Caleb Martin Rumors | Hoops Rumors

Caleb Martin Available, Tyler Herro Out For Game 2

June 4th, 2023 at 5:14pm CST by Dana Gauruder

Caleb Martin will play in Game 2 of the NBA Finals on Sunday, according to Anthony Chiang of the Miami Herald (Twitter link).

The Heat wing had been listed as questionable due to an illness. He missed the team’s practice on Saturday. Martin averaged 19.3 points and 6.4 rebounds in the Eastern Conference Finals against Boston but was held to three points on 1-of-7 shooting by the Nuggets in Game 1.

Big man Cody Zeller, who was initially listed as questionable due to a sprained right foot, will also be available off Miami’s bench.

Tyler Herro will remain sidelined as he recovers from a broken hand, though there’s legitimate hope he could return for Game 3 on Wednesday. Herro, who suffered the injury in the opening game of the first-round series against Milwaukee, has ramped up his workouts in recent days.

Heat Notes: Highsmith, Herro, Injuries, Strus, Love

June 3rd, 2023 at 8:27pm CST by Arthur Hill

Haywood Highsmith may see consistent minutes throughout the NBA Finals after scoring 18 points in the series opener, writes Peter Baugh of The Athletic. Heat coach Erik Spoelstra played Highsmith more than 23 minutes off the bench in Game 1 and trusted him to share the responsibility of guarding Jamal Murray.

Earning playing time hasn’t been easy for the third-year swingman, who was barely used for most of the Eastern Conference Finals. He had a breakthrough performance when he scored 15 points in 36 minutes in Game 5 against Boston.

The 26-year-old has taken an unconventional road to the NBA Finals, playing at a Division II college and then being waived three times by the Sixers. Miami gave him an opportunity with a 10-day contract last season, and he earned two more before signing a three-year deal. He takes pride in being one of seven undrafted players on the team’s roster.

“(The Heat) see something in us that nobody else saw in us as undrafted guys, kind of like hidden gems,” Highsmith said. “They believe in us, and they do a great job with developing us and taking us up under their wing and just making us be the best players we can be.”

There’s more on the Heat:

Tyler Herro has been declared out for Game 2, but that doesn’t mean it’s certain that he won’t play, according to Barry Jackson of The Miami Herald. Jackson states that NBA rules allow teams to change the status of injured players, so Herro could be activated before Sunday night if he continues to make progress in his recovery from hand surgery. Jackson adds that Caleb Martin is listed as questionable with an illness that the team describes as a head issue, and Cody Zeller is questionable with a sprained right foot.
Jimmy Butler hasn’t lost faith in Martin and Max Strus, who combined to shoot 1-of-17 in Game 1, Jackson adds. Butler said he’ll still set them up for the same shots, and Strus remarked that he’s eager to put his scoreless night behind him. “You can’t dwell on it,” he said. “Luckily, it was only Game 1 so we got more to play. But I’m ready. I wanted to play right after the game was over.”
In an interview with Sam Amick of The Athletic, Kevin Love offers his perspective as a relative newcomer to Heat culture after signing with the team in February. “I think it’s definitely a level of focus and professionalism, attention to detail and winning at all costs, that is not always the case (with other teams),” Love said. “Or there’s moments throughout the season (where you have that focus with other teams), but this is all-in for all 82. And then after that, it’s taking it up even another notch. And I’ve felt that, and understood that, and I’ve only been here for three months.”

Heat Notes: Robinson, Vincent, Strus, Love, Haslem

June 3rd, 2023 at 10:26am CST by Luke Adams

The Heat‘s unexpectedly deep playoff run has improved the league-wide perception of several of the team’s key contributors, writes Barry Jackson of The Miami Herald.

According to a scout who spoke to Jackson, Duncan Robinson‘s contract – which has three years and $57MM left after this season – now looks more tradable as opposed to being a “complete albatross.” Meanwhile, players like Gabe Vincent and Max Strus, who are headed for unrestricted free agency, are poised to cash in nicely this summer.

