Kevin Martin: leader or not?

[tru6playa]

Interesting blog on why Kevin Martin didn't enter the game late vs the Celtics -- he told PW to let the group on the floor -- who were playing well -- to stay in the game, even after PW told Kmart that he didn't care, he wanted Kmart in the game. I guess after talking about it, they both decided to allow Kmart to sit the bench.

Is that good leadership? I'm not feeling a vet on the team not wanting to be in the game in crunch time.

http://www.sacbee.com/static/weblogs/sports/kings/archives/2010/02/postgame-reacti-3.html

[cuad]

Kevin was just too scared to play. I don't blame him. He's like 90 pounds and the refs were letting all sorts of mugging go.

[ICMTM]

You don't refuse to go into a game! I think the locker room has spoken that they feel they can play and be successful without Kevin Martin.

[jeffjtk1234]

yeah I read that blog...he is on his way out...whether it be now or later. How do you refuse to go into a game against the defending champs when its that close? What a wuss.

[KF10]

It's funny how people are spinning this lately.

Unless they did not read the article posted by Amick and watch the post game video of Westphal talking about this, this shouldn't been seen negatively against Martin.

[Wolfay]

This certainly doesn't help his "soft" label.

[JSrose115]

disappointing, well we all know now, that most of our late surge comebacks happened w/o kevin, excluding ny/detroit.

[KingInExile]

Interesting blog on why Kevin Martin didn't enter the game late vs the Celtics -- he told PW to let the group on the floor -- who were playing well -- to stay in the game, even after PW told Kmart that he didn't care, he wanted Kmart in the game. I guess after talking about it, they both decided to allow Kmart to sit the bench.

Is that good leadership? I'm not feeling a vet on the team not wanting to be in the game in crunch time.

http://www.sacbee.com/static/weblogs/sports/kings/archives/2010/02/postgame-reacti-3.html

I think that is a bit of a misrepresentation of what actually happened...and is not at all what Martin said in the Bee quote. Martin, as a veteran player should do, recognized what the team on the floor was doing and offered a suggestion to PW. It was still PW's call. And remember, it was PW's call to initially have him go back in, but then he changed his mind as time ticked off the clock. Don't try to pass this off as some altruistic sacrifice by Martin. This had more to do with not wanting to tinker with what was (at the time) working well with only a few minutes left in the game and had less to do with any "sacrifice" by Martin.

As for the overall question of whether Martin is a "leader". I would say not really. He does a good job in teaching what he knows about the game. But I'm not convinced that he has what it takes to put the team on his back or really inspires the others to play above their abilities. He's a good teammate...not a leader.

[OGSactownballer]

Being at the game about 8 rows behind the Kings bench it was a sense of frustration that PW had not pulled Beno in favor of Marting when they started making that last push. Then it was like "don't mess with it". I do feel that the offense/defense substitution started to late and if Marting had been in earlier he might have been the one shooting the FT's (or at least some) and they would have been able to at least tie.

[a-rod]

You don't refuse to go into a game! I think the locker room has spoken that they feel they can play and be successful without Kevin Martin.

Freezing him out is a pretty harsh accusation to his teammates. But it sure seems like it last night, that's why his attempts were out of rhythm and off-the-dribble, and that's not his game, hes not going to be effective if westphal doesn't run plays for him. martin is a Cutter (just like peja) hes much more effective with a high-post facilitator.

[pillwenney]

Wow...pretty amazing the chasm of difference in how people perceive this.

The ironic thing is that if this were happening the other way--with Westphal still deciding that Kevin should remain out at 3:30 and Kevin demanding to go in--people would be getting on Kevin for being selfish.

This isn't leadership, and Kevin isn't a leader. But it is being a good teammate, and it certainly proves that Kevin doesn't think he should be the centerpiece of this team.

[ICMTM]

Wow...pretty amazing the chasm of difference in how people perceive this.

The ironic thing is that if this were happening the other way--with Westphal still deciding that Kevin should remain out at 3:30 and Kevin demanding to go in--people would be getting on Kevin for being selfish.

This isn't leadership, and Kevin isn't a leader. But it is being a good teammate, and it certainly proves that Kevin doesn't think he should be the centerpiece of this team.

There was no Kevin Martin in the locker room after tonight's game, which cynics would say was fitting

So why jump ship so quickly then?

[pillwenney]

We don't know any of the context behind that. How can we possibly draw conclusions off of something that could be for so many reasons?

[tru6playa]

Updated blog:

"At the six minute mark, coach said 'Go in,'" Martin informed me. "I walk up to the scorer's table and then head back because (there) was a timeout coming up. On the way back, I said to coach, 'Hey they're playing well. (Do) you want to let them play it out? He said, 'I want you in.' I said, 'OK.' So I was ready to go in at the timeout, then the timeout happened at 3:37 and he looked at me and said, 'Let's just let them play it out.' And I said, 'OK, that's fine."

http://www.sacbee.com/static/weblogs/sp ... -a-16.html

[tru6playa]

The update version doesn't seem half as bad; however, it shows that he doesn't believe he's ready to contribute to the team as much as we know he can. I'd like my top scorer to believe that anytime he enters the game, the team will improve.

My only question was why did he bolt so quickly from the locker room? Or is that normal? From the way Sam Amick wrote it up, it did not seem like that was a normal thing to do.

[SacTownKings4Life]

Wow...pretty amazing the chasm of difference in how people perceive this.

The ironic thing is that if this were happening the other way--with Westphal still deciding that Kevin should remain out at 3:30 and Kevin demanding to go in--people would be getting on Kevin for being selfish.

This isn't leadership, and Kevin isn't a leader. But it is being a good teammate, and it certainly proves that Kevin doesn't think he should be the centerpiece of this team.

This.
It's really a no-win situation for Martin. People have said that he allegedly stalls the offense, so on this particular occasion, he elected to let his teammates (who were playing well at the time) finish out the game, and yet he STILL gets flak because he didn't go in. Does anybody else think this makes any kind of logical sense?

KMart is not a leader, he is a scorer. Plain and simple. It's the same thing as Peja and Bibby, way back when...

[Nicky Nix Nook]

Updated blog:

"At the six minute mark, coach said 'Go in,'" Martin informed me. "I walk up to the scorer's table and then head back because (there) was a timeout coming up. On the way back, I said to coach, 'Hey they're playing well. (Do) you want to let them play it out? He said, 'I want you in.' I said, 'OK.' So I was ready to go in at the timeout, then the timeout happened at 3:37 and he looked at me and said, 'Let's just let them play it out.' And I said, 'OK, that's fine."

http://www.sacbee.com/static/weblogs/sp ... -a-16.html

whole thing sounds really awkward

[ICMTM]

We don't know any of the context behind that. How can we possibly draw conclusions off of something that could be for so many reasons?

Why stick up for the guy? He's a grown ass man! If he can't stay around and face the media it screams of a problem!

[ICMTM]

Who in their right mind says "no the team is better without me?" I really wish I would have listened to Grant Nappier's show for once. He would have had a field day with this.

[Nicky Nix Nook]

Who in their right mind says "no the team is better without me?" I really wish I would have listened to Grant Nappier's show for once. He would have had a field day with this.

I know Jim Koz went off on him