With the success of this offseason...anyone else happy that we did not sign Kmart to a max contract? Now, I'm as big of a Kenyon Martin fan as there is in this league. Loved his passion for the game. Loved his intensity... Never questioned his heart.... but it didn't blind me from his big flaws.. I remember just about a year ago now, I had a five or six page long arguement with Henacy and InNETSweTRUST over how good Kenyon was...I thought he wasn't worth the max and the Nets were right to give RJ the max contract..Henacy thinking the other.. And I think this season it was really exposed that Kenyon was not as good as we thought...worse than I expected. I didn't realize that he really depended on Jason. His offense struggled..He averaged less rebounds than Jason Kidd.. Granted with a team that has Marcus Camby, Nene, Carmelo and even Andre Miller you aren't going to get a lot boards, but you can focus your efforts elsewhere..like shotblocking but Kmart only averaged a shade above 1 block per game last season..I can't really understand what went wrong with Kenyon this season. Lets face it..in two years Kenyon is going to be 30 years old being paid 43 million dollars for three more years. And assuming he'll exercise his option, that's another 16.7 million dollars he'll be owed. That's amazing. He isn't getting any better now and probably won't get that much better in the future. If anything, I learned that waiting was a very smart move and I'm glad we have Rod as a GM. Sure this season was a big flop compared to others, but next years team could be one of the best Nets team of all time..if not the best. There are still problems like shot-blocking and outside shooting, but I think most of the areas of concern have been covered and as long as everyone stays healthy and play together we'll go far. I'm not going to say championship far, but maybe another shot at the ECF. Either way, I'm extremely excited for next season and am counting the days till it starts.
You got it. I thought it was a good deal to begin with. You got VC, a first rounder and a new platform from which to launch from. Even if no teams had of offered anything in return for the Nets no matching a Martin contract offer i think the Nets should of just let him walk for free. he's not worth that money..neither is Boozer, neither is Foyle...it was a season of the overpaid big man. No wait that's ever season.
Yeah, nextlevelgame, I will give you that one. But nobody could invision that we would get Vince Carter and Reef, with the decision to let K-Mart go. And I think that Bruce Ratner and Rod Thorn realized at the time it was a mistake for the direction this team was going to let Martin go...that is why they worked so hard to makeup for it. Is Kenyon Martin worth the max? hmmm, probably not as much in my opinion as last year. But I still look at it as a market standard tho....and considering the fact that guys like Allan Houston have gotten max in the past. And you see the type of money weaker bigman have gotten in the pass two seasons Erick Dampier, Brain Cardinal, etc. I can live with K-Mart recieving the max, still. And if you asked me would I rather have K-Mart starting at the 4 spot next year, then Rahim? I would say, yes.......but when you add Carter into the deal it becomes unbeivable what we got with the trade Exception and draft picks for K-Mart....so we definately came out with a plus... As far as K-Mart goes as a player this year, your right Kidd was a huge factor in his play and it showed without him. But you also have to consider that Martin was not healthy for a large part of the 1st half. And before the Nuggets got George Karl, they werent playing the style the K-Mart invisioned them playing....they werent a running team...they was a stand still half-court team with alot of one on one play from guys like Melo, Miller...so that had to be adjustment from playing with a perimeter like Kidd & Kittles, who dont force it and rarely ever play one on one. So I say give Martin last season as a adjustment year. And lets see how he plays for a full season under Karl and a system he more expected to play.
Nah, Henacy, I wasn't trying to attack you or anything. I was just thinking how good this off season is. I'm really excited for this Nets team.... Not since we first got Jason did I think this team was this good.. and face it, ever since we traded Keith we haven't been as good. Sure that second title run team went further than the other, but I think if we still had Keith that year we would've gone to seven games, at least. Not since then have we had as much fire power... I just hope everyone stays healthy. It might as much highlight reels since Kenyon was here, but I'm sure Vince has atleast three more elite level years left in his legs. I really gotta credit front office for this spectacular turn around. Only Rod Thorn could turn a huge trade exceptoin and three first round draft picks into Vince Carter, Shareef Abdur-Rahim, and Cliff Robinson..and then have some to sign Jeff McInnis...simply phenomenal.
