NBA veteran forward Caleb Martin begins his eighth professional season and his third with the Dallas Mavericks as the calendar marches toward opening day. Martin is on the third year of a $35 million contract he signed with the 76ers in the summer of 2024. He joined the Mavericks as part of a bizarre move by former General Manager Nico Harrison in February of 2025, just before the trade deadline, in exchange for Quentin Grimes. In the shadow of the Luka Doncic deal, the trade received little notice,
but among ball-knowers was widely considered a terrible trade.
Martin remains with the franchise entering the 2026-27 season, but has very little role, given the makeup of the roster.
Biggest Question
Will Caleb Martin remain with the Dallas Mavericks for the entire 2026-27 season? Look, I’m not going to lie that talking about a player this way can make me a little uncomfortable. I don’t know Caleb Martin, by all accounts, he’s a consummate professional and a good teammate. Some players I grow weary of and I get very aggressive when discussing their flaws or what they can’t bring to a team. Not Martin. He’s simply not very good and he gets paid a lot of money and he’s an irregular reminder of how much of a failure Nico Harrison actually is.
One has to think Martin is the number one player the team hopes it can move. The issue is two-fold: first, he makes a decent amount of money (he’s making $10 millon this year and just under that for his player option next year), but not so much that it’s impossible to move. Rather, he seems to have hit his absolute ceiling as a player with the Miami Heat before signing with the 76ers in 2024.
Let’s say you wholly disagree with me though, let’s say you think he’s a functional NBA role player. The question then becomes this: what is Caleb Martin’s role with this team? Dallas has too many forwards. He’s the one least interesting to the team’s future.
Best Case Scenario
The ideal scenario for a positive Martin season is for him to play the veteran role, giving spot minutes when the team is blowing out an opponent or on the bad end of a beating. And, when he does play, he connects at or above 35% from three-point range, which is what happened last season in just under an attempt per game.
I don’t see Martin as a trade candidate unless there’s a $10 million gap in salary somewhere. He’s got the kind of contract where a team would have to send draft picks out versus getting one.
Worst Case Scenario
Martin has to play a significant number of games and minutes. As mentioned in the introduction, there’s not a path for Martin to see playing time given how many forwards are on the roster. The exception to this rule is simple: if the Dallas Mavericks deal with the injury bug again.
The NBA is trying a new path to prevent tanking and Dallas doesn’t technically own their pick this year, so there’s really not much of a reason for Martin to play at all.
Season Goal
Cheer heartily from the sideline, hit a three from the bench when called upon, mentor the younger players on the roster by being professional in the face of little promised playing time. If he can do one or all of these things, then he’ll have filled a role on this busy roster.
Overall
No one signed up within the Mavs Moneyball staff for this profile, which leaves it to me. This is a harsh profile. I won’t lie, but he’s a person who represents bad process from the previous regime. Perhaps he’ll get spot minutes, but an ideal situation is us not having to think much about Caleb Martin in the 2026-27 season.
