Martin slowly adjusting to new role in Houston

It's been two weeks now and Kevin Martin is starting to find his way around.

That is, around the court and around town.

Life at the NBA trade deadline often means you have to find a place for your old jump shot along with a place to call your new home.

One night Martin was being pulled aside at halftime in Oakland, Calif. and told he'd been traded away from his diminishing role with the Sacramento Kings, an outfit that is once again loitering at the bottom of the standings. Three nights later, the 27-year-old shooting guard was being run up the flagpole as a linchpin in the future of the Houston Rockets, a team currently battling for a playoff berth in the Western Conference.

Same game, big difference.

"It's the first time I've ever come into a whole new situation or joined a new team in the middle of a season," Martin said. "You're doing what you've always done out on the court, but it all feels a little out of place."

Martin wasn't getting different looks at the basket or rushing shots or trying new things. It was simply a matter of not feeling entirely comfortable, as if he were trying on somebody else's clothes.

"It's as difficult a situation as you can be put into, especially for a key guy," said Rockets veteran Shane Battier. "It's a lot more difficult than people think. Forget the basketball part. Your life has been turned upside down. You're moving families and fiancées and babies, maybe finding a place to live or living out of a hotel.

"Just like that, nothing in your routine is the same. So your world is turned upside down. Then you come to the gym and try to integrate with a team that's been running the same plays for 50 games. That's a tall task.

"In Kevin's case, it's not like you're just a passenger in the car. You're supposed to be one of the drivers. Everyone's looking at you like, 'All right, we brought you here. Now do something.'

"To Kevin's credit he's done a really good job trying to learn the offense. At first, he was trying to fit in. I told him, 'Hey don't fit in. We didn't bring you here to fit in. We brought you here to be you. Let us fit in around you, because now you're one of our main guys.' "

So Martin has now averaged 28.3 points over the past four games and, if it's not yet the kind of fit that comes from a custom tailor, it is a game that's beginning to suit him.

The Rockets pursued Martin because they have been desperately seeking a consistent wing scorer ever since Tracy McGrady's physical ailments began to slow him down and then took him out of the lineup over the past two seasons. They needed someone who would be able to stick the perimeter jumper to alleviate pressure in the middle when Yao Ming returns to the court next season, but they also craved a player who could get to the basket, draw fouls and give them a steady diet of points from the free throw line. Martin is the only NBA player ever to shoot 40 percent on 3-pointers and average eight free throws a game over a full schedule and he's done in twice in his first six seasons in the league.

"That part of my game came after my second year in the NBA when Eric Musselman came to the Kings as our head coach," Martin said. "He saw how teams were playing me and how they got up into me and told me to start absorbing that contact. He said I could score a lot more points in this league if I got to the free throw line. He put an emphasis on me night in night out with that part of the game. He was always pounding it into me and it paid off."

But while Martin was able to slither through cracks in the defense or use his quickness to turn corners and draw fouls right away with the Rockets, he was clearly feeling his way along like a blindfolded man in a dark room when it came to his outside shot.

"I'll get comfortable. It will come," Martin kept saying over and over. "It's just going to take me a little bit of time to fit in, to find my place."

Martin's advantage is that he spent the first two years of his NBA career playing for Rockets coach Rick Adelman in Sacramento.

"He didn't hand me anything," Martin recalled. "The first year he overlooked me on the bench. He said we had a veteran ballclub and he made the little rookie work for playing time. I could have one good game and the next night not play.

"He always told me just to stay at it and I remember at end of my first year, he saw something in me. He said, 'Your story could be like Clyde Drexler in Portland. He didn't play a lot in first year and then the second year he started coming onto the scene.' His message was that I could find my place."

First it was a new home, then a few restaurants, maybe a route to the airport and eventually a path to the basket. Kevin Martin is starting to find his way around.

Fran Blinebury has covered the NBA since 1977. You can e-mail him here.

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