Hindsight is 20-20, and Kenyon Martin is playing great for the New York Knicks.
With Kevin Garnett out, the Boston Celtics desperately needing frontcourt help and the New York Knicks coming to town, the question bears asking:
Should the Celtics have signed Kenyon Martin?
It's probably an unfair question given that there seemed to be a league-wide belief that Martin's skills had diminished to the point where the cons of signing him outweighed the pros. He received so little free-agent interest, he told Yahoo! Sports earlier this season, that he asked himself: "Am I that bad of a guy?"
The 35-year old big man went unsigned for much of the season before the Knicks — stricken by the injury bug — finally decided to sign him to a 10-day contract in late-February. He started slowly with the Knicks, but earned a spot on the roster for the remainder of the season, and has averaged 16.0 points and 7.0 rebounds over the past three games.
Asked why Martin didn't land in Boston, according to WEEI, Rivers replied: “I don’t know. We looked at all the guys, we were still looking at guards at the time. So we were in no hurry at the time for a big. We were looking for more a big of size, if you know what I mean. And by the time we got around to it, he was gone.”
That might be true, but the Celtics needed more frontcourt depth all season — and that need was boosted three weeks before Martin signed with the Knicks, when Jared Sullinger was ruled out for the year with a back injury. True, Boston had Jason Collins until dealing him to the Washington Wizards on Feb. 21. But with all due respect to Collins, whose professionalism was admirable, rarely has a front office executive thought: "Well, we have Jason Collins as our only reliable backup big man, so let's not go after the former All-Star sitting on his couch."
After Martin was picked up by the Knicks, Boston plucked two big men from China, D.J. White and Shavlik Randolph. And while those two haven't been bad in limited minutes, neither one has Martin's pedigree or skill set. Additionally, Rivers has often been averse to playing inexperienced players; Martin has played more career postseason minutes than White and Randolph have combined to play in their entire careers.
Hindsight is 20-20, obviously. But considering Boston's current frontcourt plight — Garnett's injured, Sullinger's out, Brandon Bass hasn't been very good and Chris Wilcox has been in and out of Rivers' doghouse all year — Martin presumably could have helped.
“I think Kenyon’s been great,” Rivers said, according to WEEI. "I’m happy for Kenyon. I’m not happy that he went to the Knicks, but I am happy for him. Because he was out there and we looked at him — a lot of (teams) looked at him — and, in the end, I didn’t care where he ended up, I just wanted him to do well. I don’t know him well, but we’ve always had a very good relationship. Guys like that, you want them to do well. For me, it’s as simple as that.”