Kenyon Martin looking to make visit

[Plainview1981]

http://www.ajc.com/sports/content/sports/h...04/29hawks.html

"The agent for New Jersey Nets restricted free agent Kenyon Martin said the Hawks are on the list of teams his client will consider this summer. "We are going to visit Atlanta," said Brian Dyke, who represents Martin and Hawks first-round pick Josh Smith. . . . Second-year forward Boris Diaw will not join the Hawks rookie and free agent team from July 16-24 at the Rocky Mountain Review in Salt Lake City. Instead, Diaw will head home to France to help the French National Team qualify for the European championships. "We support Boris," Knight said."

[Admin]

I think that Kenyon will be a Hawk next season. I am very confident in that fact. I know that some are wanting Swift, but I am just not sure about him. He has never been able to claim the starting PF spot on a team that until last year hasnt been good. Kenyon has been the starting PF for a championship caliber team for years now. He averaged 19 pts and 11 boards per game last year, which is extremely impressive. He could be everything for us that SAR never could. I think I would go after K-Mart and Blount this offseason as our FA targets. If we dont bring back Jax, I would probably try and use his money on Jamal Crawford and Sura.

[Derek]

Maybe Kenyon wants to help shorten Atlanta's rebuilding process. BK won't overpay this summer, though. Or so he says.

[Plainview1981]

The Nets are gunna have to decide if they want Kmart

or Jason Kidd most likely. The problem with getting

Kmart is the Hawks aren't winning 30 games next year

with or without him. So does it help the Hawks long

term?

[Diesel]

I think Kenyon is using us, I think He really wants to stay in NJ but he wants the money most of all.

About Martin... Look at his skill set.

He averages 7.6 rpg for his career and he's almost a 20 ppg player. That's all well and good, but his time before Kidd he was a 44% field goal PF.

He will be decent.. But in no way is he worth 14 million per year. NO WAY.

The reason why many say Swift is because even though Swift has never gotten the minutes, he has still put up good numbers for the minutes that he got. He's the same size and have never shot less than 45%. He's a good shot blocker.

And because he never has gotten the minutes, he should be much cheaper. I can imagine that we can sign Swift to a contract that pays an average of 6 million per.

[Diesel]

Quote:

---

He averaged 19 pts and 11 boards per game last year, which is extremely impressive.

---

No... Martin averaged 16.7 pts, 9.5 boards per game last year. Which is not extremely impressive.

Especially when you consider that Reef averaged 20.1 ppg, 9.5 rpg as a Hawk and many Hawks fans disliked him.

[Admin]

You are right, for the season he did average 16.7 and 9.5

I just looked at the little summary box on ESPN.com and thats where I got those other numbers.

http://sports.espn.go.com/nba/players/profile?statsId=3400

They were his playoff numbers though........which to me is very impressive in the fact that he improved quite a bit in the playoffs.

[Admin]

Much like your golden boy Foyle........why is it that Swift has never been able to get minutes? Surely there must be a reason for that right? With Gasol playing the 5 quite a bit, that leaves Lorenzen playing the 4, which Swift with all his talent should easily be able to outplay......but he couldnt. 9 pts and 5 rbds per game last year in 19 minutes......in what is considered to be a breakout year for him? We are going to give a multi year contract to him and pin our PF hopes on him as well based on those numbers?

Heres a question, would you like to have Gasol starting for us? He only averaged 17.7 and 7.7 for the season, numbers which are about equal to K-Marts 16.7 and 9.5. So, if Swift cannot even come close to Gasols numbers, why would we want him as our PF over K-Mart? Every year in the league K-Mart has gotten better at rebounding, scoring, and shooting percentage. He is proving himself.......while Swift continues to be marginal.

No way do I sign a marginal guy when a very good player is available who is also young and plays the style of game we do.

[JTFan31]

The question is will signing K-Mart and another significant FA not as significant as K-Mart will all that make us a playoff team or at least borderline playoff team?

IMO, I think with K-Mart here we will be in contention to make the playoffs. I mean with K-Mart you have a very active big man, rebounder and shotblocker and we need to sign Pryz, another good rebounder and shotblocker. Then at the 1,2,3 will be JT, Childress, and either Diaw or Jax, depending on what we are going to do with Jax. I think with the K-mart signing maybe Jax will have a change of heart. Re-signing Jax will be very important if we can sign K-mart. IMO that will make us a more playoff caliber team with a deep bench.