“I’ve gone from thinking (Vincent) is a good $3MM backup to a $10MM, $11MM player; he’s worth that in today’s NBA,” the scout said. “The guy has produced when it counts, and that’s what teams are looking for. He has risen to the occasion. … He’s never afraid of the moment. You get high effort defensively. Decent play-maker, has toughness. To me, his value correlates a lot to his scoring, but he does do other things that teams value.”

Ira Winderman explores the same subject in a story for The Sun Sentinel, noting that ESPN’s Bobby Marks believes both Vincent and Strus could get starting salaries around the full mid-level exception ($12.2MM) when they hit the market in a few weeks.

Here’s more on the Heat:

Five undrafted Heat players – Vincent, Strus, Robinson, Caleb Martin, and Haywood Highsmith – played at least 20 minutes in Game 1 of the NBA Finals. While those players appreciated Erik Spoelstra‘s recent assertion that the fixation on their undrafted status is “disrespectful,” they also don’t want to dismiss the obstacles they had to overcome to become rotation players on a Finals team, per Anthony Chiang of The Miami Herald. “You want to be labeled as an NBA player, but you don’t forget the road you took to get here, you don’t forget where you started and where you came from,” Martin said. “That’s what makes it also very special. I think that’s why our connection is so great, because near half our team went through the same stuff. I think the fact that’s the case has also helped us get to this point. So just as much as it can get old, it’s also very special.”
Kevin Love‘s numbers since he joined the Heat have been modest and his minutes have fluctuated, but teammate Duncan Robinson believes the veteran forward has been a difference-maker off the court for the club. “I think he totally changed the whole dynamic of our locker room,” Robinson said of Love on The Old Man and the Three podcast (hat tip to Jackson at The Miami Herald). “Just his character, his levity, what he brought in terms of just connecting people, having a sense of humor. When you have a guy who’s played in four NBA Finals, won a championship, gets pulled from a rotation in the middle of a series and his immediate reaction is uplifting the guy that’s replacing him — that alone sets the tone down the line for everybody else.”
While Udonis Haslem admits it would be an “amazing” ending to his own career if the Heat win a championship this spring before he retires, he said this week that he wants a title more for his teammates than for himself. “I want it for the guys that haven’t won any,” Haslem said, according to Chiang. “I want it for Jimmy Butler. I want it for those guys more so than anything.”

Heat Notes: Herro, Butler, Haslem, Culture, Martin

May 30th, 2023 at 7:01pm CST by Dana Gauruder

Tyler Herro, who reportedly could be back as soon as Game 3 of the Finals after undergoing hand surgery last month, said he’ll do everything possible to get back in action, Barry Jackson and Anthony Chiang of the Miami Herald report. The Heat guard suffered the injury during Game 1 of Miami’s first-round series against Milwaukee.

“I’m going to be working out every day, twice, two, three times a day from here until the day I hopefully come back,” he said. “So I’m always going to continue to work hard and see how my body responds day by day and try to come back as soon as possible.”

“There’s a little soreness in my hand still,” Herro added. “But it’s all just post-surgery scar tissue and stuff like that, that I’m trying to work through right now. I would love to come back for the Finals, but we’ll see how my hand feels.”

We have more from the Heat:

