Our exit interview series on the 2024 Clippers continues with KJ Martin, the young forward who barely played for the Clips before he was traded.

Basic Information

Height: 6’6

Weight: 215 pounds

Position: Small Forward/Power Forward

Age: 23

Years in NBA: 4

Key Clippers Regular Season Stats: 5.0 points, 1.5 rebounds, 0.5 assists, 1.0 steals, 0.5 blocks, and 1.0 turnovers in two games played with 40/20/50 shooting splits.

Expectations

KJ Martin was the Clippers’ only acquisition in trade or free agency last summer, with the rest of their moves being through the draft. And fans and media thought Martin was an incredible acquisition, a buy-low candidate on a young player with immense athleticism coming off a breakout third season in Houston. There were worries about the three-point shot and ancillary skills, but Martin’s bounce and ability to slash to the rim seemed undeniable.

While the Clippers’ remained chock-full of veteran rotation players, the expectation was that Martin’s unique qualities as one of the few young and athletic players on the roster would give him the ability to carve out a niche as a versatile tool to play either forward spot or even small-ball center. There was even some thinking in the offseason that Martin could start to add some pop and bounce to an elderly starting five. But regardless, a rotation player of some kind was the hope, with the possibility for more.

Reality

That is, uh, not what happened. Almost as soon as training camp started, talk began to flow that the Clippers didn’t really know what to do with Martin. Nic Batum and Robert Covington’s shooting made them better fits next to the Clippers’ stars, the Clippers didn’t want to play too much small-ball after their backup center fiasco in 2023, and Martin lacked the playmaking or handle to play as a guard. Thus, after a rough preseason where Martin’s shot looked far worse than it ever did in Houston, he found himself out of the rotation as the season began.

Then, in a real surprise, Martin was included in the James Harden deal. It had been expected that one of Batum or Covington would be moved, and a near certainty that Marcus Morris would, but all four of the forwards being traded was a shock. Martin’s inclusion was even more of a stunner since the Clippers had just traded two 2^nd round picks for him a couple months earlier. The Clippers’ KJ Martin era therefore ended nearly as soon as it began.

Martin stuck on Philadelphia the entire season and played in 58 games, but averaged just 12.3 minutes per game, by far the lowest average of his career to date. Martin really only got rotation minutes when the Sixers were struck most severely by injuries – he did not play at all when they were close to fully healthy. Notably, he did not log a single minute in the playoffs, even with Covington out for the whole series and De’Anthony Melton mostly out. It was a disappointing season for Martin, who followed up by far his best season as a pro with by far his worst.

Future with Clippers

Martin is young enough and played well enough in his first few years in the NBA that one down season probably won’t kill his market. However, it’s a bad time for him to be a free agent – if he’d become available last summer he probably would have gotten a real deal, whereas this summer he’ll probably have to settle for something around the minimum. Maybe a young, rebuilding team with the ability to take fliers on talented youngsters would give him a larger contract, like the Wizards or Jazz. Outside of that, the market for Martin might not be super hot.

Unlike the other Clippers who departed in the Harden deal, Martin has little history with the Clippers, for good or bad. He’s from Los Angeles and seemed excited to be dealt to the Clippers, but the immediate turning around and trading him probably left a sour taste in his mouth. I don’t think either side would really be too eager for a reunion.

2024 Clippers Exit Interview: KJ Martin
Robert Flom

Kenyon Martin Jr. is only 59 days older than the person who wrote this story. And yet, the former 52nd overall pick from the 2020 NBA Draft was deemed valuable enough by Lawrence Frank and the Clippers’ front office that LAC sent two second-round picks to Houston in exchange for the son of an NBA All-Star.

“K.J.” Martin started 49 games a year ago for the Rockets, and averaged a career-best 12.7 points per game during the 2022-23 season. Standing at 6-foot-6, Martin is not the world’s most respected shooter from behind the line, but near the rim, he’s an explosive vertical athlete, much like his father. Martin finished the season with a spectacular 63.5 true-shooting percentage, largely bolstered by his shooting 80.3% on shots 0-3 feet from the basket, according to Basketball Reference.

But this Clippers team, as every fan knows, is weird. Simply put, there’s just way too many guys here. Everyone says you can never have too much depth until they go 13-deep and suddenly have to freeze out talented players to make sure their very best players still take most of the minutes load.

