Sacramento Kings: 30 greatest players in franchise history

In an era home to some great scorers like Kobe Bryant, Tracy McGrady and Carmelo Anthony, the bucket-getting abilities of Kevin Martin fly vastly under the radar.

K-Mart originally came into the league as a late first-round pick, and after a couple seasons, it looked like he could become a solid role player moving forward. It was in his third season, though, where Martin broke onto the scene, averaging 20.2 points per game, kickstarting a five-year run in which his scoring average would never dip below the 20-point threshold.

What made Martin such a difficult cover was his ability to score in a variety of ways. His quickness made him a threat attacking the basket, while his prowess from outside forced opponents to take away his space, even if his shooting stroke was one of the weirdest in history, where he’d seemingly put the ball out in front of him and then fire at will.

Like most outside snipers, Martin kept the defense on its toes by always staying in motion. He could fire off screens. Or if the defender found themselves to close to the body, Martin could blow right past him on his way to the bucket.

In terms of individual accomplishments, Martin doesn’t have any to his name. He was a tantalizing player, one who could fill up the scoring column very quickly who was by no means guaranteed to succeed.

Combine that with a shooting stroke which really shouldn’t have worked, much less been attached to one of the better 3-point shooters in the game, and you get a guy whose entertainment value was much higher than one would expect.