Kate Martin has experienced an up-and-down first season in the WNBA. She wasn’t even sure if she would be drafted out of Iowa and was pleasantly surprised upon hearing her name called by the Aces in the second round. And she came out of the gates quickly, turning into one of the Aces’ best bench players at the beginning of the season.
Martin earned that rotation spot by draining her open shots. She’s hit 36.8 percent of her 3’s through her first 32 games. In her lone opportunity to enter the starting lineup back in June, she scored 13 points on only seven shots. So why isn’t she playing now?
Martin’s playing time has dropped substantially as the season has progressed. She’s barely played since the Aces returned from the All-Star break.
Here’s why Martin has had trouble seeing the floor recently, and what she needs to do to carve out a role for herself.
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Why is Kate Martin not playing for the Aces?
Martin was drafted in the second round by the Aces, so she was always going to have to earn whatever playing time she received. There are so few roster spots in the WNBA that second-rounders can struggle to stick in the league.
Martin looked to be doing that, but injuries certainly didn’t help her cause. She suffered a nasty-looking bruised Achilles tendon on July 16 that had her teammates huddled around her in support.
Kate Martin is hurt after a tough fall — whole Aces team crowded around her as she made her way to the locker room pic.twitter.com/eykTb2gEi4
— Noa Dalzell 🏀 (@NoaDalzell) July 17, 2024
That injury luckily ended up not being as serious as it looked, and Martin did have the long break from the Olympics to recover. But it did end up taking some momentum away from her season. She’s only played spot minutes since then and has scored only one point in her past 10 games entering Wednesday’s Sep. 11 matchup against the Fever.
Entering that game, the Aces find themselves in fourth place with the playoffs quickly approaching. There’s plenty of pressure on them to win their third straight championship, and they have the second-best odds to do so behind the Liberty.
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Las Vegas has had to shorten its rotation, and Martin has been the victim of those tough decisions from coach Becky Hammon. Martin did get another opportunity to play almost 12 minutes on Sep. 3 due to Kelsey Plum’s ankle injury, so she’s not that far off from re-entering the lineup in a more consistent role.
Martin has shown some real skills that should have her fighting for those reserve minutes. Her shooting has been reliable, she shows high feel on the floor, and she’s been a good cutter and passer. She’s been a solid defender and embraced her role as a supporting member to the Aces’ better scorers.
It has been a promising rookie campaign for Martin, but she does need to be more aggressive as a scorer.
It’s unclear what Martin’s future is in Las Vegas, but there will be more roster spots for her to potentially claim next season when the league begins its expansion. Martin could see herself taken by the Valkyries, sign on with some other team or find herself replacing one of the older members on the Aces roster.
For now, Martin will have to remain patient on a veteran team with aspirations of winning it all.
