I know that everyone today expected me to write some post about how I was right about Kevin Martin for the past year plus and that you should all bow to my all-knowing gift of foresight. However, regardless of that image that I have somehow bestowed upon a good handful of you, this simply isn't my forte. I'm wrong just as much, if not more than I am right concerning these types of things.
Plus, I'm not going to base an opinion and declare myself "right" on a player after one regular season game after a shortened training camp and preseason. No, I feel the same way about Kevin Martin today as I have since the Rockets acquired him almost two years ago; meh.
This is usually met with "why are you such a hater?!" or something of that ilk. This, of course, makes me shake my head that I'm viewed in that light. I guess I have that "moneyball" approach to players where I view them simply as assets and I don't get attached. Not too much of a different approach as our current general manager of the Rockets. I don't hate any of these guys, not even close. I just don't care for one-dimensional players at all and I believe that if their value is high, even if it is only for one side of the ball, you move them while their stock is the highest and Martin's is/was never going to be as high as it was at the end of last season.
I'll get more into it after the jump.
Daryl Morey has done it for the most part with every player he has had on this roster since he arrived here, yet people still get all broken up when he trades a "fan favorite" from a club that has struggled to finish at a .500 clip each year. Sure, I'm human and I understand that we're all going to have our favorite players and guys we want to see in a Rockets uniform until they retire. Unfortunately, that's the kind of things that set a team back for years and sometimes even a decade. If you're keeping a guy around simply to sell tickets and taking your eye off the prize of winning a championship and being a contender year in and year out, well then you are doing it wrong.
Everyone is quick to label me and others with a similar philosophy as a "hater" when we don't fall in line with everyone else and simply throw up our skirts in honor of everyone's favorite player on the roster. Yet those same hypocrites are the ones turning on a guy like Kevin Martin this morning after his horrendous performance last night. Even better, if he goes off for 30 points against the Spurs Thursday, you'll never hear any admittance of foolishness on their behalf. That's just fandom in the NBA. Fans love to hate and hate to love these guys. But a difference of opinion should never be met with the criticism of "you're just a hater." What are we, back in sixth grade again?
In the end, a difference of opinion in sports is what makes places like The Dream Shake a haven. If we all agreed on everything, this place would become pretty boring. Instead, we get to talk about things like BD34's Thabeet Bandwagon or Grungedave's irrational hate for Paul Pierce (which I share, by the way) and even though I'm not a fan of it, a few of the other writers' 4,000+ word essays on how +/- is the end all be all. I still like to read and debate over it. Who doesn't?
So what have we learned here? We've learned that Kevin Martin needs to be traded.
KIDDING!
(sorta.)