Nuggets forward, Kenyon Martin, has suffered through injuries for virtually all of his NCAA and NBA career. Although he is still a very talented player, one has to wonder how tremendous of a player that Martin could have been if he only could have been healthy. So his most recent injury, a slightly torn patella tendon, won’t hurt his career going forward, but how will it affect his Nuggets teammates this season, who have aspirations of going back to the Western Conference Finals if he opts to have surgery?
Remember, Martin was selected as the #1 overall pick in the ’00 NBA Draft even though he sustained a broken leg during the Conference USA Tournament and thus missed out on the plethora of national exposure of March Madness. He was so good that he also was awarded the Naismith Award, given annually to college basketball’s best player. He has also persevered through micro-fracture surgery on both knees while in the NBA. Even with all of those debilitating injuries, K-Mart has proven to be a vital cog on both the Nets and Nuggets, helping to lead both to deep playoff runs in his 10 year NBA career.
This season, he has once again solidified the Nuggets power forward position by averaging 12 points, 9.6 rebounds, and 1.2 blocks as Denver, riding the MVP caliber play of Carmelo Anthony, are once again major players in the Western Conference. It would appear that the Nuggets are primed to make another deep post-season run similar to ’09. With Martin’s injury, coach George Karl, who was recently diagnosed with throat cancer, will probably be forced to insert fan favorite Chris “Birdman” Andersen into the starting line-up, and shortening the Nugget bench. Only Malik Allen and Johan Petro are players on the roster who are capable of giving them anything of substance off the bench.
The Nuggets are probably kicking themselves now for not being able to successfully trade for former Bull Tyrus Thomas, who went to Charlotte, or Antonio McDyess, since both of whom could have filled in admirably in Martin’s absence. Denver’s only other option is to pick up one of the few remaining free agent big men like Mikki Moore or Mark Blount or dip into the D-League talent pool of players with limited NBA experience like Dwayne Jones or Paul Davis.
Martin has experienced knee pain for most of this season but aggravated the injury, sometimes known as “jumper’s knee” when he banged knees with a Warriors player in a game in early January and has missed time sporadically ever since. He is currently listed as day-to-day but surgery remains as the only true cure for his ailment. He along with the Nuggets medical staff may also opt to rest Martin along with getting therapeutic injections on and off for the rest of this season but risk further tearing of the tendon with Martin playing at a diminished capacity. Think Kevin Garnett upon his return to Boston last season.
Can the Nuggets still be contenders without K-Mart for an extended period of time? Having a starting line-up featuring veteran NBA talents like Melo, Billups, Nene, and Andersen, along with JR Smith off the bench proves to be very potent, but with the NBA playoffs just around the corner, not getting much production from the bench could prove costly down the stretch. Although a defensive presence in limited minutes, Andersen could prove to be an offensive liability playing starters minutes. Or when a player gets in foul trouble or the Nuggets experience another injury, Denver could once again be looking forward to next season if they don’t come to a solution real quick.
Is a Kenyon Martin at less than 100% better than any other option? The Nuggets do have 2 roster spots available. Who will they use them on? How far will they go without their enigmatic power forward?
Allen Moll is an avid NBA and College Basketball fan who watches and studies games religiously and coaches youth basketball in his native Lehigh Valley region of Pennsylvania. Allen is a regular columnist for thehoopdoctors.com, Bleacherreport.com, UpperDeckblog.com, and his own site, Hoops Haven.
