Shopping at K-Mart

Martin adds depth to an already deep
Clipper bench and team.

The Los Angeles Clippers have outdone the Los Angeles Lakers yet again -- a phrase that had never been muttered prior to this season.

Both vying for his services, it was the Clippers that have agreed to a deal with veteran Kenyon Martin, not the Lakers. It's the second time in as many months the usual second-rate Clippers have acquired a player the Lakers were interested in.

In December, the Lakers came to terms on a deal with the New Orleans Hornets that would have sent point guard Chris Paul to Los Angeles. Instead the league nixed the deal and less than a week later Paul would be playing his home games in Staples Center, just not for the Lakers.

Martin, 34, headed overseers to play in the Chinese Basketball Association during the would end of being a 161-day lockout. The former Denver Nugget had been playing for the Xinjiang Guanghui Flying Tigers, averaging 13.9 points and 9.7 rebounds per game, before reaching a buyout agreement with the team on Dec. 21.

He has also been cleared by the FIBA to return to the NBA two weeks before originally thought, making his now highly anticipated Clipper debut on Wednesday, Feb. 8 against the Cleveland Cavaliers very likely.

His former teammate in Denver, J.R. Smith, also played in China to start the 2011-12 season and will another hot commodity in his return to the NBA -- a commodity the Clippers might also be interested in adding to their already talented roster.

Since being named the Consensus 2000 NCAA Player of the Year and drafted with the No. 1 overall pick that same season by the New Jersey Nets, Martin has played 654 career NBA games.

The 6-foot-9 forward has averaged 13.5 points, 7.2 rebounds, 2.1 assists and 1.2 blocks per game during his 11-year career.

Fresh of back-to-back NBA Finals appearances with the Nets, Martin's best season came during the 2003-04 campaign. He averaged a career-high 16.7 PPG and grabbed 9.5 rebounds, earning him his first and only All-Star appearance thus far.

Martin will primarily play this season in Los Angeles as Blake Griffin's backup, earning the mid-level exception of $2.5 million.

But after failing short in two straight NBA Finals in the early part of the century, Martin is still of search of first NBA championship. He has come to accomplish that goal in the City of Angels.

Just not with the franchise that possesses 16 of them.