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Free agent power forward Kenyon Martin chose the Los Angeles Clippers off his list of contending teams interested in his services and agreed to a one year, $2.5 million deal with the team.

Martin will immediately  be a part of Los Angeles’ big man rotation. The Clippers have one other decent back-up big man in Reggie Evans but Solomon Jones and Brian Cook are far from effective. A four-man bigs group of Blake Griffin, DeAndre Jordan, Evans and Martin is certainly tough, but outside of Griffin, it’s an offensively challenged bunch that won’t do much to help the Clippers anemic second unit.

Martin does bring a lot of energy, though, and for the Clippers, a team with a rebound rate below the league average, that will help. Martin is also very good at patrolling the baseline on the weakside and he’s an adept finisher on the cut. Defensively, Martin may be the best big man of the group for the Clippers. He’s still a tough defender in the post and his help defense has always been an asset.

The Clippers are an imperfect team if not a flawed one, but with Chris Paul at the helm, their ceiling is very high, and with Martin on board, they’ve managed to patch up one of their holes with a pretty good stop gap. And that’s pretty good considering the season is nearly halfway done.

The Chase Down Block Chris Berry Interactive Chris Berry Interactive