The way the team overcame Herro’s injury during the postseason is an example of its culture, according to Heat star Jimmy Butler (story via ESPN’s Nick Friedell). “When a guy goes down, the next guy could fill in that gap and do exactly what that guy that went down did — and do it at a high level,” he said. “Then be humble enough to know that when that guy comes back, you’ve got to take a step back and get back in your role. Nobody ever complains. They always do exactly what you ask of them to do, which is why you want to play with guys like that, which is why they are the reason we win so many games.”
Speaking of that culture, Udonis Haslem expounded on that subject in a feature from Marc J. Spears of Andscape’s. “I would like to say I am Heat culture. If you do it right, and you stay committed to the process, you don’t just speak it but it becomes a lifestyle,” he said. “And this is where you can end up. I have businesses around the city. I’ve played 20 years in the NBA. I put myself in the opportunity in a position where I can at least have the conversation about ownership. So, I think Heat culture applies in all walks of life.”
Caleb Martin came up one vote short of being named the Most Valuable Player of the conference finals. He’s come a long way from getting waived by the Hornets two years ago. That was the low point of his career, he told Spears. “That was worse than not getting drafted,” Martin said. “That was the first time where I felt that I wasn’t good enough. Being drafted or undrafted, there are only a certain amount of spots for [60] kids. But a team deciding to cut you because they feel like you can’t contribute to what they are trying to do, that hurt.”

Jimmy Butler Named Eastern Conference Finals MVP

May 29th, 2023 at 10:10pm CST by Dana Gauruder

Jimmy Butler has been named the Most Valuable Player of the Eastern Conference Finals, according to the NBA (via Twitter).

The Heat stymied the Celtics’ bid to become the first NBA team to win a best-of-seven series after trailing 3-0. Butler had 28 points, seven rebounds, six assists and three steals as Miami thumped Boston on the Celtics’ home court by a score of 103-84.

For the series, Butler averaged 24.7 points, 7.6 rebounds and 6.1 assists as the eighth-seeded Heat continued their improbable postseason run. The only other No. 8 seed to reach the Finals was the 1999 Knicks. This year’s Finals will begin at Denver on Thursday.

Caleb Martin certainly made a strong case for Eastern Conference MVP with his 26-point, 10-rebound performance in Game 7. Martin averaged 19.3 points and 6.4 rebounds while making 48.9% of his 3-point attempts over the course of the series. Butler edged out Martin 5-4 in the voting by the media panel (Twitter link).

Gabe Vincent To Play, Malcolm Brogdon Out For Game 6

May 27th, 2023 at 7:07pm CST by Arthur Hill

Heat guard Gabe Vincent, who missed Game 5 due to a sprained left ankle, has been cleared to play on Saturday, tweets Barry Jackson of The Miami Herald. Vincent will be back in the starting lineup, Jackson adds, and Miami has made another change, starting Caleb Martin in place of Kevin Love.

Vincent injured the ankle on an awkward landing after a jump shot late in Game 4. He sat out Thursday’s contest in Boston as the Celtics cruised to a 13-point win.

Vincent took over as the team’s starting point guard in February and has maintained that role throughout the playoffs. He has averaged 13.1 points and 4.1 assists in 15 postseason games while shooting 41.7% from the field and 37.5% from three-point range. He poured in a career-high 29 points in Miami’s Game 3 victory.

The Celtics will try to stay alive without guard Malcolm Brogdon, who suffered a right forearm strain in the second half Thursday, tweets Tim Bontemps of ESPN. Brogdon tried to go through his normal pre-game routine tonight, but Boston’s medical staff determined that he’s not able to play.

Brogdon, who also has a partially torn tendon in his right elbow, has come off the bench in every Celtics playoff game so far, averaging 12.6 points, 3.7 rebounds and 3.1 assists in 25.9 minutes per night.

Heat Notes: Clutch Wins, Martin, Robinson, Playoff Run

May 21st, 2023 at 4:08pm CST by Alex Kirschenbaum

An up-and-down 44-38 regular season full of close games helped propel All-NBA small forward Jimmy Butler and his Heat to what has been an incredible playoff tear, writes Brian Windhorst of ESPN.

Miami is leading the Celtics 2-0 in their best-of-seven conference finals series.

Windhorst notes that 38 of Miami’s 44 regular season wins were achieved in clutch time, defined as instances when the margin is five or fewer points during a game’s final five minutes in regulation or overtime. He adds that this has helped galvanize the team in the playoffs, even when it has fallen behind. To wit, the Heat are 6-2 in the postseason when trailing by 10 or more points in a contest.

