Merged: Hawks among teams interested in K-Mart (Blue Light Special?)

[lethalweapon3]

http://espn.go.com/n...g-kenyon-martin

Clips and Knicks have the inside track, but Sund has been on the phone, allegedly.

The Miami Heat, San Antonio Spurs, Los Angeles Clippers, Atlanta Hawks and New York Knicks are pursuing free-agent forward Kenyon Martin, according to league sources.

Martin has spoken with executives from each of the clubs and is hoping to make his decision next week.

The veteran of 11 NBA seasons will be eligible to sign and begin playing with a team as soon as the Xinjiang Guanghui Flying Tigers complete their season in the Chinese Basketball Association...

The CBA's rules, however, prohibit him from joining an NBA team until Xinjiang's season ends, whether after the regular season or the playoffs. Xinjiang is currently out of the playoffs, which means Martin could potentially sign with an NBA club when the CBA season ends Feb. 16.

Martin, 34, is coming off the least productive season of his career, having averaged just 8.6 points and 6.2 rebounds in Denver last year. But contenders view him as a strong and tough defender who plays unselfishly and has a winning pedigree -- Martin twice reached the NBA Finals with the New Jersey Nets.

Martin's priority is to join a contender on which he'll have a sizeable role, according to a person close to Martin.

The Clippers and the Knicks can offer the $2.5 million mini-midlevel exception. San Antonio can as well, but it is unlikely to do so because of the luxury tax, sources said.

Atlanta is also limited by luxury tax concerns. Miami can only offer the veteran's minimum of $1.4 million.

~lw3

Edited January 27, 2012 by lethalweapon3

[coachx]

The ASG could begin to change their image right now.

[hawkrule152]

http://espn.go.com/nba/story/_/id/7511134/sources-miami-heat-los-angeles-clippers-teams-pursuing-kenyon-martin

Apparently we are one of the teams pursuing him.. Thoughts?? I for one feel it would be a great addition.

[willthepureshooter]

Him with Ivan "the psycho" would bring a bigger competitive edge and attitude to our team. So I'm all for it. The only thing I'm worried about is the other contenders that are after him. And are we willing to go over the luxury tax..

[yungsta]

we NEED a guy like this our team is too soft but unfortunately I heard that he was leaning toward signing with the knicks because of his connection with carmelo and cause well its new york.

edit: I heard he wants to go to a contender so the obvious choice is miami but MAYBE he can come here if we some how offer him more money????

Edited January 27, 2012 by yungsta

[atlbraves93]

I was so pumped when I saw that the Hawks are going after him... I didn't think they would!

[macdaddy]

How much playing time is he going to get with the Knicks with Chandler and Amare there?

I'm guessing Kmart isn't really pushing the team over there to make the playoffs.

[benhillboy]

Never been a huge fan of the guy. Volatile personality that could easily clash with Dumb Josh, and often injured, which is exacerbated by father time. But for a minimum, I'd definately take him, just not looking for him to have a great impact like many think he can. The Nuggets haven't missed a beat without him. As far as "winning pedigree," that Nets team that went to two straight Finals was trash: Snubbed MVP Kidd and a bunch of bums.

Edited January 27, 2012 by benhillboy

[HawksFan87]

Love K Mart..

OT: Dumb Josh ? Wtf? I bet you would never utter those words to his face.

[Guest]

He would definitely add some toughness and REBOUNDING to this team, we can probably provide him with the most playing time of all the teams mentioned.

Edited January 27, 2012 by JayBirdHawk

[AHF]

Playing time is clearly our edge. Josh can be flipped over to SF for significant minutes while all the other teams have star PFs who cannot play anywhere else.

[Jody23]

Not getting the excitement about this. While I like Martin, he's another undersized 4. He doesn't improve the size of this team at all. The Hawks already have two undersized power forwards and are missing their starting center, who's really a power forward.

[01d0rd3r]

OT: Dumb Josh ? Wtf? I bet you would never utter those words to his face.

Does it matter if he would? It is no secret that Josh has one of the worse BBIQ's in the NBA, so yes he is dumb for his chosen profession .

[sturt]

Back when Josh won the dunk contest years ago, there was that guy who sat in the chair for Josh to fly over... who was it? (Surprised that evidently it's so easily forgotten that K-Mart and Smoove have been good friends.)

I have to agree that, now that Ivan has asserted himself, K-Mart isn't as appealing as he was when I first proposed this as a legitimate possibility a month ago (...and to a large extent, btw, the idea was blown off).

At the risk of beating a dead horse, I prefer to have a legit rebounding C... and one is available.

[EAambassador]

http://espn.go.com/nba/story/_/id/7511134/sources-miami-heat-los-angeles-clippers-teams-pursuing-kenyon-martin

San Antonio Spurs

Miami Heat

New York Knicks

Los Angles Clippers

and

Atlanta Hawks!

Isn't Josh and K-Mart supposed to be friends? If so he needs to be on the phone right now recruiting him to Atlanta.

[Guest]

I too would prefer to have legit REBOUNDING center, but if that fails and we get K-Mart I will not be disappointed. He can add some nastiness to this team along with rebounding.

[frankthetank966]

K Mart would be good, but we need a center. He isn't big enough to play that role.

[EAambassador]

Anyone remember this? Im sure Tmac does...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=urv9zWKWZSI

[capstone21]

KMART would def add to our bench. He is not the player he once was but he still has some game and can bring some rebounding, interior scoring to our team. We have depth but we need toughness