Polarizing Maverick officially boasts the worst contract in the entire NBA

Nico Harrison's trade deadline blunder earlier this year wasn't just because of the Luka Doncic trade, as the Quentin Grimes-Caleb Martin trade may have been an even worse value proposition for the Dallas Mavericks, even if the Doncic trade was far more catastrophic. Martin had to recover from a right hip strain before he could even get on the court for Dallas last season, and has since turned into one of the worst contracts in the entire NBA.

Based on how Grimes was playing ahead of the trade last season, it wasn't hard to predict that Dallas would ultimately lose the deal, but no one thought Martin's offensive game would completely abandon him to the level it has. Martin practically still has 2.5 seasons left on his current deal, as he's set to bring in $10 million next season, and has a $9.3 million player option for the 2027-28 season that he'd undoubtedly opt in to if his current play continues.

Martin has still proven to be a solid point-of-attack defender as well as a decent rebounder from the wing position, but he's virtually unplayable in most matchups due to how bad he's been offensively. In 14 games with Dallas after the trade last season, Martin averaged 5.4 points per game with shooting splits of 38.9/25.0/62.5 on 19.6 minutes per game, and he's somehow been far worse offensively this season.

Caleb Martin might be on the worst contract in the whole NBA

In 22 games this season, Martin is averaging just 1.2 points per game with shooting splits of 24.3/15.4/87.5 on just over nine minutes per contest. Martin has always had a slight hitch in his shot, but the hitch has seemingly been worse in Dallas. It's gotten to the point where he looks like he has no confidence in his shot, often passing up open looks from outside to drive and swing the ball to someone else.

Martin has accrued some DNP-CDs from Jason Kidd recently, and unless Dallas is playing a team with tons of dynamic guards and wings where they could use an extra boost of perimeter defense, there's virtually no reason for Martin to get any time on the court at this point. Dallas currently doesn't have the flexibility to stretch-and-waive Martin, being hard-capped at the second apron, and it's going to be hard to offload him in a trade considering how low his value is right now.

Perhaps the Mavericks will create the flexibility to get rid of Martin at some point over the next two seasons, but his lack of offensive production has created problems far beyond losing the Grimes trade at this point, as Martin might be one of the most negative assets in the league considering he's already 30 years old and is showing no signs of reverting to the mean.

The Mavericks are starting to turn things around this season and will likely be on the fringes of the playoff race, but having their seventh-highest-paid player be unplayable is a very rough spot to be in for a team that could desperately use Martin if he were playing at a level even close to what he was a few years ago. With no solution to this for the foreseeable future, all Mavericks fans can do is hope Martin starts to play better offensively when given the opportunity.