Beyond trading Luka Doncic for a meagre return, the Dallas Mavericks had a perplexing trade deadline, to put it mildly. Sending Quentin Grimes and a 2025 second-round pick to the Philadelphia 76ers in exchange for Caleb Martin was the less well-publicized trade. Martin has been sidelined since January 10th because of a hip issue. The Mavericks ultimately renegotiated the deal because they believed the hip injury would keep Martin out longer than expected. It was believed that he would be close to making a comeback around the trade deadline and was even labelled as questionable to play for the 76ers on the day of the trade. However, he made a suggestion that he might be coming back soon on his Instagram story on Monday.
Martin won’t help solve Dallas’ frontcourt issues, as Anthony Davis, Daniel Gafford, Dereck Lively II, and Dwight Powell all deal with injuries, but he will provide another quality 3&D defender when he’s healthy. Before going down with injury, Martin was averaging 9.1 PPG and 4.4 RPG while shooting 37.9% from three. He had some big playoff moments for the Miami Heat, including nearly being named Eastern Conference Finals MVP in 2023.
He will have to make up for the loss of Grimes, though. Max Christie has filled in that role exceptionally well, but in a one-for-one trade like this was, essentially, Martin has to show he can play to Grimes’ caliber. And Grimes dropped 30 points and 9 rebounds in the final game before the All-Star Break.
Dallas won’t play again until Friday against the New Orleans Pelicans, and it’s unlikely we’ll get any concrete injury news until the initial injury report on Thursday.
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