Will Kenyon Martin stay with the Denver Nuggets?
The 33 years old power forward Kenyon Martin is on the brink of become a free agent with the end of the Denver Nuggets season.
The veteran wants to be back with the Nuggets in the next season. However, the Nuggets are not interested in retaining the first overall pick of the 2000 NBA Draft.
Denver, who have won just one game out their last four in the best of the seven playoff series against the Oklahoma City Thunder, are dreadfully close to a first-round exit. If the Nuggets lose game 5, it may well be his last game with them.
Although Martin has still some basketball left in him, but the question is for how long the Nuggets will keep persisting with him. Last summer, they also acquired
a back-up in the form of Al Harrington. Given the playing minutes, Harrington has been getting as compared to Martin; there are clear indications that he will eventually replace Martin by the end of this season.
Martin is not too happy with the situation. Nuggets did not offer him an extension contract this season. Instead they signed Harrington a five-year 33.4 million dollars
contract.
In an interview Martin said, “I don’t want to leave. I love the guys, I love the organization. But I understand if that is going to be the case. They haven’t said
anything all summer. Wait. They said something; they gave Al (Harrington) the money. I don’t have any problem with Al, but me and Al play the same position. I think I’ve helped around here. I don’t think I’ve been that big of a problem. I think I’ve helped
win a few games here and there.”
Martin was playing excellent basketball last year, but when he torn patella tendon it made him miss the majority part of the last two months of the previous season.
He returned for the playoffs, but was only a shell of himself. Martin, however said that if ignored, he has many venues open and will be more than willing to take his talents somewhere else.
“But I’m not going to keep on about it. I’m not going to distract from the team and everything else. I have enough going on with this knee. If they want to give me
another contract here, they will. If not, I’ll go somewhere else and play.”
Martin had surgery in the summers, after which he made very slow recovery. He made it clear that this is the last year of his contract and since the Nuggets had not
offer him contract extension, so he was not in any hurry to rush back, as there was a risk of damaging the injury further.
Martin, who was nicknamed K-Mart scored with an average of 13.5 points per game in his career. His rebounding percentage is 7.2 percent averages 2.1 on assists. K-Mart
believes that he still has a long way to go and he can play until he turns 38 years.
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