Just going through the names, it’s hard to see where K.J. fits in.

The starters are Westbrook, PG, Kawhi, Mann, and Zubac.

Nicolas Batum and Bones Hyland can practically be written in pen as surefire bench pieces that Ty Lue will use during the season. Robert Covington was on the outside looking in last year, but has played well enough as of late that he should be locked into a rotation spot. Norman Powell and Mason Plumlee will get minutes as guys who fill common pick and roll ball handler and screener duties. Add that all up and it’s already a 10-man rotation before you get to Martin.

The skillset of the 22 year-old forward is a double-edged sword. He can be an exciting bench piece because he’s so different from the prototypical wing. He’s not just a worse or diet version of Mann, Batum, or even Marcus Morris Sr. He’s an NBA wing that plays nothing like the standard “3-and-D” wing.

When you put Martin on the floor, you have to change the way you play basketball. Because nobody else on the Clippers plays similar to how he does.

Throughout the preseason, it’s been clear that Lue wants to place Martin in the dunker spot as a constant threat to finish near the rim, or having him slash in on baseline cuts whenever the ball gets into the paint. He pairs well with Plumlee, who is a plus-passer at the center position, and often looking to find the cutting K.J. whenever possible.

Watch in that first clip how Jamal Murray loses track of Martin when he exchanges with Xavier Moon near the baseline. It’s bad defense from Murray, sure. But that’s what Martin can do when stationed on the perimeter in lieu of shooting. Make one mistake, and he’ll finish at the rim with a dunk.

His speed and explosiveness shrinks the defense’s margin for error.

During the 2022-23 season in Houston, K.J. Martin was on the floor for 2,606 non-garbage time possessions with Rockets’ center Alperen Sengun, according to Cleaning the Glass. Sengun and Plumlee are not perfectly interchangeable players, but they’re both good passing bigs who pair well with an unconventional wing like Martin. It wouldn’t be shocking if Martin and Plumlee’s minutes are tied at the hip.

However, there’s another way the NBA has sought out to use unconventional players such as Martin, and it’s something this era of the Clippers are well-used to — small-ball centers.

In theory, it covers so many of Martin’s flaws. The 5 is the one position in modern basketball where it’s still acceptable to not be a three-point shooter, it allows LAC to go switch-heavy on defense, it makes use of Martin’s vertical gravity as a roller, and so on and so on.

But theory is not reality. A big part of being a center is rim protection, something that K.J. might not be well-suited to do. Last season in Houston, he only averaged 0.6 blocks per 100 possessions. James Harden posted a higher block rate than that.

Heck, while we’re on Philadelphia, a good reference point here is Ben Simmons. For years, fans and prognosticators alike asked why he couldn’t be the perfect small-ball 5 for a team with four shooters spread around him. The answer was in his lacking rim protection. Simmons was and still is an awesome perimeter defender, but he didn’t have the requisite size, vertical burst and defensive technique to anchor an NBA defense at the rim.

The vertical burst for Martin is certainly there, but the size most definitely is not. Lue tried him as a small-ball center at times during the preseason, but it feels like a lot to ask of a 6-foot-6 wing who just came over from a team that finished 27th, 30th, and 29th in defensive points allowed per 100 possessions over the past three years.

And lest you think that all this positional maneuvering is overthinking it, and that Martin can just spot up on the perimeter like a normal wing, allow me to show you the following possession:

(Keep your eyes on No. 6 in white the entire time).

Martin beings by setting a screen for Kobe Brown in LAC’s “Motion Strong” action and then … just stands in the corner with his hands on his hips. I get there’s not much for him to do here, but at least pretend like you’re ready to catch and shoot the ball. Brown and Amir Coffey do as much on the opposite side.

Instead K.J. spends 20 seconds like this on the court:

I referenced Ben Simmons in this piece, but Martin is a much more respectable shooter than that. He’s hit 163 triples in his career and his percentage over three years sits at 34.0%, which is far from reprehensible.

But modest accuracy will not get NBA defenses to treat you differently when you’re standing on the perimeter. Shooting volume will, and too often Martin plays like a guy who knows he isn’t going to take a three.

