JANUARY 29TH: The deal is official, the team announced.
JANUARY 28TH, 7:35pm: A source with the Bucks has confirmed that the team will sign Martin for the remainder of the season, Gardner reports (Twitter link).
10:12pm: Martin will be signed to a deal that covers the remainder of the season by the end of the week, Marc Stein of ESPN.com reports (Twitter link).
JANUARY 27TH,1:23pm: Neither Martin nor Kidd acknowledged today that there’s any agreement in place for the rest of the season, as a pair of tweets from Charles F. Gardner of the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel reveal. Kidd said team officials would discuss Martin’s situation, while the big man said he merely hopes the Bucks will re-sign him once his second 10-day contract expires at the end of Wednesday. “I know it’s a business,” Martin said. “Nothing is promised.”
JANUARY 20TH: Martin and the Bucks have already agreed in principle to a deal that covers the rest of the season, reports Shams Charania of RealGM (Twitter link). The 15th-year veteran signed his second 10-day contract with Milwaukee on Monday, and since the Bucks can’t issue any more 10-day pacts to him after this one expires, Martin figures to sign the contract for the rest of the season at that point. Charania doesn’t specify how much money is involved or whether the pact will extend into next season, but players who sign after consecutive 10-day contracts almost always do so for the prorated minimum salary.
JANUARY 16TH: The Bucks are likely to retain Kenyon Martin for the rest of the season, as David Alarcón of HoopsHype reports (Twitter link; translation via HoopsHype). Martin is on a 10-day contract that expires at the end of Sunday, and Alarcón indicates that Milwaukee wants to sign him to another 10-day pact and then ink him for the rest of the season. The 37-year-old Andy Miller client would presumably be on board with continuing to play for Jason Kidd, his long-ago teammate, in spite of reported interest from the Cavs and meetings earlier in the season with the Grizzlies and Rockets.
Martin hasn’t seen much playing time during his brief tenure with Milwaukee, totaling 15 minutes spread over three games so far. The Bucks have welcomed back Ersan Ilyasova since coming to terms with Martin, but the team is without starting power forward Jabari Parker for the rest of the season because of a torn ACL, and Larry Sanders continues to sit out with personal issues. So, Milwaukee is still thinner than expected up front.
The team let go of Nate Wolters to open a roster spot for Martin, so keeping Martin would once more limit Milwaukee’s flexibility. The Bucks are nonetheless more than $7MM shy of the salary cap, so they have the financial wherewithal to eat more guaranteed salary if they deem it necessary as they fight for a playoff spot. Milwaukee has climbed to fifth place in the Eastern Conference at 21-19.