Well, first off, I don't like the chances of this trade actually being pulled off. I don't see the upside for Houston, giving up a young(ish) scorer like Martin for a center who possibly could be solid, but not any better than that. Martin is scoring 23 ppg right now? He possibly could be even better. Haywood is a 10 points 12 board guy at his ceiling right now, and he's four years older. I know the Rockets are lacking center depth, but its not so bad they are prepared to give up their number one scorer to do so.
I remember I wanted Martin last year. He was my preferred player, out of the trio of Butler, Iguodala and him. I like Martin, and he will score if he comes here. He's not a "bad team" scorer or whatever, he's just a scorer. He shoots and he gets to the line. Those are universal skills, which work in every offense. He doesn't have to have certain pieces around him, or a lack of certain pieces, to score. Obviously, his scoring will drop some because there are a lot of veterans used to shooting the ball on this team, but I'd be shocked if it was not within a point or two of 20 ppg.
My problem is whether our defense could absorb the addition of Martin and stay elite. Our defense was not elite last year, so I wanted Martin so that our offense could be elite. Obviously, that's changed. It'd be freaking stupid to gain elite status on one of the ends of the court, and then throw it away due to a rash player acquisition. Martin is pretty awful on that end, by all accounts, and he doesn't get steals or draw charges like JJB and Terry do to help make up for it. I'm not saying Martin would come in and cause our defense to plummet to 15th in the league or something like that, I'm just saying that if the Mavericks fear he would inversely affect the defense, he has no place on this team.
I also hate losing Roddy, because he's one of those few explosive penetrators. Martin drives and draws fouls, but he's not ridiculously explosive like Beaubois is. 80% of his shots are still jumpers (I'd give you Roddy's % but 82games is acting odd right now). Roddy, on the other hand, can basically get into the lane every possession if he wants. Even when he doesn't take shots, the penetration and subsequent collapse of the defense opens up open jump shots for our primarily jump shooting team. That's why Roddy is such a great fit for this team, and I don't think Martin is the same sort of player at all. That right there is why I'd be really, really hesistant to trade away Roddy right now, no matter who we were trading him for.
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