Small by NBA standards but makes up for it with power and athleticism. There may not be a better pound-for-pound athlete in the draft. Martin is exceptionally explosive and is capable of rising for massive dunks and powerful finishes. He has a great first step as well and is very twitchy. He also combines that with serious power and strength. Martin looks like a football player out there, which makes sense given his all-state background in the sport in high school. Plays bigger than his height.
Extremely physical, tough defender. That's where he makes his mark, first and foremost. One of my favorite perimeter defenders in the draft class. It was a joke that he didn't make the All-Defense team in the SEC. Martin is awesome at the point of attack, using his physicality and quickness to stay in front of his man, then using his strong chest and torso to wall up and not allow him to go any further. He's extremely difficult to get by. Because he's so strong and has that low center of gravity, he's actually better at guarding up the lineup and dealing with switches than you'd expect. Very switchable player. There will be times in the NBA when bigger wings will shoot over the top of him, but I think that even the strongest wings will have a tough time going through him to bully their way to the rim. Regularly guarded fours at Florida Atlantic.
He's also terrific at navigating screens. Takes bumps in stride without any issue. Can get skinny to get over the top of screens. Also sharp at using angles when he goes under screens to not cede too much ground. When he ends up in recovery, he's awesome getting big in side-view and rear-contest situations to get deflections on pop passes or on lifts from the corner to the wing. Has strong hands and will just rip the ball away from his opponent sometimes. Also provides a presence physically. Sets a tone at the top of the defense that no one is going to push your team around.
Off the ball, Martin is good. He's small but covers ground quite quickly because of his elite athleticism. Knows where he's supposed to be in his rotations. Explosive in his moments. Still somewhat limited by how big he is on the weak side defensively but will bump cutters and rollers. As a playmaker, he gets into passing lanes well. Averaged 1.5 steals per game with many of being pick-sixes. Very disruptive force on defense who is excellent at knowing where he has to be on that end. It's hard to be a true difference-maker in the NBA at 6-foot-2, so I don't project him as an All-Defense guy. But he will be a part of good defenses and could be a part of great defenses.
That transition from defense to offense is very valuable. Runs the court hard and creates easy shots. Will flare out to the 3-point line if he's off the ball and his teammates need space. A threat to finish with a thunderous, highlight-reel dunk when he's out on the move. Had 29 dunks this year, a large number for a player his size. Will also miss the occasional dunk going for the big show, but he's a threat out on the break that needs to be found.
Offensively, most of the role comes down to how Martin shoots it. In his career, Martin took nearly 900 3-point attempts and made them at a solid 36.2% clip. That's a translatable number that should be viable in the NBA, especially with further improvement. Made only 34% of his catch-and-shoot 3s this year, but took them off several different situations, from off screens to behind dribble-handoffs to out on the break. Over his career, he's been at about 36% on catch-and-shoot 3s, but has typically gotten them up at volume with no issue.
I also really like Martin off the dribble as a shooter. Tends to take most of these shots off simple relocations, handoffs or behind a ball screen, but they tend to fall. Hit 35.8% of his pull-up 3s this year and also hit half of his 22 midrange pull-up attempts. Plays well off two feet and generally has great balance through his shot. It's a one motion jumper with a high release point for his size, although the trajectory can flatten out at times. Very easy for him to take a side-step 3 but can also get his feet organized underneath him off a crossover, too. I don't think he's going to be out there creating shots, but I think he can shoot it well enough.
The rest of Martin's game on offense is solid. He's a solid ballhandler who can reliably run a second-side ball screen. I wouldn't call him great at it, but he's capable of taking an action and making a play. Can score from behind the 3-point line and will occasionally foray into the lane. Made over 55% of his layups this year and about 57% of his shots at the rim. Florida's offense didn't have a ton of cuts for him, but he would at times reject dribble-handoffs to get backdoor cuts, where he'd finish with ease. Not quite as good on the ball when he has to load up.
