The Dream Shake Regular Season Awards: Most Valuable Player

Without him, we wouldn’t have had that great second half.

Without Martin, regardless of Lowry’s emergence, we don’t win as many games as we did in the first half, then the rest of the team clicked and complimented him in the second half and still then, the guy was dropping 30+ points without going noticed at all.

Clearly the memory of brian cook spured this team on when all seemed lost.
It was his indominable spirir that showed us all what winning was about. Before, during and after his stay here, brian cook was the soul of this franchise!!
Bcook 4eva!!!!

I’d argue Martin. We’re forgetting that Lowry did not play well at all for the first two months of the season. Martin was consistently productive throughout.

I love Lowry, but there is no replacing a threat to go off for 30 points on any given night like Martin.

He brought it damn near every game. So he gets my vote.

I think Yao was the most valuable player. Played in only a handful of games, but I think his injuries have finally changed the minds of the front office. As much as I love the guy, there is no building a team around him. Can’t be done. Now the Rockets can finally start to move toward a more stable team, and hopefully a prosperous one down the line. Yao’s ability to stay healthy this year or not stay healthy has more than likely change the course of the franchise for the better. I just wish it hadn’t taken so long for the front office to notice. (even though a part of me thought Yao could succeed too)

Id like to call to your attention how it was that we got our mvp of the season in rockets red to begin with.
One of the most gifted offensive threats in the game was ours for a pittance.
Id also like to adress the disparity surrounding the way martin produces, meaning drawing fouls ad-naseum, and that is while his effectivness remains contingent upon a whistle drawing fouls does a lot more for us than simply get free-throws. It can put the opposing players court time in jepordy while racking up team fouls to such a degree that it renders the defensive intensity a team is willing to exhibit cautious and weakened.
It not only means a pair of free-throws but it helps the whole team out while making his scouting report look something like, don’t let him slip away from you cuz he has range but don’t get too close cuz he’ll make u foul him and then hit both freebies. How the hell do you guard that?
The man is a scoring specialist and is more honed at that skill than anyone else on the team is at their respective skills (save for chuck and his low-post d)

I always forget this, but….

Not only do his high free-throw numbers add to his efficiency, but they also get opposing teams in foul trouble. In essence, were Martin to draw two quick fouls on an opposing team’s stud player or starting center, therefore sending either to the bench, you could argue that Martin impacted both the offense AND the defense.

It’s more than just the production… high scoring average, one of the leaders in free throw makes, shot high % from inside and beyond the arc and fre throw line….. He became an option late in games, and he responded well and hit big shots. He’s not an elite superstar, but he can score in bunches. Somewhat of a liability defensively, but he did average 2.5 steals per game. Given his production and his salary, there’s a lot of value there. His ability to space the floor makes everyone else better. With more of a post presence, he could be even more lethal offensively.

he was consistent all season long, would be an all-star if the West wasn’t so chock full of elite guards (and if he threw down a few more dunks this season, he lacks that swagger that makes a guy an all-star player), and kept us in many games, for better or for worse (depending on how you think we should’ve approached the end of the season). All in all, there were many games this season we either won or were still in till the very end because of Martin, conversely, we very rarely ever lost games because KM12 was doing something awful (like turning the ball over a lot, missing a lot of shots, or getting outscored by his defensive assignment). Conversely, I feel like Lowry negatively impacted the team in the first 3 months by being out of shape to start the season, taking some pretty ill-advised shots, and not handling the minutes quarrel with Brooks particularly well (that may or may not be his fault, but is none-the-less hard to ignore).

Also, to address what others are saying about trading Martin: he is a great, great piece (1st or 2nd option on offense) on a championship caliber roster. Are the Rockets championship-caliber right now? No. But they can be if a few balls bounce their way in the FA / trade market over the next summer or two. But this is a separate argument about the direction of the team. None the less, I’d hate to see him get traded (would much rather see Scola go, he’s has ‘sell-high’ written all over him).

No? Go look at his numbers and team performance before and after the deadline and you will see my point. This type of short sightedness has to be addressed. Martin, however, put up and maintained his numbers throughout the ENTIRE season and not just two months. The WHOLE season is more valuable than TWO MONTHS of it. Care to argue otherwise? If the last two months meant more to the season then we would have been in the playoffs. If Lowry comes back next season and plays like he did the last two months then he gets the MVP hands down. But that would be next season and not this one because he fuckin sucked the first two months of the year as well. Oh how we forget significant time frames for the sake of making a point.

Didn’t expect it to be this close.

Lowry’s even up by one vote.

The reason I say that is because when I watch the Rockets, they seem to struggle when Lowry is out, even when he was in the second unit last year, if he was out, we were lost. I know we are only talking about this year, but this is just an general observation I had. He didnt play great before the trade deadline, but he was still valuable to us then and his importance came about after Brooks was traded. I think we have all heard stories about AB’s presence in the locker room, I think that just the fact that Brooks was unhappy due to being the second man and not getting his contracted might have affected the team negatively, so when he was traded, it allowed Lowry to do his thing and succeed. I believe that should be taken into account. This is coming from a guy that was always fighting for AB to get his starting place back.

There can be a great case for Martin as well since he was solid throughout the year, but if you ask me right now if Martin or Lowry couldnt play for some reason, would the team would do better without Lowry or without Martin, I would say they would do better without Martin. Again this is just based on my observation of the Rockets playing.