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Billy Smith II Chronicle
Carl Landry's scoring average increased from 8.1 points in 2008 to 16.3 this season when he assumed the role as de facto low-post scorer and became the team’s second-leading scorer despite only a six-minute bump in playing time.
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ShareFor someone with the reputation of dealing in numbers and removing emotion from trades, Rockets general manager Daryl Morey was candid Thursday in discussing the decision to ship forward Carl Landry to Sacramento.
“It's tough to see Carl leave,” he said. “Great player, great person. Someone who was a fan favorite, but you have to give up something to get something.”
What the Rockets landed was the swingman Morey admittedly had kept an eye on for years — Kevin Martin. Morey's advances had been rebuffed, and while rumors persisted recently regarding Martin's availability, nothing surfaced until this week. It was a deal too good to ignore, Morey said.
“(Martin's) a guy that was coveted around the league,” Morey said. “We got fortunate in that what Sacramento was holding everyone up around the league for, we happened to have. They really wanted a low-post scorer, and there really aren't many. Losing Carl is a big price to pay, but we feel we have multiple ways to shore up that big spot, but we had no other way to get a scorer of Kevin Martin's ability.”
Hill the unknown
Part of that, it seems, might be provided by rookie Jordan Hill, who languished on the bench with the Knicks. Hill, according to Morey, is a true big, 6-10 and athletic, possessing a different game than Landry.
But it was never about production with Landry, 26, who attended Purdue and was drafted by Seattle with the first pick in the second round of the 2007 draft.
Nevertheless, there was plenty of that, anyway, as his scoring average increased from 8.1 points in 2008, to 9.2 in 2009, to 16.3 this season, when he assumed the role as de facto low-post scorer in Yao Ming's absence and became the team's second-leading scorer despite only a six-minute bump in playing time.
“We tried in every way to not have Carl Landry in the deal,” Morey said.
His toughness will be missed.
Who sacrificed more? The man took a bullet during his time with the Rockets — after a game against New Orleans in March 2009, he was shot in his left calf. Fortunately, the wound was minor.
And who gave more? The man lost or cracked five teeth in mid-December after getting caught in the mouth with Dallas forward Dirk Nowitzki's elbow.
A year earlier, Utah forward Carlos Boozer knocked out a front tooth during Game 3 of the Jazz-Rockets first-round playoff series — the same front tooth then-teammate Dikembe Mutombo dislodged during practice days earlier.
Landry was a bargain
But he was an asset, a commodity not only with talent but also an attractive salary — the Rockets matched an offer sheet he signed with Charlotte before the 2009 season for three years at $9 million.
And now, with some regret, he's a King.
“We really love our players,” Morey said. “We gave up one we really love, but we kept a lot we really like. We weren't really willing to move Carl except for something really good, in our opinion, like Kevin Martin.”
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