The Top 5 NBA Destinations For Kenyon Martin

J.R. Smith might be having fun in China dropping 60 points, shooting up threes like he was in a video game and letting his family get into fights in the stands, but Kenyon Martin is ready to come back to the NBA. With his decision coming any day now, Martin has narrowed his search down to five teams: Miami, San Antonio, the Clippers, New York and Atlanta. He wants a prominent role on a contending team, something all five of these organizations could probably provide.

The catch for now though is Martin can’t return until the end of the Xinjiang Guanghui Flying Tigers’ season, which is February 16. Any team that signs him this week knows they’ll have to wait a few more weeks to get him acclimated. Still, Martin’s been a starter his entire career, and has averages of 13.5 points and 7.2 rebounds in 654 career NBA games. Someone will give him a shot, and someone will be rewarded with a high-energy, versatile power forward.

He’s narrowed his search down, and now I’ll rank them. Here are the top five places for Kenyon Martin this season.

*** *** ***

5. MIAMI HEAT
The interest is mutual. The Heat have reportedly already offered the former Bearcat a contract (as well as one to Joel Przybilla). But Martin wants a big role and I’m not sure he gets it in Miami. Chris Bosh will get his 35 minutes a night. Joel Anthony isn’t winning any knockout games, but on this team, you need someone who’ll defend through the floor burns, set screens relentlessly and play more unselfishly than Mother Teresa. Off the bench, Udonis Haslem already gives Miami what they’d want out of Martin.

Every veteran who finds room on the open market considers South Beach. You have to. But I doubt he ends up here.

4. NEW YORK KNICKS
I apologize to all of the Jorts fans out there, but the Knicks need some help upfront. They’re only No. 20 in rebound rate (49.4). As long as Amar’e Stoudemire‘s knees aren’t actually as brittle as they say, that starting trio of STAT, ‘Melo and Tyson Chandler is as good as anyone. Still, Martin has never been Rodman on the boards (a career average of 7.2 a night in over 32 minutes), so to expect him to come in and make a huge difference is foolish.

Offensively, he might not mesh either being that he’s basically an older Amar’e with less of a jump shot. But the Knicks are in line for more depth – they HAVE to have it to go further than the first round of the playoffs. Martin is a better option than anything else they have.

The Knicks have the money, and unlike the rest of the teams on this list, they are folding in the face of pressure. What was once thought to be a top four team in the East might not even make the playoffs. I suspect they’ll offer K-Mart the mini mid-level and do everything they can to bring him to the Big Apple.

3. SAN ANTONIO SPURS
The Spurs are another team that has the space to offer Martin the full mini mid-level exception, but probably won’t because A) They don’t know how he’ll fit into their culture and B) They’d rather be smart than dumb. Throwing that type of money at Martin, even though they have no clue where he is mentally or how good of shape he’s in, will put them into luxury tax territory. Gregg Popovich, R.C. Buford and the rest would rather walk on hot coals.

A year and a half ago, the Spurs transformed from a defensive team that counted on Tim Duncan to draw double-teams in the post and open up lanes for easy buckets into an offensive juggernaut that thinks pass (No. 3 in the league in assist ratio), move and deep shots at the expense of transition defense. They’ve been so bad at stopping people that to see them move up to No. 19 in the league defensively is a cause for optimism.

Would that improve with Martin? I doubt he could give them much more than what Tiago Splitter and DeJuan Blair already do. But his grittiness could bring something San Antonio doesn’t have right now.

2. LOS ANGELES CLIPPERS
Martin wants a prominent role, and while he won’t get one in Los Angeles, the Clippers need him more than any other team and are willing to give him the $2.5 million mini mid-level exception. As of now, they have three big men that they can put on the floor. The fourth – Brian Cook – doesn’t really count as an actual NBA player. Their two starting power players aren’t known for their defense. When Blake Griffin came out of nowhere to spike Gordon Hayward‘s layup off the glass last night, the running joke was “Blake Griffin blocks shots now too?”

The Clippers have the worst defense in the league among playoff contenders. With a defensive efficiency of 102.9, the only softer squads read like a list of bodies in the police department: Washington, Golden State, Sacramento, Charlotte, Detroit and New Jersey. And as bad as Griffin and Jordan are at stopping people, what’s behind them is even worse. The Clippers give up 5.8 less points whenever Griffin is on the floor. With Jordan, the difference is even more profound: nearly 19 points per 100 possessions.

Martin isn’t the defender he once was, but his toughness will be needed in the playoffs, and even at his worst, he HAS to be better than what they have off the bench.

1. ATLANTA HAWKS
The Hawks have everything in place to go and get Martin. They have a gaping hole in the rotation with Al Horford down. They’re already top three in the league in defensive efficiency, and always place an emphasis on athletic defenders that can cover anywhere from the basket out to the three-point line. They also have money.

We’ve made a lot of his offensive explosion lately (In 11 games without Horford, Joe Johnson has averaged 21.2 points per 36 minutes with a 55.9 true shooting percentage.), but JJ has actually been a major reason why the defense is still one of the best in the league. Opposing shooting guards have posted a combined PER of 8.6 against Joe this year. Basically, no one’s getting buckets on him (check the stats… he’s actually gotten a lot better defensively through the years), and he’s helped keep that defensive culture alive in the ATL (something Martin will only add to).

The sad part though – as the Atlanta Journal-Constitution’s beat writer Michael Cunningham suspects – is the Hawks will leave money off the table. They could, if they wanted to, give Martin more than the minimum. But since that would likely mean paying a luxury tax, they probably won’t.

Where do you think he would best fit in?

Follow Sean on Twitter at @SEANesweeney.

Follow Dime on Twitter at @DimeMag.

Become a fan of Dime Magazine on Facebook HERE.

×