Battling injuries, Wolves' Martin quietly has had good season

MINNEAPOLIS -- First, it was Corey Brewer. Then Mo Williams. Finally, Thaddeus Young.

One by one, as the Timberwolves' season faded into further obscurity, head coach and president Flip Saunders traded away veterans. Brewer's departure cleared cap space. Williams left and made room for Zach LaVine to get more minutes at guard. And Young's deportation to Brooklyn reunited Minnesota with long-lost star of yesteryear Kevin Garnett.

Yet there was shooting guard Kevin Martin -- all 32 years and 10-plus NBA seasons of him -- trucking through shootaround Friday morning, bad left hamstring and all. The 2013 free-agent signee is still here despite a complete rebuild based around young talent, not seasoned warriors.

And publicly, at least, he's not griping about it.

"I actually enjoyed this year," Martin said a few hours before the Wolves (16-59) host Orlando on Friday at the Target Center, "through the injuries and just seeing the young guys develop, because I was that guy one time, also. I have a mindset it's good to be able to put your handprint on some of these guys. . . . Whatever's staring at you, you make the best of it."

In addition to the mentorship role he adopted well before his second season in Minnesota, Martin's quietly had one of the team's most productive years (relative to his availability, at least). His 20.2 points per game would rank 15th in the NBA if he'd played enough games to qualify.

If.

It's a conjunction that defines the Wolves' ridiculous injury epidemic and the possibilities it wiped out, Martin says. He's played in just 33 games this year because of a broken bone in his wrist and, most recently, a pulled hamstring.

He's listed as probable for Friday's contest after missing the past six.

Martin's name's been just one on a never-ending casualty report. He and fellow starters Ricky Rubio and Nikola Pekovic were all out from November till January, Garnett's played in just five games since being acquired at the Feb. 19 trade deadline, so on and so forth.

"This season was ruined by injuries," Martin said.

Not exactly the ideal place for a long-time scoring threat whose NBA days are numbered. With two years and $14.4 million left on his current contract, Martin's a somewhat movable asset.

Saunders communicated with Brewer, Williams and Young before sending them to teams in the postseason hunt. He could do something similar with Martin, especially at the player's behest, either this summer or perhaps leading up to next season's trade deadline.

But the pair haven't had that talk yet, Martin said.

"You know what? I'm playing it day by day," Martin said. "Just like I said, I enjoyed this year. I'm enjoying right now, and I'm sure me and Flip will have those conversations in the offseason with his evaluations of everything, but right now, I feel good."

Instead, Saunders and owner Glen Taylor asked Martin to take rookies Andrew Wiggins and Zach LaVine under his wing this year. Even when he's been out, he can be seen showing Wiggins how to lean in and draw a foul or showing up for games early and getting shots up alongside LaVine.

"He's always telling me to keep going on the court," Wiggins said. "He helps teach me how to score the ball. He's a great scorer. That's what he does. Gives me wisdom, certain things on the court that a rookie needs to be told."

Said LaVine: "He's a very confident person. Me and him both connect on that. We're both very confident, and I just see little veteran moves that he does helps me out."

Pek's last resort: There's really no fresh insight Pekovic can lend about the frustrations surrounding his latest injury. The big man's already been shut down for the season and will undergo surgery to repair the right Achilles that's kept him out for most of the past two years.

After trying all kinds of treatments, rest schedules and everything else except an operation, this is the final resort, Pekovic said.

"That's the last thing I can try to make my foot feel better," he said. "It's really tough when you try to do everything for like a year, and nothing help, you get to the point where you've got to have surgery and all this stuff."

Dr. Robert Anderson will perform a debridement -- removing dead or damaged tissue -- and repair on Pekovic's ankle Wednesday, April 8 in Charlotte, N.C. Pekovic wasn't sure how long the recovery time would be, but he can bet on needing to stay off his feet for a while after the season.

Pekovic played in just 31 games this season and 54 last year. As he said back in January, he's worried about his future -- both on the basketball court and away from it.

"I'm pretty much worrying a lot about they're going to affect my life, 10 years or something like that," Pekovic, 29, said Friday. "Still, I'm thinking about basketball life, but when you deal so much with something like this, it's kind of a big deal, I think."

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