Nets v. Pistons/K-Mart'n v. Weed Wallace: It's On

[MavKikiNYC]

Martin-Wallace Matchup Was Years in the Making
By STEVE POPPER

Published: May 1, 2004


EAST RUTHERFORD, N.J., April 30 — John Nash has known Rasheed Wallace for years. He followed him through his high school days in Philadelphia, then, in 1995, drafted him with the fourth overall pick of the first round for Washington.

Five years later, Nash had moved on to become general manager of the Nets, and he sat in a Chicago gym and watched Kenyon Martin single-handedly bring his University of Cincinnati team from behind to beat DePaul. Nash walked out of the gym that night convinced that Martin would be the No. 1 overall pick in the 2000 N.B.A. draft, and he was right. When that draft arrived, Nash, with the consent of the Nets' president, Rod Thorn, picked Martin. So if there is anyone with an informed opinion about Wallace and Martin — two tough, talented players with reputations for combustibility — it is Nash. If there is anyone who will be watching every nuance of the Martin-Wallace matchup when the Nets and the Detroit Pistons meet in a second-round playoff series beginning Monday night, it will be the man who is now the general manager of the Portland Trail Blazers.

So what does Nash think? Does he give the edge to Martin or Wallace? The answer is Martin. After all, Nash spent a good part of last summer trying to trade Wallace, then a Trail Blazer, to the Nets so he could put Martin in a Portland uniform. "Last summer, I made a concerted effort to get him," said Nash, who finally traded Wallace just before the deadline this season to Atlanta, which then sent him to Detroit. "It just didn't work out. Their salaries didn't match up, and I don't know that the Nets would make that deal straight up anyway. "In a one-game situation, one series, Rasheed is capable of outplaying Kenyon," Nash said. "He's immensely talented, bigger and longer. But the old adage goes that it's not the size of the dog in the fight, but the size of the fight in the dog, and Kenyon is far more tenacious.

"He doesn't have as much talent as some I've been around, but toughness. . . . Tim Thomas is lucky he didn't go in that phone booth." Nash was referring to the Nets' recent first-round playoff series with the Knicks in which Thomas was taken down on a hard foul by the Nets' Jason Collins in Game 1. After Thomas complained that none of his Knicks teammates had retaliated, he was mocked by Martin, who pasted a "Whiny Tim" newspaper headline to his jersey in practice. The two later exchanged pointed challenges, with each offering to fight the other in a locked room. In the end, Thomas remained on the bench with an injured back and ankle and watched Martin and his teammates sweep the Knicks. There was no brawl, just good, tough and, at times, demonstrative basketball from Martin.

Neither the 6-foot-9, 230-pound Martin, who turns 27 in December, nor the 6-foot-11, 230-pound Wallace, who turns 30 in September, leaves much to be desired in terms of talent or emotion. "I've got enough fire as it is," Martin said this week as the Nets practiced, and practiced again, waiting for the second round to begin. "I don't need nothing to motivate me to play. If he was there or not, I would approach the game the same way." Of the trade for Wallace that did not happen, Martin said: "He's not here. It didn't happen. I didn't spend no wasted energy thinking about it."

Wallace has served as the final piece of the Pistons' puzzle, lifting them to a 20-6 regular-season record and a 4-1 first-round knockout of the Milwaukee Bucks since his arrival. But he has been an enigma — a player lauded by his teammates for his unselfishness, but also one who set a record for technical fouls, when he was whistled for 41 of them in the 2000-1 season, symbolizing the misbehavior that has plagued the Trail Blazers in recent seasons and cost them some of their fans.

Martin seemed on that path, too. He was called for six flagrant fouls in his second season, in 2001-2, was suspended for seven games, was fined $347,000, and was sent to the office of Stu Jackson, the league executive in charge of discipline. But Martin learned to control his anger, although not, he said, because of Jackson's admonishments or the rapidly growing pile of money he was shipping to the league. "It's just growing up, realizing it was stupid stuff, childish," Martin said. "The stuff on the court I went through in my second year, I made stupid decisions. It happened. You learn from your mistakes, don't make them again. All the other stuff, like last series, all that talk, just make a joke about it and keep moving."I think I've shaken that perception for the most part. I think the referees and the league view me different. I think I got rid of it for the most part. People still know what happened, but it's not like it's on the first line — Kenyon did this — if they've got a memo to send out."