“Just being in those (clutch-time) situations 50-plus times during the regular season, that just brings great experience for us,” center Bam Adebayo said.

There’s more out of South Beach:

Heat forward Caleb Martin, who established a new personal postseason high with 25 points on Friday, has capitalized on Boston’s inferred disrespect of his abilities, writes Joe Vardon of The Athletic. In leaning on a single-big lineup for much of the night, the Celtics opened the door for the Heat to play the 6’5″ Martin as a small ball power forward, and he promptly lit them up. Though giving Martin space to beat them worked in the Celtics’ favor during the conference finals last year, he’s making them pay this time around. “One thing Caleb told me was, ‘This is not last year,’” Adebayo said. “That really resonated with me, because they did the same thing to him last year. I feel like he felt like it was disrespectful.”
Although he was out of the rotation for much of the second half of the season, Heat forward Duncan Robinson made a point to remain prepared in the postseason and has emerged as a critical bench role player, writes Anthony Chiang of The Miami Herald. Through 13 playoff games, the 6’7″ wing is averaging 7.9 PPG on .424/.420/1.000 shooting splits in 17.1 MPG off the bench.
The Heat are a testament to the fact that surrounding a superstar with depth, rather than fielding top-heavy “super-team” rosters, can be a formula for playoff success, writes Marcus Thompson II of The Athletic. Miami’s togetherness as a cumulative unit, heavy on chemistry, has helped push it to being just two games away from its second NBA Finals berth in four seasons.

Heat Notes: Martin, Lowry, Herro, Defense

May 8th, 2023 at 9:59am CST by Arthur Hill

Caleb Martin is listed as questionable for Monday’s Game 4 with a back contusion, but there’s little doubt that he’ll be ready when the Heat call on him, writes Anthony Chiang of The Miami Herald. Martin was also questionable on Saturday after hurting his back when he slid into the Knicks’ bench while chasing a loose ball in Game 2. He managed to play 23 minutes, even though he was seen grabbing his back in pain a few times.

“You kind of got to,” Martin said. “I think you don’t really have a choice. We’re going to do everything in our power, especially me. If you can play and if you can go, then that’s what you got to do. It’s that point of the season, everybody is banged up.”

Chiang notes that Martin missed 10 regular season games due to injuries, but nine of those were concentrated in a 14-game stretch starting in mid-December. Coach Erik Spoelstra indicated that even when Martin was most banged up, the team “had to take that decision out of his hands” to prevent him from trying to play.

“He’s such a competitor,” Spoelstra said. “He doesn’t want to miss time and he doesn’t have an off button except for like off the court, he’s pretty chill. It’s a pretty good balance he has there. But once he steps in between those four lines, he’s a savage competitor. That’s what we love about him.”

There’s more from Miami:

Kyle Lowry has become a valuable part of the Heat’s reserve unit since Spoelstra decided to bring him off the bench when he returned in March after sitting out time with knee pain, per William Guillory of The Athletic. Lowry had started 677 straight games when he was active, but he was so effective in the new role that it became permanent. “One of the things we’ve found is you’re bringing a Hall-of-Fame mind off the bench,” Spoelstra said. “Our second unit was struggling for much of the year. Shift him (to the bench) and a lot of the things we were working on endlessly just kind of get taken care of. … He is an ultimate winner. What drives him more than anything is winning.”
Tyler Herro could also find himself in a reserve role if the Heat are able to keep playing long enough for him to return from a broken right hand, suggests Ira Winderman of The Sun-Sentinel. Herro underwent surgery April 21 and is expected to be sidelined until early June.
Barry Jackson of The Miami Herald examines how the Heat’s defense has shut down the Knicks through the first three games of their series, holding them to 99.3 PPG on 42.1% shooting from the field.

Butler Out For Game 2; Randle Returns To Action

May 2nd, 2023 at 6:24pm CST by Dana Gauruder

Jimmy Butler won’t play in Game 2 of the Heat‘s second-round series against the Knicks on Tuesday, the team tweets. Knicks forward Julius Randle and guard Jalen Brunson will be available, their PR department tweets.

