This isn't Iowa, but Kate Martin is thriving in the Las Vegas spotlight

Kate Martin wants to make one thing clear: she is a punctual person.

That bus in Dallas that left her in the parking lot after a Las Vegas Aces team meal? “They set me up,” Martin said of her teammates' recent viral prank on the rookie. “Come on now. I would never be late.

“Coach (Becky Hammon) said she needed to talk to me, and then I talked to her – without any substance. I was really confused. I thought it was something important, and then they were planning it all along.”

The Aces bus almost left without Kate Martin 😂

🎥 @_ajawilson22 pic.twitter.com/GXPQzSRdUc

— The Athletic WBB (@TheAthleticWBB) June 5, 2024

Frankly, everyone at the Aces recognizes Martin's discipline. As Hammon says, “She just doesn't make mistakes.” It's one of the many reasons why Las Vegas – the players, the coaches, the fans – has grown to love Martin as she continues to have the best feel-good story in the WNBA.

One month into the season, Martin is averaging more than 20 minutes per game for the two-time defending champions and is often Hammon's first substitute off the bench, making it easy to forget how remarkable it is that Martin is in this position. She averaged double-digit scoring once in her five years at Iowa while playing under Caitlin Clark's national spotlight, earning all-Big Ten honors in that final season alone. Martin was a complementary player in a draft class full of star power.

Near the end of her college career, she talked about enjoying her last days in Iowa before she had a “plain old Joe Schmo.” She didn't even have an agent during the WNBA Draft. She simply asked her Iowa coaches to talk to some professional coaches and deduced from that information that she would be selected in the third round at best. Martin attended the draft to support Clark and did not plan to run if and when she was chosen, as she was not invited by the league and her name would likely be called late at night.

But Hammon and the Aces were more interested in Martin than she knew. Whenever Hammon and her staff watched Iowa games, she said they came away thinking, “Damn, we love that Kate Martin kid!” Oh, she's so good, she's so solid.

Those crossing signals ultimately produced one of the highlights of the draft, when the producers asked Martin — who was in the audience — to move to the aisle of her row at the end of the first round. She noticed the cameras closing in as the Aces selected Syracuse's Dyaisha Fair with the 16th pick. Two picks later, it was Martin's turn to shake hands with league commissioner Cathy Engelbert and make her way across the stage at the Brooklyn Academy of Music.

KATE MARTIN TO THE ACES!!!! #WNBADesign pic.twitter.com/1C55qt0mVY

— Aliyah Funschelle (@AliyahFun) April 16, 2024

Even his drafting didn't guarantee that Martin's WNBA career would still be alive and kicking. Between 2021 and 2023, only 13 of 36 second-round picks made it to their team's opening night roster, and a few of those players were cut before the end of the regular season. Martin joined a Las Vegas squad with a busy training camp roster competing for only a few spots.

The week of the draft, Martin received help making the roster from her future teammate Kelsey Plum, who gave Martin a last-minute invite to her Dawg Class to help her prepare for training camp. “We had an open spot and I thought, 'Kate Martin, for sure.' Let's go,” Plum said.

Once Martin arrived in Las Vegas, she steadily defeated the competition with her work ethic – what the Aces call the “try hard factor” – and spirit. She hopes to move into coaching after her playing career and has demonstrated that skill with her ability to pick up terminology and schemes. Hammon recalled an example when she was installing a new, somewhat complex offside area. As her teammates were setting up the play on the field, Martin noticed from the sideline that they were lined up incorrectly and pointed it out to him.

“To be able to make those adjustments and say something, this is an ATO that she just saw, but she understood conceptually what we were trying to do and then she was able to put the pieces together,” Hammon said. “So that's a good sign.”

It was also a coincidence that Martin ended up in Las Vegas, a place where she will never have to become a star. The Aces need role players to surround their superstar quartet, and Martin was elite at that assignment in college, playing alongside Clark. She sets good screens, she moves the ball, she cuts hard to the basket and she makes open jumpers. Las Vegas will never call Martin a play, but she knows how to impact games anyway.

Martin credits Iowa coach Lisa Bluder with helping her read the game. Bluder always said she didn't want to coach robots, and that forced Martin to develop her IQ and learn how to make decisions without set rules. Hammon grants the Aces freedom on the court, which is a natural extension of the Hawkeyes offense.

Martin cried when she heard she had made the final roster, but it is the Aces who would have been in a world of hurt without her in the first quarter of the season. In her first WNBA game, Martin blocked the 6-foot-4 Li Yueru from behind and hasn't looked back since. She shoots 37 percent on three-pointers, a mark that is better than every team in the league except the Minnesota Lynx. Las Vegas is 0.7 points per 100 possessions better with her on the court than off it.

Hammon has deployed Martin in small-ball formations as a three or four, then started her at shooting guard against the Los Angeles Sparks, against whom she scored a career-high 13 points and made all three of her three-pointers.

Her first three nearly took the lid off the roof of the Crypto.com Arena in Los Angeles, despite the Aces being the road team. Just like with the Hawkeyes, Martin is a fan favorite wherever she goes.

Rookie Kate Martin is on fire in her first career start, dropping 11 PTS at halftime and scoring a perfect 3-3 from deep 🔥

WNBA Commissioner's Cup presented by @muntbasis | LVA-LAS on League Pass pic.twitter.com/qrNoOiu9sW

— WNBA (@WNBA) June 10, 2024

“To be honest, I didn't expect that,” Martin said. “I actually never expect anything. I had no expectations when I came to the league, and I think it was so nice that I got an opportunity and made the best team in the world, and it's just been a lot of fun ever since.

Martin also has a lot of fans in her dressing room. In Hammon's first two seasons as Las Vegas coach, she played a total of 524 minutes against her four rookies. Martin was already at 183 heading into Thursday's game, the second-highest total ever among Hammon's six rookies. A'ja Wilson likes Martin's energy and how she is always ready when her name is called; the two-time MVP continually instills confidence in Martin, encouraging her to shoot and trying to elevate her whenever possible. Plum calls her “a great sponge.” Martin has already drawn comparisons to Alysha Clark as a glue player, and Clark has taken the 2024 draftee under her wing.

The veterans may argue with her – look at the Hello Kitty backpack Martin has to take with him on the trip – but she sees it as a sign of love. After all, the day after her teammates tried to dump her in a restaurant parking lot was Martin's birthday and arguably the best player in the world. I gave her a cake, ribbon and tiara.

Entering the season, it may not have been clear that Martin would be relied on to this extent as Las Vegas looks to make a three-peat. But one thing you need to know about that Aces rookie: She's ahead of schedule.

(Photo: Ethan Miller/Getty Images)