Carmelo Anthony is their headliner, an all-star, a member of Team USA.
Chauncey Billups is their quarterback, an all-star, a member of Team USA.
And yet, by the numbers, neither is the Nuggets’ most indispensable player. That would be power forward Kenyon Martin.
“Every team has a guy that holds it together, what I call a glue guy,” Nuggets coach George Karl said Monday. “Around the league, he’d definitely be in that race as one of the top guys who make it function, make it work.”
In the 13 games Anthony has missed due to injury, the Nuggets are 8-5, pretty close to their winning percentage with him. In the nine games Billups has missed, they’re 3-6, suggesting they do a better job replacing Anthony’s scoring than Billups’ leadership.
“When Melo was missing, (Martin) elevated his game offensively,” said assistant coach Adrian Dantley, a Hall of Fame power forward. “And now we’ve got to get that with everybody healthy. We’ve got to get him still scoring at the rate he’s been doing.”
Maybe, but the beauty of Martin’s game this season is that he defers to the all-stars when they’re there and he takes up the slack when they’re not. He averaged nearly 17 points a game with Anthony out, compared to just over 12 for the season. Of his 21 double- doubles this season, 10 came with Anthony in street clothes.
But when it’s Martin who is missing, the Nuggets are 1-4. He’s the player who is hardest to replace. Nobody else on the roster does what he does.
It’s not just that he’s their best defensive player, their best rebounder, their toughest, most physical player, their intimidator. It’s also what he does at the defensive end what Billups does at the offensive end.
“I think he has quarterbacked the game on his own a little bit more this year,” Karl said. “We give him more of a roaming mentality on the scouting report than a definitive mentality, and most nights he’s carried that out with a really good coaching feel.
“I think that’s what we’ve missed when he’s been out of games. We don’t have that defensive quarterback in the game. Maybe we should structure it more because of that. Chris (Andersen) and Nene are different defenders than Kenyon. Kenyon’s a more aware defender, where Nene likes to take his man and negate him and Chris is a wild card. You don’t know what he’s going to be doing.”
At 32, a veteran of microfracture surgery on both knees, Martin is playing a career-high 35 minutes a game. And he seems to be getting stronger as he goes. After averaging 7.2 rebounds a game in November, he jumped to 9.2 in December, 11.3 in January and 11.9 so far in February.
“In the last month, he’s one of the better rebounders in our league,” Dantley said.
But Martin’s offensive play, particularly in the absence of Anthony, has been nearly as important. After averaging just over 10 points a game in November and December, he is over 14 in January and February.
“I think he’s taken the top of the key, the high-post area of basketball, and he’s allowed himself to experiment a little bit more rather than just kind of be a jump shooter there,” Karl said.
“I think he’s gotten to be a very efficient playmaker. He doesn’t take very many shots you’re unhappy with. And his offensive rebounding has been huge in the fourth quarters.”
One more stat: In three games without both Anthony and Billups, the Nuggets are 2-1. In those three games, Martin averaged 18.7 points and 11.3 rebounds.
“I think offensively on a team you’ve got to defer to other players, and I think that’s what he did,” Dantley said. “But for us to be a better team, we need him to score. I know I’ll call some plays for him because that’s my instinct, to try to establish an inside presence first. So I’ll probably have more post-up plays for Kenyon and Nene than stuff out on the perimeter.”
Dantley, of course, will be coaching the games Karl must miss for cancer treatment, including Thursday’s in Oakland against the Warriors.
None of this is intended to diminish the seasons Anthony and Billups are having. Their names are on the marquee for a reason. But Martin’s numbers don’t adequately measure his contributions. If Anthony is the Nuggets’ heart and Billups their head, Martin is their backbone.
Dave Krieger: 303-954-5297, dkrieger@denverpost.com or
