Weighing the pros and cons of Rockets’ draftee Kenyon Martin Jr.

On Wednesday night the Houston Rockets traded up to select forward Kenyon Martin Jr. in the second round of the 2020 NBA Draft.

The Houston Rockets entered Wednesday night’s 2020 NBA Draft with the 16th pick in the first round, which they acquired from the Portland Trail Blazers in exchange for forward Robert Covington. The Rockets appeared to be on the cusp of using their first opening round draft pick since 2015, which was used to select Sam Dekker.

Rockets fans were excited, as the Rockets figured to be in position to land a plethora of good prospects, which isn’t often the case with non-lottery picks in the NBA Draft. But in spite of the excitement by the fanbase, the Rockets wound up not selecting anyone in the first round, as they traded their newly acquired draft pick along with Trevor Ariza to the Detroit Pistons.

Although this transaction left the Rockets without a draft pick for the remainder of the 2020 NBA Draft, they managed to acquire another pick in the second round, due to a trade that was executed by Rockets general manager Rafael Stone.

Source: Rockets traded the Lakers' 2021 second-rounder (bought from Detroit for $4.6M) and an extra $1M to acquire the No. 52 overall pick used to select Kenyon Martin Jr. https://t.co/sYt5oj9AxX

— Tim MacMahon (@espn_macmahon) November 19, 2020

The Rockets ultimately acquired the 52nd overall pick from the Sacramento Kings, and used it to land Kenyon Martin Jr., who is the son of former 15-year NBA veteran Kenyon Martin, who was also the first overall pick in the 2000 NBA Draft. Although not many would be excited about a second-round selection, the Rockets have struck gold on second-round picks in the past, such as Dillon Brooks, Montrezl Harrell, and Chandler Parsons.

With Martin now being the latest second-round pick for Rockets, let’s take a look at the pros and cons of his game.

Next: Areas of concern for KJ