The Luka Doncic trade was not the only self-inflicted wound the Mavericks made this season. They also traded productive and talented Quentin Grimes and a second-round pick for Caleb Martin and a worse second round pick before the 2025 trade deadline ended.
Here’s the one sentence summary of that trade: Martin’s performance in Dallas was so bad that it questioned whether the Doncic trade was the worst trade Dallas made this season.
This feels unfair to Martin, and it is — he didn’t ask to be traded, and he was hurt for most of the season. It’s not Martin’s fault he was traded when he was, or how he was hurt, and it’s not Martin’s fault that the player he was traded for blew up with his new team. This trade’s results so far are solely Nico Harrison to blame.
But the only way to talk about Martin’s short season with Dallas is to talk about the trade, and there’s just no getting around it. It was bad. Let’s just rip the band aid off.
Season in Review
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Martin was traded to Dallas on Feb. 4 and did not play his first game with the Mavericks until March 7 — a full month after the acquisition. Dallas traded for Martin while he was out with a hip injury, and Martin failed his physical. The Mavericks actually had a chance to cancel the deal, but decided to instead keep the deal mostly the same except for Philadelphia to toss in an almost worthless future second-round pick.
Once Martin did suit up for the Mavericks it wasn’t pretty. He averaged 5.4 points, 2.9 rebounds, and 1.9 assists per game while shooting 38.9 percent from the field (42.9 percent from two) and 25 percent from three. Martin was a staggering 4-of-16 total from three in his 14 games and 275 minutes played with Dallas this season, and I honestly can’t figure out which number is more embarrassing, the makes or the attempts.
Martin was a complete non-factor as the Mavericks season swirled around the toilet bowl after the Doncic deal. Unable to do much of anything and battling off-and-on injuries even when he did return in March, Martin is the unfortunate poster-child for how wrong this Mavericks season went. He was hurt for most of his time with the Mavericks and when he did play, he played poorly.
To say one good thing here, Martin’s defense was at times inspiring for the brief stretches he was able to stay on the floor consistently. One could even say his perimeter defense was more impressive than Grimes, but perhaps not so much impressive that it makes up for Grimes turning into a 25 points per game scorer in Philadelphia, while Grimes was one of the least productive offensive players in the entire league post trade deadline.
Best Game
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This was legitimately hard to figure out, since Martin did not reach double-digit points scored in any of his games with the Mavericks. And even when he did near that 10-point threshold, he did so in ugly losses and inefficient shooting lines. So his “best” game was April 2 in a clutch win against the Hawks. Martin had eight points on 2-of-4 shooting, but played a season-high (for the Mavericks) 28 minutes and hounded Trae Young across the floor during the fourth quarter.
It was the only stretch Martin played where you could see the vision of why the trade was made — Martin is a much stickier perimeter defender than Grimes, and is much harder to screen. Too bad it was just a brief vision — Martin followed this performance up with zero points in 18 minutes two days later in a blowout loss to the Clippers.
Contract Status
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Martin has three years left of his original 4-year, $35 million deal he signed with Philadelphia last summer. Martin will get paid $9.6 million next season, $10 million in 2026-2027, and then have a $9.4 million player-option for the 2027-2028 season.
Presumably the Mavericks did this deal partially because Martin’s contract was a known quantity, and Grimes restricted free agent status means he could have signed a big offer sheet that the Mavericks couldn’t accept. None of this really matters if Martin shoots the basketball like he has two left hands but hey, at least his salary slots into a potential bigger trade this summer.
Looking Ahead
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If Martin is on the Mavericks roster next season, he’ll undoubtedly play better because it’s almost impossible for him to play any worse. Martin needs to get healthy and stay on the floor to give the Mavericks some resemblance of both three and “D”, for a team that will need as much as it can get around their now aging and injury prone core.
That is to say it’s a pretty big “if” for whether Martin will still be on the team. While his trade value obviously will never be lower than it is now, his salary could help fit the final pieces of a bigger trade. Grimes restricted free agency status probably made him harder to deal if the Mavericks wanted, and teams need these smaller or mid-sized contracts to add up the money if they want to make a big splash through trades. My guess is Martin is tossed into a big deal to help make the financials work. Kevin Durant, perhaps? Who knows.
Grade: F
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This seems really harsh for Martin, who tried his best and was cursed with injury for his short Mavericks tenure after the trade deadline. But we have to call it like it is, and Martin’s production was just absolutely horrific whenever he was on the floor.
We haven’t even mentioned yet that Martin scored zero (0) points in the Mavericks two play-in games, despite playing a total of 23 minutes. He was 0-for-4 from the field. Good grief.