9:25pm: The Heat have officially re-signed Martin, the team announced in a press release.
“Caleb is a multi-position player with tremendous energy that had a career year with us,” Heat president Pat Riley said in a statement. “He works hard and deserves this as much as any young player in the league. We are extremely happy he has decided to come back.”
11:26am: One of the NBA’s top remaining restricted free agents is coming off the board, according to Anthony Chiang, who reports (via Twitter) that the Heat and forward Caleb Martin are in agreement on a three-year contract worth “about” $20.5MM.
The Heat only held Martin’s Non-Bird rights entering this offseason, limiting their ability to offer him much of a raise after he finished the 2021/22 season on a minimum-salary contract. The terms reported by Chiang indicate that Miami will use the taxpayer portion of its mid-level exception to re-sign Martin and ensure that he gets a substantial pay bump.
As our breakdown of this season’s MLE values shows, a three-year deal worth the full taxpayer mid-level exception would top out at about $20.4MM. Martin’s deal will be fully guaranteed, sources tell Chiang (Twitter link).
Martin emerged as an important piece off the bench in Miami this past season, averaging 9.2 PPG and 3.8 RPG on .507/.413/.763 shooting in 60 games (22.9 MPG), which earned him a promotion from his two-way contract. He opted to just have his two-way deal converted into a rest-of-season contract rather than negotiating a multiyear deal, perhaps recognizing that he’d have a better chance of securing a raise in the offseason than he would have in February.
It turned out to be shrewd move by Martin and his representatives, as the $20.4MM in guaranteed money dwarfs his career earnings to this point. With P.J. Tucker‘s departure to Philadelphia, the 26-year-old Martin could be in line for a bigger role with the Heat in 2022/23.
As John Hollinger of The Athletic observes (via Twitter), signing Martin at the taxpayer mid-level exception likely means Miami will fill out the remainder of its roster with minimum-salary players in order to stay below the tax apron and maintain financial flexibility.
Let’s F_@%!#& Go!!! Huge priority after losing PJ. Didnt think we could keep him. Now sign Paul Millsap!!!! And also 1 of the other few remaining options at the 4 and we’re good to go, as long as we can stay relatively healthy for the first time in 9 years
Paul Millsap? He’s washed.
So between Millsap and Josh jackson, James Johnson, Semi Ojeleye, trevor ariza, Mamadi Diakite, Robert Woodard II, Justin Champagnie, Kz Okpala, tony snell, DJ Stewart jr, Justin Anderson
Who would you sign if you need 2 of these?
Why not Morris
Rofl
At this point the Heat’s plans to acquire a player to pair with MARTIN point to adding either:
LEWIS or ROWAN !!
Let’s get Dennis Schroeder he knows how to guard since pj tucker is gone. Eric Bledsoe is available also.
Dennis schroder couldn’t guard me in my walking boot right now. Bledsoe might be an option of we lost Oladipo or traded Lowry though, but we dont need another guard right now
Much love for my Wolfpack brother
Loved watching The Martin Brothers at Nevada. It’s so funny.., watching Caleb much of the time he’d have a quiet first half and go two for six or something, then start rolling in the second half !! The threes would fall in bunches, the LeBron style rundown blocked shots, and just tenacious up and down basketball with Jordan Caroline. Good times. And of course Muss.., he’s the best !!
Especially after his brother got 4/$32 million, I didnt think there was much chance the Heat could retain him. Loved him in summer league a few years ago. I thought he was a Miiami Heat player…and now he is