Had Luka Doncic not been traded two days prior to the Dallas Mavericks acquiring Caleb Martin during the 2024-2025 season, it’s reasonable to think the latter transaction would have been one of the more puzzling in recent memory. In fact, despite the seismic Doncic-for-Anthony-Davis swap, the Martin trade drew its fair share of attention anyway.
Quentin Grimes was shipped out along with a second round draft pick to net Martin, despite his being injured at the time. In his first 15 games with the Philadelphia
76ers, Grimes had games in which he scored 30, 44, 30, 25 and 39 points. In roughly the same timeframe, Martin sat on the bench riding out his injury.
This was the shadow under which Marting entered the 2025-2026 season.
Season review
Martin’s season got off to an inconsistent start as head coach Jason Kidd experimented with lineups. The first 10 games resulted in more “Did Not Play – Coach’s Decision” (two) for Martin, than double-figure scoring nights (zero).
When he was playing, he would bounce between four minutes of garbage time and 18 minutes of meaningful game time. This trend continued until mid-January, when Martin suddenly found his shooting stroke. Beginning on January 14th, Martin strung together 20-minutes or more in 10 out of 12 games. Unsurprisingly, Martin started nine of those 12 games. He looked healthy, showed some defensive chops and nearly a year after arriving in Dallas, fans finally got a glimpse of what a healthy Martin could bring when given a consistent role. Ironically, Martin’s first start of the season kicked off a four-game winning streak, which proved to be the longest winning streak of the season for the Mavs.
His minutes began to wane in early-March and a March 15th win over the Cleveland Cavaliers was the last time he suited up, missing the final 14 games of the 2025-2026 season to injury.
Best game
Martin’s best game came during the aforementioned win streak. In a 144-122 win over the Utah Jazz on January 15th, Martin scored 14 points on 6-for-8 shooting from the floor, including 2-for-2 from. He also dished six assists, grabbed five rebounds and had three steals.
Contract status
Entering the 2026-2027 season, Martin remains under contract at a salary of ten million dollars. The following year, in what will be his age-32 season, Martin holds a player option at just over nine million dollars.
There is a scenario where Martin’s contract is viewed as a bargain. A 3-and-D wing is highly coveted around the league, but the reality is that he more often than not lacks the “3” in “3-and-D” and has not been able to establish consistent footing with the Mavericks thus far. As a result, the contract is more of a burden than not, and it’s difficult to imagine Martin opting out of his player option after next season, should he remain with the team until that time.
Looking towards the future
Martin really has no logical role on the Mavericks going forward, and frankly, may not have had one from the word “go.” That’s not meant as a slight to Martin, but he just simply doesn’t fit the Cooper Flagg timeline at age 31, nor does he fit a team with Flagg, P.J. Washington, Naji Marshall, Max Christie and Klay Thompson taking up wing minutes. Granted some of those players may not be with the team long term, but regardless, both Martin and the Mavericks would likely be best served going different ways. Martin should be helping a contender while the Mavs could apply ten millions dollars to other assets.
Grade: C
Martin suffers from much of what Anthony Davis suffered from. He is associated, for better or worse, with an odd time in Mavericks’ history and a former GM that is generally loathed by the fanbase. He shouldn’t be vilified for that, nor should he be vilified for being injured so often. All things considered, Martin did his job as best he could and likely played tough through injury more often than he should have. That said, he performed as well as you would expect a player to perform when getting inconsistent opportunities as a role player. I hope the Mavs can move Martin to a team he can more positively impact this offseason and that Dallas can use that salary flexibility to improve in their own way.
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