The Minnesota Timberwolves did not make any trades at last week's deadline which wasn't exactly great news for everyone. Kevin Martin was hoping to be traded so that he could go to a team where he could earn some playing time. Instead Martin is still on the Timberwolves, and now the only option for him to find another team would be via a buyout agreement. As of Monday morning Martin and the Timberwolves had not had any discussions regarding a buyout, according to Darren Wolfson of 1500 ESPN.
The Timberwolves have an extremely young roster, and after they got off to a bad start this season they decided to give their young players the majority of the playing time to focus on development. That naturally left Martin out of the rotation for the most part, and because of that he has only appeared in 38 of the team's 57 games. Martin has played in the last three, but it was assumed by most that he would be dealt by the deadline.
The Timberwolves did receive some interest in Martin, including from the New York Knicks, according to Marc Stein of ESPN, but they couldn't reach a deal. There were some contending teams that wanted to add Martin, but they were very hesitant because Martin has a player option for next year at $7.4 million, and teams wanted assurance that he would decline it.
The Dallas Mavericks (Tim MacMahon of ESPN Dallas) and the Miami Heat (Barry Jackson of the Miami Herald) are among teams that were said to be intrigued by Martin, but only if he agreed to a buyout with Minnesota. There are many who still believe that Martin will agree to a buyout with the Timberwolves because he is not in their future plans, but time is running out. In order for Martin to be on a team's playoff roster he would have to agree to a buyout and sign with a new team by March 1 which is less than a week away.
Before the deadline Martin felt he deserved to be traded as a reward for his professionalism and mentoring some of his younger teammates, according to Marc J. Spears of Yahoo! Sports. It can be assumed that he feels the same way about reaching a buyout with the team. Martin is the type of player that can certainly be helpful to a contending team especially one like Miami who needs shooters in the worst way. The 33-year-old guard is just wasting away on Minnesota's bench right now, and Martin clearly wants out and feels he deserves to play somewhere else.