Martin is a solid passer. Makes the right reads without getting too complicated. Not a point guard, for sure. But has enough here to be a secondary ballhandler. Will take ball screens and be patient, keeping his dribble alive to draw a help defender toward him before making a simple read. Doesn't make the advanced reads but makes the ones he needs to like same-side kickouts and dump-offs after he draws a defender toward him. Moves the ball quickly, too. Averaged 2.2 assists versus 1.4 turnovers this year for a solid, if unspectacular, passing year.
Ultimately, Martin is 6 feet 1.5 without shoes with a 6-foot-7.5 wingspan and an 8-foot-3.5 standing reach. That size puts him at a deficit, especially for the role he'll be asked to play. Basically, he's going to have to play off the ball on offense, and there are teams that are not excited about having a player this size off the ball.
Martin is not a point guard. He just doesn't quite have those skills. Doesn't have the handle to be able to consistently play with the ball in his hands as a primary playmaker. Not creative enough beyond a simple crossover to go backward. Can keep his dribble alive in empty-side second-side actions to make passes, but not really able to do so in tight areas of the court when he has guys digging down on his handle. His ball-screen pacing could use some improvement, too. Might be able to do some things in a pinch like Patrick Beverley, but by and large, you want Martin off the ball.
Not quite a good enough passer to play the point, either. Makes the simple reads and right reads but not the advanced ones where he's manipulating defenses with his eyes and opening up angles to find teammates on the back side. Just doesn't quite display that kind of vision.
So the question here becomes whether Martin is a good enough shooter to make an impact on offense. He has been consistent enough over his career, but he's also been quite streaky. That held true this year. In his first five games, he shot just 27% from 3. Then he drilled eight 3s against Southern Illinois in a single game. Then he hit just 28% of his 3s over his next seven games. Then in conference play, Martin made 38.4% of his 3s. Then in the conference and NCAA tournaments, he hit just 31.7% from 3. The overall number was 35%, but it was hit or miss which guy you were getting. Needs to iron out that consistency.
If teams feel like they can sag off of him in any given game because he's not feeling hot as a shooter, he might not be playable in that game. On those nights, he'd be a limited passer and ballhandler who also isn't shooting at 6-foot-2. The shooting consistency for Martin is critical. The good news is that he has shown enough to where it's projectable.
The size gives him some limitations on defense. While he was quite good against switches at Florida and I don't think wings will really blow through him on that end, I worry that this part of his game will be neutered a bit by his height. Big wings will be able to shoot over the top of him at times. Bigs will likely get deep into the post and score over the top of him as well. He will absolutely fight to front the post and make it as hard as humanly possible to get the ball entered into those players in switches. But there are limitations here.
Even at this size with his athleticism, he has never seemed to have great timing at blocking shots and contesting them to get his hand up there. Also hasn't really had many awesome weak-side rim rotations to really rise and explode off two feet to swat a shot. I worry that he might end up being a bit of a target to put on the weak-side defensively as the low man despite his strength and explosiveness.
If I were working on the NBA team side, Martin is one of those guys who I would just want in my organization. He's the epitome of a winner. He's tough and strong. He asserts his athleticism on the game and on his opponents in a serious way. Defensively, he's tough and a terrific on-ball defender. He fights and scraps for loose balls and has a fairly sizable shooting track record at this point. Even if he's not elite as a shooter, he has at least proven that he's confident taking them. His presence this year gave Florida the attitude and aggressiveness that it needed to win a national title. Still, the size absolutely puts a ceiling on what Martin can do at the NBA level. And even though I buy into him being helpful, it's probably not more than on a two-way contract at the end of the day. Still, Martin might be the first player that I would call if I had an open two-way this year. I would draft him to secure his services on a two-way. If he had any semblance of NBA-level ball skills, I would absolutely have him higher than this. But without them, it's just a bit too hard of a sell at any higher level than that.
