Why did Caleb Martin turn down Heat’s offer and take less money to join 76ers? Martin explains
With the Philadelphia 76ers spending the weekend in Miami between Friday’s loss to the Magic in Orlando and Monday’s matchup against the Heat at Kaseya Center, Caleb Martin found himself back in a familiar place.
“It’s bittersweet, for sure,” Martin said after working with his new 76ers coaches and teammates on the Heat’s Kaseya Center practice court Sunday while the Heat was in Indianapolis for Sunday’s 119-110 loss to the Pacers to wrap up its 2-4 six-game trip. “Obviously, I had a lot of great memories here, unforgettable memories. I still got lifelong relationships that I still have with guys. This is my second home.”
But Miami is no longer Martin’s NBA home after he left the Heat to sign with the 76ers in free agency this past summer, as Monday night’s matchup between the teams at Kaseya Center marks his first game against the Heat since making that move.
Martin’s return will bring back memories of his productive three-season stint with the Heat. His return will also bring back memories of how his Heat departure played out in free agency.
On Sunday, Martin confirmed that the Heat made him an offer this past summer that would have paid him $65 million over five seasons. Instead, Martin ended up signing a smaller four-year contract that included $35 million guaranteed and can reach up to $40 million with bonuses to join the 76ers.
“It’s just hard to explain because there’s a lot of things that went into it,” Martin said ahead of Monday’s game against his former team when asked why he turned down the Heat’s offer. “Obviously, wanting to find the best situation, wanting to see what’s best for my career, what’s best for me as a player, what’s best for my growth. Not everything is just for the money. But obviously, that was a big part of it, too.”
With the Heat using first-round picks to draft Jaime Jaquez Jr. and Nikola Jovic in recent years, who both play the forward position like Martin, there was a feeling from Martin that “maybe the direction they were going here was younger at that time.” But the Heat was still willing to invest a lot of money and years to retain Martin, and Martin had confidence that he could still earn consistent playing time if he returned.
“I feel like anywhere I go, I’m going to make room for myself whether it’s here or whatever,” Martin, 29, said.
So playing time and fit weren’t major factors in Martin choosing to bypass the Heat’s offer. Instead, the biggest reason that Martin is no longer on the Heat’s roster appears to be tied to the timing of things.
In order to stay below the ultra-punitive second apron and still keep Martin, the Heat needed him to exercise the $7.1 million player option that was in his contract for this season by the June 29 deadline ahead of the June 30 start of free agent negotiations. The Heat then would have signed Martin to a four-year extension worth $58 million to complete the $65 million investment over five seasons.
This type of contract would have kept Martin’s cap hit for this season at a manageable $7.1 million to allow the Heat to remain under the second apron, while also making up for that smaller salary on the back end of the deal with a four-year extension that came with an average value per season of $14.5 million.
“It was a timing thing. That’s what it was,” Martin said. “The decision had to be made before I even had a chance to decide on anything else. That decision coming back here had to be made first without even getting a chance to go into free agency. All you can do is go based off the information that you get back and based off your representation. Whatever information you get back, you kind of make those decisions.”
The bottom line is Martin and others around him expected more money in free agency than the Heat offered him. But that expectation never became a reality this summer.
“You try to make the best decision and sometimes you don’t know how those decisions shake out or whatever until you got to go through it,” Martin continued. “Obviously, you have people in your corner and people that you listen to, and you try to make the best judgment that you can make based on the information that you have. I was confident in putting that trust in that and believing the right decision would be made. Ultimately, I think I’m where I’m supposed to be. I think things happen for a reason.”
That’s why Martin doesn’t fault his agent for how his free agency played out.
“Nobody has a crystal ball,” Martin said. “At the end of the day, nothing gets approved without me giving the OK, ultimately. That’s stuff that you live and you learn. Obviously, it hurts because of all the memories and everything that comes with this and there’s obviously money left on the table. But I think there are also other aspects of the decision and how things shook out that was a good thing, and that I might have had to move on.”
Martin admits, though, that he does sometimes think about the money he left on the table and what could have been if he would have accepted the Heat’s offer.
But he also tries to keep his situation in perspective, considering that he just signed the biggest contract of his NBA career this past summer only three years after initially joining the Heat on a two-way contract during the 2021 offseason.
“I’m very fortunate to be where I’m at and still have another guaranteed four years in this league, which is hard,” said Martin, who went undrafted in 2019 and was waived by the Charlotte Hornets before signing with the Heat on a two-way deal three years ago. “Coming from where I come from, if you would have told me I had a guaranteed nine years in the league, I would have never believed you. Regardless, I’m blessed. I’m very blessed to still be competing at a high level.
“I do feel like I’m in a very good spot. I feel like I would have been in a good place regardless. I would have loved to have come back and made that work, as well. It’s nothing personal against [the Heat]. I have nothing but love for them.”
In an ideal scenario, Martin would have returned to the Heat. That’s what he wanted the outcome to be.
But decisions were made based on expectations that never materialized, and Martin is now a member of the 76ers. With Philadelphia missing at least one of its stars in essentially every game so far this season, Martin has been pushed into a bigger role to help fill that void.
Martin entered Monday’s matchup against the Heat averaging 10.9 points, 5.7 rebounds, 2.7 assists and 1.2 steals in 34.1 minutes per game while shooting 43.1 percent from the field and 32.4 percent from three-point range through the 76ers’ first 12 games of the season. He has started in 11 of those 12 games.
“He’s obviously been a great addition, especially on the defensive end,” 76ers coach Nick Nurse said. “I think he’s really still trying to settle in offensively. He’s not quite sure when to go and when to shoot and when to attack and all that. We’ve had to put the ball in his hands a lot, especially the first six or eight games because of the injuries. He’s probably more suited to be a complementary player, cutter, slasher receiving the ball more than he is delivering it. So hopefully we get him back into a role that he’s a little more comfortable in on the offensive end.”
There won’t be a tribute video for Martin during Monday’s game because the Heat reserves those for returning players who either won an NBA championship or made an NBA All-Star Game while with the team. But there won’t be a shortage of respect shown for what Martin accomplished while with the Heat.
During Martin’s three seasons with the Heat, he played in two Eastern Conference finals and one NBA Finals. He finished just one vote away from being named the 2023 East finals MVP.
“Man, everything,” Martin said when asked what the Heat organization still means to him. “To me, it’s just the cornerstone of how I made a name for myself and who I became as a player. The relationships and the memories, it’s an unforgettable place for me.”
This story was originally published November 18, 2024 at 10:31 AM.