It is worth noting that Martin brings a ton of value in transition. He’ll join Hyland and Mann as the two youngsters (yes, I know Mann really isn’t that young) on the team who can get out and run. The former Houston forward brings a rare combo of strength and speed that is hard for opponents to handle in open space.

That’s all well and good, but almost every basketball player looks like a better scorer in transition than in the half court. Pumping up the Clippers’ fast break can get K.J. a random five-minute spurt on a Tuesday night, but it can’t lock down a full rotation spot on a team that goes 12-deep with proven NBA talent and expects to contend.

So how will Lue and the Clippers use Martin, if at all? I doubt he’s a conventional wing at any point, and more often he’ll be cutting in from that dunker spot whenever possible. The small-ball center lineups will be a thing, but only sparingly and likely when a few or more players are out with injury.

Personally, I believe the Martin-Plumlee duo is what this hinges on. Plumlee averaged just under 20 minutes per game once he arrived in L.A. last season. He should be the Clippers’ backup center who anchors a decent number of lineups.

Martin might start the season on the outside looking in for Lue’s rotation. But say those Plumlee-at-center bench units disappoint? That’s probably where Martin comes in.

Plumlee is a bit of a weird center — from his left-handed free throws to his penchant for trying to make every finish a reverse dunk — why not pair a weird forward like K.J. Martin with him?

Where does K.J. Martin Fit in Ty Lue’s System?
Daniel Olinger

Our player preview series for the 2024 Clippers season continues with KJ Martin, the Clippers’ only notable addition in free agency.

Basic Information

Height: 6’5″

Weight: 215 pounds

Position: Forward

Age: 22

Years in NBA: 4

Key stats: 12.7 points, 5.5 rebounds, 1.5 assists and 1.1 turnovers in 28 minutes per game across 82 games on 56.9/31.5/68 shooting splits in the regular season.

Contract status: Final year of a four-year contract worth $1,930,681 this season.

Expectations

The Clippers didn’t make any splashy free agent signings, as they didn’t have the cap space to do so. The acquisition of KJ Martin via trade was the biggest move they made all offseason and perhaps the one Clippers fans are most excited about. The team needed to get younger and more athletic and Martin certainly fits that description.

He’s coming off a career-year in Houston with an iron bill of health, having played all 82 games. He can play either forward position and he moved into the starting lineup for the Rockets by midseason.

He’s extremely well-suited to play off the Clippers two stars in Kawhi Leonard and Paul George and will most likely come off the bench. The Clippers will need him to do exactly what he did in Houston, which is continue his elite off-ball movement, be a finisher in the paint, defend at a high-level, and knock down open three-point shots.

Strengths

Martin has to be one of the best in the league at moving without the ball. He shot a career-high from the field this past season and that was largely due to his cuts and dives around the basket. He’s also one of the best in the NBA at running the break. Once he’s in the paint, he’s putting the ball through the rim. Martin should thrive with a playmaker like Russell Westbrook feeding him the ball.

Martin is also a capable defensive player. Where he’s excelled so far in his career is as a help defender blocking shots, using his athleticism, length, and defensive instincts to help teammates after they’ve been beat.

He’s been a capable three-point shooter as well. Last season his percentages took a slide, but he shot well from three-point range his first two seasons in the NBA and he holds a career average of 34 percent, albeit on low-ish volume.

Weaknesses

While Martin is an elite weak side defender, he can be prone to defensive lapses especially on ball. He’s coming to a team, however, that has been among the league’s best consistently on the defensive end under Tyronn Lue. Maybe playing in a defensive system that can mask some of his deficiencies will help him on that end.

His size can sometimes be an issue as well, especially on the defensive end. He’s only 6’6″ and can be undersized at either forward position depending on the matchup.

He isn’t much of a ball-handler either, but he can make quick decisions with the ball in his hands, especially in short roll situations.

Summary

The Martin trade has the potential to be one of the most underrated moves of the offseason. He really started blossoming this past year with the Rockets and is young enough to keep improving. He’s exactly what the Clippers need in a role player. He doesn’t try and do too much; he knows what he’s good at, and he plays his role to perfection. He’s going to make the Clippers fun to watch and fans should expect a few highlight reel dunks this season, which will be welcome after last year.

Clippers 2023-24 Season Preview: KJ Martin
David Yapkowitz