Raptors keeping eye on Kevin Martin
13 January 2010
666 views
5 Comments
There is a report in the Sacramento Bee that the Toronto Raptors, among other teams will be keeping a close eye on the return of Kevin Martin and how he can co-exist in the back-court with ROY favorite Tyreke Evans. Sources say that if there are any chemistry issues that Martin will be the one to go, and that the Raptors are among the teams interested.
Martin is an excellent fit and someone we here at Raptors Digest have thought would be a great piece for the Raptors for years. Of course the Kings would initially ask for franchise player Chris Bosh, but one could only presume we could get the deal done for our other big man, Andrea Bargnani.
If this trade were to happen, the Raptors would be legit Eastern conference championship contenders, however it would likely slow the development of DeMar DeRozan. The most appealing part of this deal is that it gives us a very powerful lineup, a lineup Chris Bosh will realize IS legit.
Kevin Martin has been averaging 23-25 ppg over the last few seasons, is a wizard at getting to the line and is a very high efficiency player despite shooting alot of threes. He does not need alot of plays called for him and with an exit of Andrea, Turk could have the ball in his hands more and presumably become more effective himself.
This begs the question though, who would be our new starting C; well, we likely would not get one from the Kings, so it would be up to us to maybe sign someone like Sean Williams who was recently waived by the Nets, resign Menash-Bonsu, promote Evans or Johnson, or use our expiring contracts i.e. Weems and/or Johnson to find a big man with a year or two left on his contract.
Landing K-Mart if we lose Bosh will soften the blow because we will instantly be able to take over the scoring load.
What about a Bosh for K-Mart deal??
Its still a good deal, if, and only if, Bosh indicates he will not resign with Toronto. I doubt we get a deal this good via sign and trade so this may be one of the deals BC seriously considers should the Kings make Martin available. There is also thinking around the league that the Maloof brothers believe they could convince Bosh to resign to stay with the Kings, if they in fact landed him in-season.
In this writers opinion, trade or no trade Bosh would not resign with the Kings, they are too young, the Heat and the Bulls seem like the real players to sign him as a free agent and thus BC will also be looking at Tyrus Thomas/Kirk Hinrich and Michael Beasley scenario’s.
All in all though, this is probably some more speculative conjecture from a Sacramento writer, but this is one that may actually have some fire to it.
(No Ratings Yet)
Loading ...
It seems more likely than a trade for Martin would include Calderon (instead of Bargnani). Colangelo is far too proud of a man to give up on his #1 draft pick. Besides, 7 footers with guard-like skills are a extremely rare, and many would argue would not be worth losing for Martin, especially considering the next available options at centre (none of Johnson, Nesterovic, Mensa-Bonsu, or O’Bryant are capable of being a starting centre in this league).
Calderon, on the other hand, is expendable now that Jack has proven he can run with the starters. Banks even provided admirable mins in the backup PG role.
From Sacremento’s perspective, bringing in Calderon would allow Evans to play his natural SG position with a fundamentally sound PG to run the offence for him.
The Kings believe Evans IS a PG, rightly or wrongly so Calderon seems unlikely. BUT knowing he isn’t a true PG and more a SG with a decent handle means Turk = parts might make a bit of sense to Sac-Town. Then you could have Bosh + Bargs K=Mart. Yikes!
Turk is on the older side though and they have Evans handling the ball because Udrih isnt a legit starting NBA PG, I think a Calderon deal could work
Anyhow we can land K-Mart and keep both Bosh and Andrea would be a majour coup for the Raptors
ESPN Insider reports that Martin for Calderon is where the trade chatter has settled….however I found it confusing that they said trading Calderon for Martin would make us one of the worst defensive teams in the NBA…are we not that already??
Colangelo is not trading either Turk or Bargs. Bargs was his first round pick and is really starting to round into form. Turks was his big move this off-season and trading him at this point would send some significantly wrong messages about how he is doing his job to ownership.
Not only is Jose likely to go, he should go given how the team has played without him. Given the makeup of the rest of the Raps, he is not a good fit however on any other team with some defence, he would be a significant upgrade.
Leave your response!
NBA Twitter Wire
Login
Our Friends
Polls
Ed Davis Highlights
Follow Us On Twitter
Latest Analysis from Raptors Digest
Raptors Digest is proudly powered by WordPress
Entries (RSS) and Comments (RSS).