Kenyon Martin Puts Forth “Maximum” Effort

[jaywalker72]

http://hawks.realgm.com/showarticle.php?artid=457

Report that the Hawks have offered Kenyon “the max” should be scrutinized.

ESPN’s Marc Stein reports that the Hawks are interested in Kenyon Martin, so much that they are offering a maximum contract, according to the report. The offer, however, might be a ruse.

Folks, this is likely coming straight out of the Martin camp, unfortunately. Martin’s group has a couple of reasons to get this information out here so quickly after Martin’s arrival in Atlanta on Thursday, one of which being an overt attempt to validate his desired market value.

Ever since last season, Martin has wanted the maximum possible on his next deal from the Nets. He has met skepticism about that desire every step of the way about finding a team that was willing to pay him that figure. Martin had to find a team that would offer him that kind of a contract to validate his desire.

Enter the Hawks. Right from the beginning of the free agent period, the Martin camp has tried to put forth teams that would likely pay Martin the max. ESPN’s own Chad Ford, who has vacillated on whether the Hawks would spend money, wrote as the free agent period began that the Hawks were the most likely to offer Martin the max. So with the foundation set for Martin’s group to try and set his value at the max, their tour of cities began.

But there have been few teams that have had Martin in, and those teams seemed to have earmarked other players for their considerable cap space. Consider:

Utah-------Poised to offer Mehmet Okur and Carlos Boozer over Martin.

Denver----Going after Kobe Bryant, Manu Ginobili, Marcus Camby over Martin.

This leads us to Friday morning, hours after Martin arrived in Atlanta, with Marc Stein’s report about the alleged max offer from the Hawks and Martin subsequent uncertainty about whether he will sign it.

There is no reason to automatically believe this particular offer exists. Saying such a thing could indicate that Martin doesn’t truly want to play for the Hawks, rather, as anticipated by many Hawks watchers, Martin is using the Hawks to set his market value with team he truly wants to play with.

After news let out about Manu Ginobili’s likely return to San Antonio, it is thought that perhaps Martin wanted to let the Nuggets know he was still interested in going out there.

During his visit to Denver, Martin was reportedly told by Nuggets GM Kiki Vandeweghe that he should go back to New Jersey if that’s where his heart was. Either Kiki was trying to be a really good guy or counselor to the 26 year old forward or he was trying in some way to curtail efforts from other teams to sign Martin.

It’s also a way to get the Nets attention, since they are the team that Martin reportedly wants to play with anyway and they can pay him more than any team in free agency. This report is a way to give the Nets about a week to decide whether they can afford the young all-star or begin to investigate deals to free up some dough if the money is too high.

The report is also questionable due to the nature of the Hawks GM Billy Knight. For a guy who plays it close to the vest, it’s odd that the Hawks would simply toss out the words “maximum contract” without knowing what that number truly is. Knight is more likely to make a proposal, if he decides he wants to sign him, to a player that is less nebulous. His dealings with Jason Terry, Stephen Jackson, and Ira Newble have shown he will not overpay nor bid against himself. This is what makes the report so questionable.

Combine what Hawks watchers have seen with Knight’s past negotiations with the fact that the report uses the terminology that Martin’s camp wants to propagate and you have the makings of an intentional leak, one put there for the reasons already stated.

It is entirely possible that the Hawks were prepared, when Martin arrived, to offer what they thought it would take to sign Martin, and that number may have been so close to what was considered “the max” that they person who fed the information to Stein figured it was close enough to say.

But it’s also possible that the story is a plant and that unless the Nets and Nuggets both decide they don’t want to pay Martin anywhere close to where the Hawks might really be ready to sign him for, Atlanta is unlikely to get Martin’s signature on an offer sheet.

[Packfill]

Any way you can get some beta from the Hawks camp on this? I think Martin would be good for the Hawks, but since Boozer has now set the market at $68 million it seems Kenyon slots in better at aroun $75 million then a max deal of $85+ million.

Also are there any teeth to the rumored Dallas trade? I hope that one is not true.

[Blunt91]

If Boozer is wortrh a 6 year 68million deal then I think Kenyon is worth a 6year 85million deal. That is alot of money for a guy who isn't a superstar but that is what the market is dictating for big men this summer. IF the Nuggets are serious about signing Camby how can they realisticaly afford Martin??

[capstone21]

If we indeed do sign Martin to the max. How much money does that leave us with and who can we go after?

[Admin]

The most that we can offer him is about 85 million, over I believe 6 years. That would start out around 10 million for the first year and would leave us with about 7-10 million in cap space for this year.

