The Mavericks' Caleb Martin problem is worse than anyone could have expected

With just six games remaining in their regular season, the Dallas Mavericks are almost certainly going to be in the Play-In Tournament upon the conclusion of the regular season. Dallas will likely get home-court advantage in their first play-in game as well, as it seems increasingly likely that the Mavericks will beat out the Sacramento Kings for the ninth seed in the Western Conference.

This comes even after Dallas suffered one of their worst losses of the season to the Brooklyn Nets on Monday night, as the Mavericks’ perimeter defense struggled mightily in that contest, and their lack of playmaking with Brandon Williams being ineligible to play anymore games this season on his two-way deal hurt Dallas severely. 

There are some ways Dallas could address trying to reunite Williams with the squad before the playoffs, but they will have to survive this stretch with Spencer Dinwiddie as their only real playmaker until then. Dallas could have easily avoided this issue, even with the colossal failure that the Luka Doncic trade has been, but Nico Harrison opted to trade Quentin Grimes for Caleb Martin just days after the Doncic trade. 

Caleb Martin's struggles in Dallas are impossible to ignore

Grimes is playing at an absurd level right now on both ends, and he’s elevated his game to become an elite shot creator and above-average playmaker for the Philadelphia 76ers at only 24 years of age. Harrison gave up on Grimes way too quickly, considering that he was showing signs of blossoming into this type of player with the Mavs, not to mention that keeping Grimes would’ve given Dallas the cap relief to sign Williams well before April 10.

Meanwhile, Martin is playing some of the worst basketball of his career through eight games in Dallas, and he still doesn’t seem to be 100 percent healthy given his limited time on the court ever since he’s come back from his hip strain. Dallas has kept Martin out of some back-to-backs, and Jason Kidd has been reluctant to play him beyond 15-20 minutes per game, barring Dallas's game versus the Houston Rockets a few weeks ago.

Martin is moving decently well on the court, but he’s shooting terribly from beyond the arc on limited attempts thus far. Obviously, Martin isn’t the ball handler that Grimes is, but he’s proven to be a capable driver when attacking off closeouts and in transition, though fans haven’t seen this element of his game flourish with the Mavs yet, outside of a few plays.

In 17.6 minutes per game with the Mavericks so far, Martin is averaging 4.6 points, 3.0 rebounds, and 1.9 assists per game on 41.2/14.3/66.7 shooting splits. Martin has looked hesitant as ever in regard to his shot despite being a slightly above-average 3-point shooter throughout most of his career, and whatever the reason for this is whether it be trying regain confidence after injury or he simply doesn’t have his legs in his shot yet, it’s been tough sledding for him in Dallas so far.

At 29 years old, Martin shouldn’t be completely washed by any means, and this is typically the time when role players like him peak in their careers. It’s not fair to scale his performance to what Grimes is doing with the 76ers, as that was an ill-sighted move by Harrison, but Martin isn’t even giving the Mavericks what he was brought in to do.

If anything, Martin has been a solid transition defender and has done decent against mid-tier ball handlers while defending at the point-of-attack for the Mavericks, but no fans expected him to be this little of a contributor on a Mavericks roster that needs all the help they can get.

Hopefully, Martin can turn things around over the last handful of games in the regular season and whatever postseason action he receives. Dallas has to hope that he can salvage the slightest bit of positive value back on the Grimes trade, as it’s already shaping up to be a huge net-negative move by Harrison, but Martin performing better would at least help out a bit and give fans more hope heading into the offseason.

Martin and the Mavericks will be back in action versus the Atlanta Hawks tonight, where we’ll have you covered with the latest.