2018-19 Orlando Magic Player Evaluations: Jarell Martin

Jarell Martin was an intriguing first-round prospect who struggled to make his mark. His fresh start with the Orlando Magic never got off the ground either.

How Jarell Martin arrived with the Orlando Magic was one of the most roundabout ways. A flyer on a player at the end of his rookie deal.

The team traded Rodney Purvis, their G-League star and a player they put on a contract at the end of the year, to the Oklahoma City Thunder for big man Dakari Johnson. They were going to cut him and take a bit of a savings for their overall payroll.

Then the Memphis Grizzlies offered them Jarell Martin. A player who had shown some promise but struggled to scratch his way into the rotation in Memphis. The Magic sent them Tyler Harvey‘s draft rights in addition. Orlando dealt away a player they were cutting anyway and got in return someone who might crack the rotation.

He at least proved he had some NBA skills.

But cracking the Magic’s rotation would still take some work. Martin had a developing jumper but was still searching for his place in the league. A new environment might have helped. But he needed opportunity.

With Orlando so loaded in the frontcourt and the league shifting away from more traditional mid-range shooting power forward, Martin was going to struggle to find his fit and find his place in the league and on this team.

Martin never made his way into the rotation for the Magic during the 2019 season. He appeared in just 42 games, averaging 7.8 minutes per game. What felt like his last chance to make a mark in the league turned into the fewest minutes he has played in his career.

He played few meaningful minutes throughout the year. And those were usually only in emergencies.

Martin’s lack of playing time was not all about his play. He was a long shot to make an impact and planned to be nothing more than a stopgap option should there be an injury or someone missing action. There were very few injuries for Martin to fill in.

The odd part was that when Martin got extended playing time, it was easy to like his game and see how he could fit in.

In the 11 games he played 10 or more minutes, Martin averaged 4.9 points per game. He was able to hit 42 percent of his shots. Nothing at all that impressive. There was a reason Martin was not picking up playing time.

But on several occasions, he was able to start stretching the floor and hit 3-point shots. That was something new to his game. Or relatively new. He hit 35.1 percent from beyond the arc for the year on a little more than one attempt per game and took the majority of his shots from the perimeter.

In several games, he would come in and hit a couple of 3-pointers and seem to keep the team’s energy up after whatever brought him into the game in the first place. That certainly has a role. Martin’s quick bursts and flashes created some positive memories and moments.

But they were all too often short-lived. The initial bursts would give way to a player struggling to shoot consistently and struggling to give much defensively. There was a reason Martin could never push for consistent playing time.

The Magic were fine defensively with him on the floor. The team was either in garbage time lineups that generally outperformed other garbage time lineups or he was playing with the Magic’s strong second unit in the latter part of the season.

Martin was good in small doses then. A player to throw in and change how the Magic play a bit and force the defense to adjust. But the defense would adjust. His effectiveness would diminish the more he was on the floor.

There was clearly something there. Something that a team in the future could very well take a flyer on. Martin showed enough to stay somewhere in the league.

But as always happens when a rookie contract runs out and the player is struggling to get off the bench, Martin almost has to start over. He never could scratch a consistent place for himself with the Grizzlies.

The Magic were supposed to be another opportunity for him. A new chance for him to start over some. And the opportunity never came for him to get into the rotation. There is a small body of work for him to say he can get a contract elsewhere. He should get a one-year deal with some team somewhere. He is good enough for that.

But Martin is going to have to scratch his way at the end of the bench again, waiting for a chance to play. He simply did not show enough to merit much more of a role without work in practice.

It is hard to judge Martin too much.

On one hand, he showed some significant improvements that will help him in his future career. He was a more confident 3-point shooter — although his percentages stayed roughly the same on a greater percentage of attempts (57 of his 104 field goal attempts were from three).

At the very least, Martin can say he began to transform himself into a stretch-4 and shed the “traditional power forward” label that had kind of followed him.

He showed himself to be a good offensive player in the right role and someone who could hold his own on defense. Martin’s minutes were generally positive.

The Magic used Martin as a “Break Glass in Case of Emergency” player for much of the season. When there was extreme foul trouble or injury, he jumped in. In those moments, he provided a nice spurt of energy and shooting that helped the team. It is hard to point to anything poor Martin did.

But that effect would dissipate quickly. He was not someone who was going to make a huge difference on his own. He needed to be surrounded by stronger lineups and play a supporting role.

Martin never really got an opportunity for consistent minutes. Some of that is the Magic were never injured and they had players they wanted to play in front of him — namely Aaron Gordon and Jonathan Isaac. But some of that is also Martin not pushing himself into the rotation.

He was good enough to feel comfortable throwing into games when the time called for it. But he was not good enough to get a consistent rotation spot.

That will leave big questions for Martin as he prepares to enter free agency. The Magic are not likely to make a qualifying offer and send him into the unrestricted pool. He should be good enough to get another one-year flyer and see if he can stick with another team.

Martin needed a bit of a fresh start. He got some of that in Orlando. There was enough to pique some interest for those that watched him. But it was hardly the successful reset Martin needed.