Cartier Watch

The Warriors have been granted another hardship exemption, allowing them to carry a sixteenth player for a limited time; after last night's game, Nellie acknowledged that that player would be small forward Cartier Martin, who played for our summer league team. He's been added to our player links on the left side of the page.

This strikes me as a real failure of imagination, as you get the sense that the team grabbed Martin only because they're already familiar with him. Nobody seems to think that he's the best available player, even at his position. Scott Schroeder at Ridiculous Upside thinks there were better choices; Kevin Pelton at Basketball Prospectus recently listed 22 D-Leaguers whose stats suggest they'd be useful to NBA teams, and Martin wasn't one of them. And with Randolph sidelined, it'd be hard to argue that our greatest need is on the wing. I wouldn't be surprised if Martin's quickly replaced by another, bigger D-Leaguer.

But he's a Warrior for now, so let's get to know him a little. Cartier's 25, Texas-born, went to Kansas State, graduated in '07. He played in Turkey in '07-'08, then joined the D-League last year. He played well enough with the Iowa Energy to earn a D-League All-Star and a call-up to the Bobcats (which ironically denied him the chance to play in said All-Star Game). The Bobcats kept him around for their final 36 games; he saw garbage time in 33 of them, playing 266 minutes overall. He signed with storied Italian team Bennetton Treviso over the summer, but decided to come back, rejoining the Energy in December; that gamble has, obviously, paid off. You've got to like these journeymen types. It's sort of awesome to think about a young dude from Texas being good enough at something to get a high-paying job in Turkey.

However, while Martin was good enough to help the fine folks at Antalya Büyükşehir Belediyesi, it's not at all clear that he's good enough to help us. His numbers with the Bobcats were poor, however you slice them. Even untranslated, his D-League stats are underwhelming; he's shooting only .426 against smaller and worse defenders. Basketball Prospectus wrote of him in their preseason guide, "Cartier Martin has some potential as a wing defender, but his lack of offensive skills will likely keep him from realizing that potential in the NBA"... Ridiculous Upside is not even high on his defense. Martin can hit the occasional 3 and play some energetic D, and that's about it. He basically brings the same things to the table as Devean George, which, with all due respect, ain't much.

So while we welcome the guy aboard, let's keep an eye out for someone a little more interesting. Rod Benson would be both delightful and helpful, but I doubt a team this dysfunctional would brave the game-changing force of the Boom Tho Movement. Kevin Pelton makes this Greg Stiemsma fellow sound pretty interesting. And at the risk of banging this drum one too many times, one of the NBA's best rebounders is still on the waiver wire.

We have railed against back-of-roster complacency before, and we must continue to do so here. Simply put, the decision to add Cartier Martin seems to have been made out of laziness. Larry Riley, your team is 11-24... you need to be trying harder to improve your talent base, even in your sixteenth roster spot.