That trio was listed as questionable to play on Monday. Caleb Martin is starting in Butler’s place, Anthony Chiang of the Miami Herald tweets.

Miami’s Game 1 win gave the Heat more leeway to sit out Butler. He scored 25 points in 43 minutes but only attempted one shot after rolling his right ankle with just over five minutes remaining.

Game 3 won’t be played until Saturday afternoon in Miami, so Butler will have three off-days to heal.

Randle, who is nursing a sprained left ankle, missed Game 1. He only played 16 minutes in the closeout game against Cleveland on April 26 when the ankle flared up.

Brunson, who logged 40 minutes on Sunday, will try to play through a sore right ankle.

Heat Notes: Martin, D. Robinson, Adebayo

April 26th, 2023 at 9:15pm CST by Rory Maher

Caleb Martin was removed from the Heat‘s starting lineup when they signed Kevin Love on the buyout market. He was productive in both roles, and has been a major difference-maker thus far in their first-round series against Milwaukee, as Anthony Chiang of The Miami Herald details (subscriber link).

Through four games (28.0 MPG) against the Bucks, Martin is averaging 13.5 PPG, 6.0 RPG, 2.3 APG and 1.3 SPG on a stellar .643/.467/.846 shooting line. According to Chiang, Martin leads all playoff players in plus/minus at plus-75, and he was particularly effective in Game 4’s fourth-quarter comeback, recording 10 points, five rebounds and a steal without missing a shot in the final frame.

“How many games can you have said that about him this year?” head coach Erik Spoelstra said when asked about Martin’s impactful playoff performances in the series. “That’s the kind of X-factor that he is. He has just a burst of energy and effort where you feel him immediately. He was really good for us as a starter. But I think as a bench guy, it just gives that instant change of energy that I think fits very well with that unit.”

For his part, the 27-year-old forward said he feels comfortable in high-pressure situations.

“Any way I can contribute,” Martin said. “Most of the time, I know it’s going to be on the defensive end. So to be able to come in and knock down timely shots when I needed to was big. I just felt comfortable in those moments.”

Here’s more on the Heat, who lead the series three games to one entering Wednesday’s Game 5:

Duncan Robinson was an afterthought for much of the 2022/23 season, but he has emerged as a key contributor in the playoffs, writes Ira Winderman of The South Florida Sun Sentinel. Robinson only played 24-plus minutes in nine regular season games during his 42 appearances, averaging 16.5 MPG. But he has played 24-plus minutes in three straight games, averaging 14.3 PPG, 4.0 RPG and 2.0 APG with a scorching hot .682/.750/1.000 shooting line over that span. “Our staff and team is yelling at me on the shots I don’t shoot,” said Robinson, who turned 29 over the weekend. “So that’s a pretty freeing place to be between the ears, just knowing you got to go out there and fulfill your job to the best of your ability.” Robinson has gotten the opportunity for more playing time in part due to Tyler Herro breaking two fingers on his right hand, which required surgery.
Bam Adebayo, an All-Star for the second time this season, has been listed on the team’s injury report throughout the series with a strained left hamstring. While it isn’t severe enough to prevent him from playing, the starting center says he’s receiving around-the-clock treatment on the injury, Winderman writes in another story. “Constant treatment, 24 hours,” said Adebayo, who sat out Miami’s Wednesday morning shootaround. “In the treatment room, three, possibly four times a day. And just trying to make sure I’m healthy enough to play and keep playing.” Adebayo added that he wasn’t sure when he first sustained the strain. The 25-year-old was listed as probable for Game 5 before being upgraded to available.
In case you missed it, Victor Oladipo will likely have surgery later this week to repair his torn left patellar tendon, which he suffered in Game 2. There’s optimism he could return early next season, assuming the procedure and his rehab go well.