[Blunt91]

If coach Woodson wants K-Mart then we should try to give him what he wants to be succesful.

[TheDude]

what Dallas trade are we talking about...

one thing i do like to see is that Billy seems shrewd...we need that in a gm..sounds like he's doing every little thing he can to give us an advantage..make a team overspend a little if possible...so next year and beyond, we're in a little better shape than others...nice.

[Plainview1981]

Remember! Alan Henderson comes off the books next year

as does Chris Crawford. I agree not to overpay guys. But

the Hawks aren't the Oakland A's. THe Hawks are going to

have to overpay if they expect to get any players that

will help you reach a higher level. You can just sign

Jacque Vaughns and expect to go somewhere.

[Diesel]

That's a bad assumption.

Boozer is a 2nd year player who just averaged 15.5 and 11.4. Kmart averaged 16.4 and 9.5.. But aside from the numbers, when you watched the games, Boozer made a difference with his rebounds and his scoring. He's almost automatic because he knows where to shoot. I would guess that his FG% is higher than Kmarts but I don't know Kmart's offhand.

The assumption that Kmart is better only comes from the fact that Kmart's team did better. However, Boozer got some weight and strength on him. I'm not a fan of Duke basketball players, but I will give Boozer his credit. He works.

[Diesel]

Yeah,

I see the report working for both Kmart and the Hawks. I think Kmart really wants to get Denver riled up. Denver has missed out on it's opportunity to land a top SG and may try to get Crawford or Barry. If that be the case, they have enough to get Kmart to a close to max offer.

I like you feel that Kmart might not sign a Hawks offer sheet. He said he wants to win.

But it makes the organization look good because it deletes the thought that we don't have the money to go after big names.

[Plainview1981]

Kenyon Martin shot 48.8% this year. Does Boozer play

any defense? Diesel never seems to look at this as a

factor.

[Lascar78]

you also have to consider the team. The better the team, the more talent there is around you, and the less shots / opportunities you get. If you're on a team that's basically lebron and you, you get more chances. That's why stats are dangerous.

[TROUBLEMAN69]

The only difference between Martin and Boozer's defense is blocked shots. Martin is not a great one-on-one defender, but he does block more shots. Boozer is a much better rebounder and shooter. The only advantage for Martin is his athleticism, which helps with his blocked shots, the majority of which come as a help defender. Boozer is also four years younger.

TROUBLEMAN

[Diesel]

Rebounding is great defense.

When you take the rebound, you take away another possible possession.. But aside from that philosophical argument, Boozer plays plenty of defense. It doesn't show up stat wise, but watch a game. He is a solid defender.

Martin hasn't impressed me so much with his defense that I would think that he's worth more than Boozer..

[Plainview1981]

So in your mind Danny Fortson is a good defensive player? lol

Going by SF's that means Dog(6rpg for a SF) is a good defensive player? Dirk averages 9RPG. Is he a good defensive

player?

[Diesel]

But look at the opposite?

Name one good defensive player who had piss poor rebounding stats?

What you don't understand is that both defense and rebounding require work. So a player who will work at defense will normally work at rebounding.

[Plainview1981]

Bruce Bowen isn't that great of a rebounder. Guys like

Dale Davis and Brian Grant are really good defenders

but don't rebound anymore than Dirk. They aren't piss

poor rebounders... Rebounding doesn't mean defense

all in all cases.

[TheDude]

theo ratliff.

[Traceman]

made. Why would we bid against ourselves? That is just not Billy's style. I'd be absolutely shocked if DEN gives K-Mart a max offer. If they were going to do that, why would Kiki even suggest to K-Mart that he should go back to NJ? I think DEN will make him a significant offer, maybe an offer in the range that Boozer got, but I doubt they will go much higher than that. Is K-Mart THAT much better than Nene is going to be? If not, why would DEN pay him $8M a year more than Nene makes, particularly when they need help at SG? I guess we'll see but for now, I'll bet this info is coming from Martin's camp in an attempt to get DEN to increase their offer. NJ is irrelevant simply because they are not going to offer Martin more than the best offer he gets from us or DEN. They'll simply match if they want to keep him.

[Final_quest]

We are not bidding against ourselves, if in fact a max offer was made, but we are using our only bargaining chip, money. The only way Atlanta gets Kmart is if we are the highest bidder. We truly are bidding against NJ and Den. The Heat signed Odom last offseason by offering him more than the Clippers would pay. This is a similar scenario.