[Plainview1981]

Especially when you consider that Reef averaged 20.1 ppg, 9.5 rpg as a Hawk and many Hawks fans disliked him."

Difference...

1)Kenyon Martin is a good defensive player and Reef is not.

2)Kenyon Martins numbers were actually important while

Reef never has played a important minute of a game in

his entire career.

Kenyon is not a superstar and he isn't worth the max. But

he is a LOT better player than Reef.

[TheDude]

i don't think that without Kidd, Kenyon would be much worse. Before Kidd you have to rememer he was coming off of a broken leg injury and had only been in the league like 2 years. Yet he was still pretty decent. I still think he's on the upswing as far as progressing as a player.

Don't overpay for him though.

[DominiqueWilkins]

I would have to go with Kenyon Martin over Swift. Kenyon Martin brings excitment, and would be a force for the Hawks.

I see Swift being a marketable player like Shareef, but ofcourse I much perfer us to sign the player that will help the team the most. I think Swift can do alot of things, but if you had to pick between K-Mart/Swift......I would defently have to say K-Mart.

I expect Knight to offer Kenyon Martin a contract, but not the max, and if he doesn't bit we focus on someone else.

[Weez]

gasol rarely if ever plays the 5. almost never.

[Diesel]

The speculation on Swift is not really a matter of much interest. Say we get Swift/Fizer and they split the PF duties and combined they give us the same numbers we would get from Martin at 8 million dollars together... Wouldn't that be better than getting Martin who may not even produce his own numbers without Kidd at 14.0 million?

That's the point. I don't see Kmart as a Max player... But that's what he wants and that's what will make him leave NJ. I would much rather get me two mediocre players at half the cost of Kmart than to spend that much money on a player who is not a sure thing...

[Traceman]

K-Mart doesn't have enough years in the league to qualify for a max salary starting at $14 million. The max contract another team other than NJ can offer him will be around 6 yrs/$82.5 million, starting at right around $11 million/season (see Larry Coon's FAQ page link at Real GM). NJ COULD offer him around 7 yrs/106 million but why would they when they could simply match any offer he signed with another team?

All that being said, that is why I said I could see offering K-Mart a 6 yr/$75 million deal starting at $10 million/season. It's not quite the max but it should be close enough to put us in the hunt.

[Diesel]

I know this already...

From watching games... Swift is already a better shot blocker and rebounder than KMART.

Kmart is more exciting but half of that is because he plays with Jason Kidd.

Kmart may score more... But he may not. That's hard to judge for both players. I mean, if you want to be honest, Kmart does shoot a mediocre percentage for a running PF. Neither he nor Swift has a good midrange game and fortunately, neither he nor Swift shoots from outside. The point is that I just see us dumping too much money into Kmart and being really sorry about doing it. 14.0 million for Kmart is not a good move. I would rather pay Swift between 6 and 7.

[drzachary]

I'm in agreement that Swift would be best, given the price he'd command versus K-Mart's.

MOST importantly, if the Hawks are going to run and gun, it is absolutely *vital* that we have a player named 'Swift.' That's just a good luck charm!

[Traceman]

even if we gave him the max. The question is more likely to come down to $10 million or so for K-Mart versus $6 million or so for Swift (I don't think Billy will offer K-Mart the max). If we could get K-Mart for that, I'd take him over Swift. NJ MIGHT match a 6 yr/$75 million offer to K-Mart but they likely won't being that the new owner has told the GM to cut the team's salary so that it is below the luxury tax threshold.

[OGRat]

I just don't think we are in the running for Kmart. Denver is going after him and they are willing to pay the max.

Also, signing Kmart just does not make sense for where we are in our rebuilding. I would be surprised if BK is trying to pay anybody close to the max this year, especially if there are lower priced options out there,

Swift may not be better than Kmart, but he fits the Hawks better.

[Diesel]

If we were to pay Kenyon Martin, this is what his next 6 years would be:

11.25 12.35 13.45 14.55 15.65 16.75

Whereas if we were to get Swift, this would be the next 5 in a 5year 36 mill deal:

5.05 6.15 7.25 8.35 9.45

If we get Martin, we will regret it. Look at him again. He's not a game breaker. Why pay Gamebreaker money?