Amid Heat contract consternation stands positive payoff of Caleb Martin

Amid the contract consternation that has cast concern about the competitive capacity of the Miami Heat stands Exhibit A of money well spent.

Even if he no longer stands in the starting lineup.

Because all Caleb Martin has done this season for Erik Spoelstra’s team is anything that has been asked. And has done it in the first year of a three-year, $20.4 million contract.

“Man,” center Bam Adebayo said ahead of Monday night’s game against the Atlanta Hawks at Miami-Dade Arena. “Caleb has been probably the bright spot on our team. Through the ups and downs, he’s always been consistent. And he’s one of those guys that you can always rely on. He’s going to play hard. He’s going to try to make the right plays.”

After starting in his first 49 appearances, Martin has shifted back to the reserved role he played last season, accommodating the Heat’s buyout-deadline signing of Kevin Love.

In doing so, the 6-foot-5 wing has replicated the role he utilized to make his breakthrough last season in his debut with the Heat, when he energized and anchored the second unit, going from a two-way contract, to a standard deal that made him playoff eligible, to the three-year free-agency contract built off of a piece of the Heat’s mid-level exception.

“Since we made the change,” Spoelstra said of the lineup switch, “he’s been one of the consistent bright spots in our rotation. He’s had an immediate impact, with his energy, his activity, his speed, his quickness. That role just fits him naturally well.

“And it’s not an indictment about him as a starter, at all, because he gave us some really good minutes there. But he’s a game-changing type of player when you bring him off the bench and he kind of ignites that unit. He’s like Bam. He’s about all the right things. So when he plays well, you have a lot of guys rooting for him.”

Unlike the undersized challenge as the starting power forward, there again is the freedom to harass defensively on the perimeter, slash to the rim without getting in the way of starters such as Adebayo and Jimmy Butler, and play without as much concern about early foul trouble.

“The good thing,” the affable 27-year-old said, “is I get to watch how the game is going before I get in. And see how I can manipulate in whatever way I can.”

Even as the Heat struggled coming out of the All-Star break, Martin stood as a bright spot, playing hard to the finish of games that the Heat found hard to finish.

“I just think I’ve been doing most of that for my career,” Martin said of energizing without regard to score or desperation, “so I think it’s easier to go back to that right now. But I just think that’s just part of being versatile and just being able to mesh with whatever I need to mesh with.”

On a roster where Duncan Robinson has slid to the end of the bench amid a five-year, $90 million contract, where Kyle Lowry has been out of sight in the middle of a three-year, $85 million deal, where the two-year, $18 million deal extended last summer to Victor Oladipo is drawing second glance, Martin stands as somewhat of a salary revelation, his $7.1 million for next season only seventh on the 2023-24 Heat hierarchy.

All while showing that he can start if needed, boost the bench if required.

“I feel like this role now,” Adebayo said, “he’s more free than he was in the starting lineup. And it’s good for him to see him flourish again.”

Basically from undersized power forward to oversized value.

“I’m just trying to be ready when I have my opportunities,” Martin said. “However I do it with the second unit is going to be a little different from the first unit. But just however I get it done, that’s how I’m going to do it.”

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