Positive Signs for Kenyon Martin's Return

While someone else is getting "the surgery" for the first time, here's the flip side: a player coming back from it.

Though sometimes Kenyon Martin can exhibit a fair share of "oh crap oh crap, he's going to do something bad"-type of actions, he's actually a wonder to the basketball eyes when he's truly "on" during game time. All those ferocious dunks and blocks back in New Jersey weren't a dream, he was that good. So hell yeah I am rooting for mini-Stoudemire (re: microfracture knee surgery) to finally make a strong comeback into the league.

Thanks to early training camp reports from Rocky Mountain News and Denver Post, K-Mart played his first five-on-five in almost a year's time and looks pretty good:

"He was jumping, dunking," center Marcus Camby said of the training camp scrimmage. "If you didn't know he had surgery, you wouldn't think anything was wrong with him."

"It felt good," said Martin, who continues to rehab from microfracture surgery on his right knee Nov. 15. "Just doing all I can now. Just trying to get better, build up to Oct. 31."

Said Nuggets coach George Karl: "It was the best day for him, by far. He got through it all. He's rusty, but by looking at him, I think he surprised us and I think he surprised himself on how much he got done."

Obviously his teammates will say good things about his performance so far, but the mere idea that he's not hesitant and be all over the place after surgery is a good sign.