Why Teams Would Benefit from Kevin Martin

Kevin Martin is one of the, if the most dynamic scorer in the NBA. I mean this guy can put up points and he can do it fast. He can take it all the way to the hole, and that quick release on his jump-shot gives defenders fits. Now with Houston, after the Kings traded him to give more space to Tyreke Evens, Martin is putting up 23.6ppg early in the 2011/11 season with the Rockets.

Martin has always been a scorer averaging 17.5ppg throughout his 8 year career with Sac-town and Houston. In collage Martin was also a scorer getting 23.3ppg, while shooting the ball at 46.1% from the field, with the Western Carolina Catamounts. His highest scoring output in the NBA was 50 points in a 143-141 OT lose to the Warriors on April 1st, 2009. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FGFh4suyU2Q.

Teams that struggle to score on a nightly basis (New Jersey, Charlotte and Detroit to name a few) could really use Kevin Martin on they teams. Now I am not saying Martin is going to be traded, but this is what he could bring to some of the struggling offensive teams in the NBA.

New Jersey-In New Jersey Martin would fit in perfectly. He would start at SG, Devin Harris would go to PG and he would work well with young impressive center Brook Lopez. Martin and Harris would prove a tough back court to stop. Martin would help the Nets a lot.

Charlotte-With Michael Jordan's Bobcats Martin would team up with Gerald Wallace and Stephen Jackson. With Martin in Charlotte they would have some good scorers in Martin, Wallace and Jackson. Also Martin would work well with PG D.J Augustin.

Detroit-If Martin went to the Pistons, they would hope to get back to playoff form. The Pistons already have some impressive players in vets R.I.P Hamilton, Tayshaun Prince and T-Mac. The Pistons already have a great scorer in Ben Gorden and with Martin in the motor city, it would be hard to stop. He would also be a nice fit with young players Rodney Stuckey, Greg Monroe and Austin Daye.

Cleveland-Ok let's face it, the Cavs need to score right now. Antawn Jamison and Daniel Gibson are doing all the scoring for this team at the moment due to a hip injury to Mo Williams. If Martin was to come to Cleveland, he would provide instant scoring as he would go to the starting line-up. Martin would also help young stud Manny Harris in becoming a scorer in this league.

You can follow Luke Sicari on twitter @lukesicari
or send him an e-mail sicarimailto:sicari.luke97@gmail.com

J.J Hickson-The Rising

'With the 19th pick in the 2008 NBA draft, the Cleveland Cavaliers select J.J Hickson from the North Carolina State University.'
 It was a dream come true for now 22 year old J.J Hickson, so how did it start?
 In high school James Edward 'J.J.' Hickson attended Joseph Wheeler High School in Marietta, Georiga.
 J.J had a great HS career in where he was ranked No.10 overall recurit, No.2 PF by Rivals.com and as the No.3 PF by Scout.com, all in the class of 2007.
 Also in 2007 J.J was named a McDonald's All-American.
 J.J's Wheeler High squad made it to the 5A Final Four in 2006.
 The stat line for J.J as a senior in HS was 25.9ppg, 13.8rpg and 3.0bpg-not bad.
 So after a great HS career, J.J only played 1 year of collage ball at North Carolina State University.
 In that 1 year J.J averaged 14.8ppg and 8.5rpg, leading all freshmen.
 Highlights of J.J's short collage career were being named ACC Rookie Of The Week 3 times, setting an ACC single-game freshman record when getting 23 rebounds in a match against Clemson University.
 Now onto J.J's NBA career.
 He made his NBA debut against the Charlotte Bobcats, scoring 4 points.
 His rookie year highs were 14 points, 4 blocks and 9 rebounds.
 He averaged 4.0ppg and 2.7rpg in his 62 games of his rookie year.
 Now J.J started to make quiet noise around the L in the 09/10 season.
 In 09/10 J.J got his first ever start with the Cavs and on Jan.27 2010, he set a then career high with 23 points.
 In that season J.J averaged 8.5ppg, 4.9rpg and he increased his minutes per game by around 10 minutes.
 J.J has started this season (10/11) with a bang.
 He scored a career high 31 points (at time of print) in a lose to the Atlanta Hawks on the 2nd of November, 2010.
 His stats for this season so far (6 games in) are 17.8ppg, 6.0rpg and 1.0apg, helping the Cavs to go 3-3.
 In the future J.J must work on his rebounding, to help the Cavs in the post LeBron era.
 Things are looking up for J.J, as long as he keeps up his type of play.
 In the meantime keep an eye on J.J Hickson, and buy his cards while they cheap!

J.J driving past Elton Brand.

 GO CAVS!!

The Heat is on.