Wallace will most likely be on the first line of any such memo, although he has had a decidedly sunnier disposition since landing in Detroit. He has been embraced by a fellow North Carolina alumnus, Pistons Coach Larry Brown, and by teammates who look at him as the difference between the 4-0 sweep they endured against the Nets in last year's Eastern Conference finals and this year's Pistons club, which has been regarded as the toughest group in the East — and maybe the league. In their 26 regular-season games with Wallace, the already stingy Pistons dropped their points-allowed figure to 78.9 point a game from 86.8. Wallace can shoot 3-pointers, score in the low post and pass better than most power forwards, and he and center Ben Wallace (no relation) have provided the Pistons with the best rebounding and shot-blocking tandem in the playoffs. Still, Nash tried to unload him for Martin. The Nets would not bite, despite their desire to unload salary and with Martin due for a windfall contract this summer.

Last summer, the team alienated Martin by offering him a new deal worth about $65 million rather than the $80 to 90 million he was seeking. This summer, he will be a restricted free agent.One Eastern Conference general manager said that Martin could receive a maximum contract offer from another team this summer, with Denver and Atlanta being two clubs with the salary-cap room to sign him. Still, a Nets executive said, "I can't see a situation where we wouldn't match any offer to keep him."

Martin said: "This summer, we'll see. I love it here. I love my teammates. But it's not my choice. I want to stay, but if it doesn't happen I'll have to move on. It'll hurt, but I'm not going to hold my head about it because I did all I could do. I did my end. I showed up every day. I worked hard. I got better for four years. If they want me, they'll keep me. If not, I'll move on." For now, Martin is earning his pay with his play. Last year in the postseason, he averaged 18.9 points and 9.0 rebounds; this postseason, against the Knicks, he averaged 23.3 points and 14 rebounds, including a career-high 36 points in Game 4, despite tendinitis in his left knee.

In Wallace, Martin faces a challenge, but one he says he is up to. Martin made the N.B.A. All-Star team for the first time this year, as a reserve, and is now approaching a level of play that was predicted for him when he was the No. 1 pick. He has become a leader on the team, on and off the court. "I don't say I'm first team All-N.B.A.," he said. "But Tim Duncan, Kevin Garnett, I play on the same level as those guys, at a high level, every day. I don't get the numbers those guys get, but I compete every day."

Nash recalls the day the Nets won the draft lottery to secure the first pick in the draft. "I was driving in a limo with Lewis Katz and his phone rang," Nash said, referring to the Nets' owner in 2000. "It was Ed Rendell, who was Philadelphia's mayor at the time. The first thing he said was, `Take Kenyon Martin.' It wasn't genius that we took him. You could see it then." And he will watch it now, as Martin and Wallace go at it, along with the rest of the Nets and the Pistons.

[MavKikiNYC]

This will be a fun series and individual matchup to watch, since I don't really like either K-Mart or Weed. Would be fun to see K-Mart emasculate Wallace the way he did Walker last year, but Wallace may have too much supporting talent for K-Mart to be able to shut him down as completely.

I've said more than once that I would hate to see K-Mart in a Mavs uniform, and that I really dislike all the extra junk he often brings into the game. But it WAS fun to see him dominate the weaker Walker last year, fun to see him humiliate the hapless Knicks this year, and could be fun to see him make Wallace look bad oncourt.

One of them comes out looking bad, or at least we get to see a really good individual matchup.

Either way, something to enjoy.

[MavKikiNYC]

The K-Mart v. Weed matchup kinda went up in smoke.

Most Impressive Player out of G1 was Tayshaun Prince. Was wondering last year whether he was for real or not, or was just having rookie-year hot flashes. But he looks like he's found a very comfortable spot alongside the Wallaces in L.Brown's system.

Detroit looks tough, and as Barkley pointed out, they are the perfect antidote to Jersey's strength in that Detroit gets back very well on defense to shut down easy baskets on the break. When they do that as well as they did last night, the Nets stall out big-time.

Defense. Gotta love it.

[MavsFanatik33]

I didnt know who to bet on with New Jersey +5 on the road so I flipped a coin....
Good thing I landed on Detroit