I dont understand those that make it like Martin needs to be the star, or that martin needs to dominate the ball. Martin would score 25 pts in like 10 shots a game. he does not need the ball, and I have not seen anything from him that would make me think his ego would be a problem.
We have seena few teams start to just sag their defense in the lane to keep Tyreke from blowing past his man for a layup. I love the thought of teams doing that with Martin sitting there on the 3 pts line with no defender near him.
Not only do I think that Martin and reke can play together, they will play together soon, so all of our bantering will be moot. Kind of hilarious to me that people somehow think getting rid of a 25 ppg scorer will make our team better. Not only that, but he scores those big numbers on very few shots with high percentage.
Martin should be an even better player now that word is out in this league that Tyreke will attack the rim and FINISH. I for one cant wait for Martin to return.
Good time to be a Kings fan. Makes those last 3 years worth it
After you have watched the league for a while you begin to notice certain patterns.
There is a reason that Kobe's backcourt mates have been Derek Fisher, Smush Parker, old man Ron Harper. There is a reason that DWade's have been JWill, Chalmers etc. That Jordan's were BJ Armstrong, Paxson, Harper etc. There's also a reason why Brandon Roy, a step down from those guys, seems to work better with Steve Blake, a borderline scrub, than Andre Miller, a longtime starting quality PG. Same reason A.I. worked best with Snow. Ball dominant, to the hoop, superstar quality guards really need that backcourt mostly to themselves. And lest we get into the that's not a good thing/we don't like that/we're going to reinvent the wheel spiral of duhness, let me note that the above list comprises 11 of the last 19 championship teams. Yes we absolutely want Reke to get to that level if he can. And if it means he can only play with roleplayers in the backcourt, so be it. That strategy has won and won some more in this league.
And even if you want to wiggle, try to say well Reke's a PG, not a SG, well:
a) the position is not really relelvenat, its gamestyle that matters.
b) Reke as a rookie is already as offensively dominant as almost any fo the great scoring PGs over the years. He's 20 5 and 5 at age 20. Payton was 31 before he averaged more than 21.8. KJs top two years were 22.5 and 22.2 in a run n gun system. Tim Hardaway's were 22.9 and 22.4, and that was playing Nellie ball. Penny Hardway's peak was 21.7. Today of course you have Chris Paul at 21-23ppg. And by the time you try to go back and evoke Isiah Thomas or Nate Archibald in their prime, or the Big O from a completely different era, you have really flown far far away in terms of size, playing style, the very rules of the game. There is almost no comparison.
c) of course all of the above players, with the possible exception fo Penny, were pure PGs, Reke is a PG, but has combo in him
d) and even after you do all that work, about the best you come up wiht is a series of 15-17ppg wingmen next to them -- Kendall Gill/Hersey Hawkins, Dan Majerle, Nick Anderson, old Peja. The only real counterexample being Run TMC over two decades ago, playing Nellie ball. And do you think that the numbers of guys playing for Golden State right now mean anything for the rest of the teams?
I set aside until now one pertinent case. Pertinent because Geoff Petrie is our GM. That would be the Clyde Drexler/Terry Porter pairing in Portland. Good backcourt. But frankly one that has a lot more similarity to Reke/Beno than Reke/Kevin. And again, the second player in the pairing, who was Porter, the putative PG, averaged about 17 for most of it (13.1 on low end, 18.1 on high end). Was 17ppg what you had in mind for our 11mil SG? And one of the reasons it worked was becuase Porter and Drexler split PG duties. Neither guy was a selfish one dimensional scorer. They both averaged 6+ assists a night, with the superstar often averaging more than his PG. Upsde being that no matter which of them had the ball there was a chance for their teammates to get involved. There was Bibby/Christie in it. Reke/Beno. Two creaters, not one.