How Heat starting lineup has fared since Caleb Martin moved to bench and what has changed
The Miami Heat’s season has been filled with up-and-down play that has kept it hovering around .500 for most of the schedule. But there has been one consistent positive throughout.
The Heat has been able to generate positive minutes with Caleb Martin in the starting lineup.
Whether Gabe Vincent or Kyle Lowry has been the point guard, the Heat’s starting lineup with Martin playing as the small-ball power forward has been one of the few consistent bright spots during an otherwise frustrating season.
The starting lineup of Vincent, Tyler Herro, Jimmy Butler, Martin and Bam Adebayo entered Friday outscoring teams by 18.6 points per 100 possessions in 105 minutes together this season.
The starting lineup of Lowry, Herro, Butler, Martin and Adebayo has outscored teams by 2.7 points per 100 possessions in 293 minutes together this season.
But since Heat coach Erik Spoelstra swapped out Martin for recently acquired forward Kevin Love coming out of the All-Star break last week, the Heat’s starting lineup of Vincent, Herro, Butler, Love and Adebayo failed to post a positive plus/minus in any of the group’s first four games together, albeit a small sample size. This unit has been outscored by 14.9 points per 100 possessions in 59 minutes together during that span.
“It’s a little different, man,” Martin said ahead of Friday night’s home game against the New York Knicks of his move to the bench. “By the time I get in now, it’s more that you have to adjust to the game. By the time I get in now, it might be a super defensive oriented moment. Other times you come in depending on how the first unit handles the start of the game, it might be an offensive moment.
“It’s just adjusting to whatever is going on. It’s also more of a role of gassing yourself out, being that spark coming off the bench as opposed to maintaining.”
Moving Martin (6-5, 205 pounds) to the bench after starting in his first 49 appearances of the season allows him to return to his more natural role as an athletic two-way wing rather than playing as an undersized power forward in the starting lineup. He excelled in that reserve role for Miami last season on his way to earning a three-year, $20.4 million contract from the Heat this past offseason.
“It is important because he does play in both lineups and that’s not an easy thing to do to be a starter the whole time,” Spoelstra said when asked about the value of having Martin’s versatility off the bench. “And then we wanted to change things up and he can do that seamlessly. That is a talent. One way or another, whichever lineup he plays in, his versatility is vital to our team. We feed off his energy defensively, for sure. He inspires guys. But offensively, he knows how to fit in either with his cutting and three-point spacing with the first unit or sometimes a little bit more running and attacking with that second unit.”
But Martin is clearly still adjusting to his new bench role after spending the first four months of the season learning how to play as a starter. He averaged 8.8 points, three rebounds and 1.5 assists per game while shooting 40 percent from the field and 5 of 13 (38.5 percent) on threes in his first four games as a reserve this season, but the Heat has been outscored by 23.3 points per 100 possessions in Martin’s minutes during that stretch.
“I think some games it will click a lot quicker than others and some games it will take a little bit of time,” Martin said of playing off the bench. “But overall, I think I do a pretty solid job of adjusting to whatever is going on and whatever we need. There’s not really room to get acclimated to it, you got to find out what you need and do it right away.”
A big part of the Heat starting unit’s success this season with Martin in the lineup was its ability to force turnovers at an elite level because of that group’s speed and ability to be disruptive. The Lowry-Herro-Butler-Martin-Adebayo lineup has forced opponents into 17.9 turnovers per 100 possessions and the Vincent-Herro-Butler-Martin-Adebayo lineup has forced opponents into 16.9 turnovers per 100 possessions — both numbers would rank first in the NBA among teams’ overall opponent turnover percentage for the season.
The new starting lineup of Vincent-Herro-Butler-Love-Adebayo has forced opponents into just 11 turnovers per 100 possessions in its first four games together, which would rank last in the league among teams’ overall opponent turnover percentage for the season.
Re-inserting Martin back into the starting lineup isn’t going to fix all of the Heat’s issues, and maybe the new starting group will figure out its formula for producing positive results as it gets more experience together. After all, Miami was still an inconsistent team even when Martin was opening games.
But the fact is the Heat’s starting lineup has produced positive results for most of the season. That hasn’t been the case since Martin was moved to the bench.
INJURY REPORT
Butler (right knee soreness) and Martin (left ankle discomfort), who were both listed as questionable, will be available to play Friday against the Knicks.
But the Heat remains without Jamal Cain (G League, two way contract), Nikola Jovic (lower back stress reaction), Kyle Lowry (left knee soreness) and Omer Yurtseven (G League, assignment).
Spoelstra confirmed that Lowry will also sit out Saturday’s home contest against the Atlanta Hawks, which will mark the 12th straight game he has missed.
This comes after Lowry was upgraded to questionable for Monday’s matchup against the 76ers in Philadelphia. But the team and Lowry decided that he was not quite yet ready to play and there’s currently no definitive timetable for his return.
This story was originally published March 3, 2023 at 12:05 PM.
