The Nuggets know as much about the past-tense Kenyon Martin as they know about the present-tense Kenyon Martin.
Coach George Karl has seen his forward battle left knee tendinitis over two seasons, flickering in and out of practices and games. But Karl also saw how Martin’s New Jersey Nets eliminated his Milwaukee Bucks 4-2 in the first round of the 2003 NBA playoffs.
“He was a monster against us,” Karl recalled. “He was very difficult, both offensively and defensively.”
The big mystery surrounding Martin is the future tense. Most immediately, how have 25 games off, and perhaps another one or two to go, preserved him for the playoffs, starting this weekend?
Martin says that without the downtime, he would be sure to miss the first postseason games of his career. But with rest comes rust, as some of his off-target jump shots revealed in Denver’s blowout home loss to Sacramento on Saturday. He admits that his high jumper count all season testifies to only a partial recovery.
When able to play, Martin has generally kept to 25 minutes in recent weeks. But the 6-foot-9 former Cincinnati star expects those numbers to rise in the first round.
“Look at my playoff numbers,” he said. “You tell me what I want to do.”
His career averages of 17.6 points and 8.1 rebounds do surpass his regular-season numbers. But with his knee bothering him last spring, Martin averaged 12.4 points and 5.6 rebounds in five playoff games against San Antonio, stats comparable to the 12.9 points and 6.3 rebounds he has averaged this season.
But don’t expect Martin’s wish for starter’s playing time to be granted.
“There’s no way,” Karl said Sunday. “There’s no way he can play 35 minutes. He’s not in good enough shape. He’s got a big, big-time heart, but I don’t think it’s even possible.”
The coach said he would be happy with 25 minutes early, with increases from there.
If Martin did sit for longer than he wished, it wouldn’t mark his first frustration this season. Aside from the daily questions about his health that became a personal “Groundhog Day,” he bristled at trade rumors and tried to shut out occasional boos. He took heat for mini-controversies involving his early departure from his team’s bench in a February loss at Utah and for a run-in between one of his friends and a Pepsi Center heckler.
“It’s been like that the whole year,” Nuggets guard DerMarr Johnson said. “I know he’s a sensitive guy to the point where somebody’s questioning him even being hurt or how much he’s hurt or wanting to play, and I know that gets frustrating for him.”
The largest obstacle has been that left knee. Martin had hoped last summer’s surgery would have been an afterthought by now. He said doctors gave him a recovery window of eight to 18 months.
“I was under the impression it was closer to eight months, which was not true at all,” he said. “It’s been closer to 18 months, which is what I’ve been having to deal with. I just try not to let myself get down, which is hard to do, because I want to play.”
Martin also has not assumed the trade rumors are dead and buried just because the NBA’s trade deadline passed with him still in Denver.
“If they’re going to do it, they’re going to do it, whether it’s then, whether it’s going to be this summer,” he said. “They’ve got control over that. But I know when I’m healthy the type of player that Kenyon is.”
The past-tense Kenyon has fought his way into the present at times this season. He returned to the monster that Karl recalled in wins over Chicago, Dallas and Toronto. He contributed 28 points and 12 rebounds against Detroit, the class of the NBA, in a March 1 victory.
But since the Detroit game he has scored in double figures only three times and managed as many as seven rebounds just twice. Meanwhile, the Nuggets have gone 19-6 without him in the lineup this season, which puts them five games under .500 when he plays.
Denver also has posted winning records, though less lopsided ones, when Marcus Camby and Eduardo Najera have sat. Which raises another future-tense question – what will the Nuggets do to jell in the playoffs if all of them come back? Martin chalks up the odd disparity to a lack of team concentration.
“When everybody’s there, we feel we’re better than people – which we should, but we don’t display it,” he said.
Camby, who despite his regular-season history never has lost a playoff game to injury either, sounded unconcerned about the frontcourt’s chemistry.
“With Kenyon, it’s more about his conditioning and how he feels physically,” he said. “We’ve been playing together long enough it will come naturally.”
Martin makes no predictions. But his 56 playoff games and two NBA Finals appearances aren’t so far removed.
“I know my ability,” he said. “Everybody else might question it, but the people that surround me, that have seen me play, people that’s been there, they know what I’m capable of doing.”
Staff writer Adam Thompson can be reached at 303-820-5447 or athompson@denverpost.com.
