

 

[Widowmaker2k]

I agree that Kevin's efficiency is somewhat overrated when you take into account how many free throws he attempts, but at least he hits them at a high percentage (though I dislike offensive flopping).

Here's a question, if two players both score 30 points, but one does it on 20 shots, and the other does it on 14 shots and 8 free throw attempts, is either more desirable than the other? They're using up roughly equal amounts of offensive possessions, but you have to consider that even great free throw shooters often miss one or two per game. Then there is always the question of putting opposing teams in foul trouble, which can certainly be useful.

 

[RalphySampson]

If Kevin starts facing double teams like a LeBron or Kobe, this isn't happening. If teams take the approach we don't care how many Martin scores because he can't beat us himself, there is always the possibility. He'll get plenty of shots (and one more time Kevin takes a LOT more than 15 shots -- he led the league in FTs and you divide that by roughly 2 (or maybe 1.5 to account for 3pt plays and technical shots) and those are all shots too -- meaning he took about 20 a game last year), and if he is single covered with the ball all of the time his average will go up, and it was already at 23.7. 25+ is easy to see.

But Kevin does not have the tools to beat the constant hounding double teams that take the ball out of the hands of even HOF players and superior ballhandlers like Kobe or LeBron. If people want him to not have the ball, he won't have it. Just depends on how much they want to sacrifice their defense to make that happen. There is nobody else for teams to focus on now, so its just a strategic decision and question of philosophy -- stop the lesser players and let Kevin score what he is able, or stop Kevin and dare the lesser guys to beat you.

I respectfully disagree. When you talk about FT's you can't say that Kevin actually takes 20 shots. If you do want to say that, then that's fine he takes 20 shots, but then you have to say that Kobe and LeBron take 25. It's all relevant.

And as to your point about teams not letting him get the ball. Have you seen Kevin move without the ball? He's one of the best in the league. He's super quick and he will get the ball when he wants to get it. He has a knack for getting to the hole and getting to spots on the floor to get his shot off. His elevation is amazing and there is no way they are going to stop his baseline fadeaway.

It's up to Kevin. If he wants to be aggressive and lead the league in scoring, he has a legit shot.

 

[Mr. S£im Citrus]

Ha! Too much...

Kobe had many more games than KMart to do this last season, including playoff series against SAS and BOS, and didn't score 40+ once against these 3 teams.

That's funny, I don't recall handicapping the question by limiting the parameters to one year... Are you seriously going to try an pretend that Kobe's never dropped forty on the Spurs?

Players like Bryant and James, when they get it in their minds that they're going to score, then they're going to score, and **** you if you don't like it. Martin is simply not on that level. And, in my opinion, he's not particularly close to that level, and I have strong doubts that he's ever going to be.

Kevin Martin is untoppable to about the same degree that Michael Redd is unstoppable.

True, but take a look at last year's scoring leaders above Kevin, give him 5 more shots a game to replicate the rest of the bunch, and he's right there with the top 3.

Pretty simple.

I believe this is what's known as casual oversimplification. Surely you don't mean to imply that the only thing separating Martin offensively from the dominant scorers in this league is a paltry five shots per game?

 

[Kingster]

That's funny, I don't recall handicapping the question by limiting the parameters to one year... Are you seriously going to try an pretend that Kobe's never dropped forty on the Spurs?

Players like Bryant and James, when they get it in their minds that they're going to score, then they're going to score, and **** you if you don't like it. Martin is simply not on that level. And, in my opinion, he's not particularly close to that level, and I have strong doubts that he's ever going to be.

Kevin Martin is untoppable to about the same degree that Michael Redd is unstoppable.


I believe this is what's known as casual oversimplification. Surely you don't mean to imply that the only thing separating Martin offensively from the dominant scorers in this league is a paltry five shots per game?

Personally, I think Martin can be a grade above Rip Hamilton, if he puts his mind to defending. And that's not a bad thing. Redd doesn't have Martin's talent. He's much slower, not as quick, can't jump as high. He's an excellent shooter, but Martin has the potential to be much better than that.

 

[Hansel]

An interesting stat.... Point per shot:


Brandon Roy: 1,209
Dwayne Wade: 1,337
Carmelo Anthony: 1,339
Lebron James: 1,370
Kobe Bryant: 1,375
Allen Iverson: 1,389
Paul Pierce: 1,431
Kevin Martin: 1,577