Boston-88 def Miami-80.
 When we all saw this score line on opening night of the 10/11 NBA season and the debut of Miami's big 3, we didn't know what to expect next-we now know.
 One opening night the Heat looked out of sync, but it wasn't long until the got that fixed.
 When I watched the Magic @ Heat match on Saturday I knew that this was going to be a scary season for the east (and west.)
 The match was close all up until the 2nd half when Miami went off running away with a 96-70 win in the Heat's opening home match.
 Dwayne Wade put up 26 points on that night, while LeBron chipped in with 15 points.
 Than the Heat went and destroyed the Nets and the T'Wolves, along with beating Philly to go 4-1 after the first week of the new season.
 In the last 3 games we have seen the LeBron and Wade are playing better with each match.
 They seem to play really well together on the court and they both know there role.
 LeBron being LeBron, dished out 12 dimes vs Wolves on Wednesday while putting up 20 points.
 In that Heat win LeBron and D.Wade combined for 46 points.
 Lets put Wade and James aside for a minute and focus and the Heat's 3rd option Chris Bosh.
 Bosh has been playing solid in Miami's first 4 matches putting up 11pts @ Boston,15pts @76ers, 11 pts vs Orlando, 18pts @ Nets and 13pts vs T'Wolves.
 Along with that the Heat have a great supporting cast with Carlos Arroyo, Joel Anthony, James Jones, Udonis Haslem, Eddie House and Big Z.
 So to all of the other 29 teams, be aware-The Heat is on.

ATL Fast Start

Hey Cavsfanatics,

The Atlanta Hawks have jumped to a 3-0 start this season. The are playing great basketball right now, and were good enough to pull out a win vs Wizards the other night. We have them up next so it will be tough, lets just hope the boys can go out there and make a point.

Luke

Manny Harris In, Danny Green Out.

Hey Guys,
So the Cavs have de-listed Danny Green, and signed un-drafted rookie Manny Harris. I think this is a good idea, Manny played great @ Raptors, didn't get much of a chance vs Kings. I hope Manny can have a great career with Cleveland, and best of luck to Danny Green for whatever he does in the future.
GO CAVS!!
Cheers Luke

Underated-Monta Ellis.

If 25.5 points per game, 5.3 assits per game and 4.0 rebounds per game isn't enough to get you a spot in the all-star game I don't know what is any more.

 This was the case for Golden State Warrior, Monta Ellis in the 2009/10 NBA season.

 Maybe its because he is playing with the Golden State Warriors a team with a losing record or maybe its because Golden State's season was ruled by young super-star point guard Steph Curry.

 What ever the reason was it didn't seem to faze Ellis much, as he continued to perform at a high level after the all-star break.

 ‘The Mississippi Bullet’ started has Basketball career at Lanier High School in Jackson.

 In his four season at Lanier he averaged 28.9ppg, 4.9apg, 5.2rpg and 3.1spg.

 His best season at high school was his last which he averaged an amazing 38.4ppg, 7.9rpg, 6.8apg and 4.5spg.

 His best outing at high school was a whopping 72 points in a match against Greenwood high school-WOW!

 Amazingly Monta was a second round draft pick in the 2005 NBA draft (pick 40) drafted by the Golden State Warriors.

 His first ever points in the NBA came in a match against the Phoenix  Suns on December 7th, in which he scored a 3-point shot.

 Ellis was forced to play only about half the season in his debut season, playing 49 games due to knee problems.

 In them 49 games he averaged 6.8ppg and 2.1rpg.

 In his sophomore season in the NBA Ellis recovered from his knee problems to play almost a full season.

 During his sophomore season Ellis hit his first ever game winning shot in the NBA against the Nets giving the Warriors a 110-109 win, on January 24th, 2007. 

 In the 77 games he played Ellis put up 16.5ppg and 4.1apg, in his sophomore season.

 Disaster stuck Ellis in his 3rd season in the NBA.

 On August 26, 2008 he had torn a ligament in his left ankle.

  Ellis said in an interview, he had suffered the injury during a pick-up game in a gym in his home town of Mississippi-this ended up being not the case.

 Suspected during weeks of speculation, it was official that he had sustained the injury in a low-speed moped accident.

 This behavior is against his player contact, and the Warriors suspended him for 30 games-about the amount of games he was going to miss, because of the injury.

 So in a crazy 08-09 season for Monta he ended up playing 25 games, in which he got 19.0ppg and 4.3rpg.

 Now to the 09/10 season in which Ellis should have been in the all-star game.

 Again knee problems forced Monta to play 64 games this past season in which he still averaged career highs.

 Ellis averaged 25.5ppg, 5.3apg, 4.0rpg, 2.2spg and he played 41.4 minutes per game, another career best.

 Monta Ellis has provided us with a reel of highlights in his career so far, but is still underrated, in my opinion.