During the off-season two years ago, the assistant professor of the Heat team, Karon Butler, received a call.
“Hey, I have a buddy here. He was cut off by the Hornets. I came to my training room to train every day. I know he has potential. He killed all sides in the North Carolina competition, he has enough talent and talent. You should give him a chance to try.”
The call was made by the famous rapper Joe Cole. Cole was not only famous in the rap circle, but also performed in NBA All-Star Game as a midfield guest. He was also a good basketball player when he was over 1.9 meters tall, in the past two years, he played for the Patriots in Rwanda and the Scarborough Star team in Canada respectively. Karon Butler told the Heat coach SIBO about this. SIBO then the player who was cut off by the Hornets sent an invitation to invite him to participate in the public match in the Heat team.
Joe Cole and Calon Butler (already fat)
Two years later, the player who once had no goal to play at that time scored 26 points, 10 rebounds and 3 assists in the 7th World War in the East games, lead the team to the finals-this is not a single outbreak. In the 7 games of the Eastern finals, he averaged 19.3 points and 6.4 rebounds, with a hit rate of 60.2%+48.9%+87.5%, he lost to Jimmy Butler by only one vote in the east decision MVP vote, and almost won the Larry Bird cup of east decision MVP at Boston’s home court.
And the player who took the play of the hero of Shuang Wen was the Heat’s Kaleb Martin.
In the cognition of most NBA fans, the higher the playoff game, the more the outcome of the game depends on the performance of the stars. The Celtics held the two stars of the league’s first and second teams this season, including last year’s best defensive player and this year’s second defense player, even the substitute has the sixth best player of this year and a second defense player of last year. In terms of the number of stars and the depth of the lineup, the Celtics have no residue left to burst the heat.
But why? Martin, who was put on the bench by SIBO in the late regular season and didn’t play the first start until the sixth game of the East games, could play the performance of the star in two consecutive games, which became the key to deciding the decision of a game?
Perhaps because Martin never regarded himself as a small role. After putting Martin on the first line in the sixth game, SIBO said: “He has been preparing for this for 12 months. You know he is a very proud person and he doesn’t like to be dissed, I don’t like being looked down.” In that game, although the Heat team was killed by white, Martin had an excellent performance of 21 points and 15 rebounds.
During his college days, Martin and his brother Kodi Martin worked together at the University of Nevada, where former Warriors and King coach muselman coached. In his senior year, Martin scored an average of 19.2 points and 5.1 rebounds in the game and got the player of the year in the competition area, helping the team to enter the NCAA championship for two consecutive years, but the scouts frowned at his 24-year-old age. After losing the Martin draft, he played for the wasp for two seasons with his younger brother who was selected by the wasp. The performance can only be said to be plain (the average score is 5 points, 37.5% is field goal percentage, and 24.8% is 3 points hit rate).
But the Miami Heat team is recognized as the paradise of the drop draft by the whole league. Any player with dreams, no matter how humble his background is or how mediocre his talent is, as long as he can endure the heat Team’s harsh training intensity and body control standards, the Heat team will give them a chance to prove themselves.
In the summer of 2021, after signing lorry and Tucker, the Heat team gave Martin a two-way contract with an annual salary of 450000. When it comes to changing from a standard contract to a two-way contract, Martin said at that time: “In any case, this is an opportunity. The amount of money is different from the playing time, but I do have the opportunity to change my situation and I am expected to return to the rotation lineup. The outside world praised the heat a lot. Obviously, they have a winning culture and value the development of players. They have great plans to cultivate everyone. As far as the game style is concerned, I am very suitable for the Heat.”
Caleb Martin and twin brother Kodi Martin (the one who was knocked down by Guo Allen in the 2020 Summer League)
In today’s league, it is impossible for a flank player to have no shooting ability. Martin also knew that this was the most important reason why he was abandoned by the wasp. He said: “At that time, I am a player who couldn’t make a shot (31 out of 125 in the wasp career), and I fully understood wasp’s decision.”
Therefore, Martin’s top priority when he came to the heat was to correct his shooting action with Eric glass (a teaching assistant who had been following SIBO for 10 years). Glass, like guiding Vincent, took Martin to disassemble the video frame by frame and analyze his shooting problems. Martin always had a pause after receive the ball. Glass said he needed to raise the shot directly receive the ball. Martin adjusted his shooting posture in the boring and repetitive training, which also became the top priority for him to have a place in the heat in the future.
Eric Glass-long-term assistant of the Heat team
SPO said in an interview on November 24, 21, “speed, agility and hard work are Martin’s labels. He is a unique player who can inspire more energy in his team. Before we signed him, we were his fans. Next, he just needs to continue his efforts to prepare for his opportunity. “After Martin came to the heat, he first gained a foothold by defense. Spike’s first requirement for him was to become a reliable 3D player, to understand the team’s defense system, to cope with from Morant to Tatum every night, from the defender of 1.9 meters to the power forward of 2.06 meters.
Martin also completed his task very well. In the continuous anti-release of the warehouse, he made 3 out of 17 shots, 4 out of Trey-Yang’s 15 shots, and 3 out of Paul’s 9 shots, martin won the trust of spike.
On December 9, 21, in the absence of Butler’s War, Martin ushered in a real milestone night of his career: he cut 28 points and 8 rebounds in 12 shots and 9 shots that night, there were 8 shots and 6 shots in the three-point goals that he was not good at. He even shot the three points in the first conversion attack in his career, which he dared not think about before. He helped the team win the stag in the full lineup-you should know that the stag won 10 games in 11 games after brother alphabet returned, and only lost such a game.
This game also established Martin’s position in the heat. After the game, Martin said that people’s impression of him was a defensive expert rather than an offensive core, which was very interesting, because he was always the leader of the team before he entered the league.
During the offseason, the Heat team also gave him a 3-year 20.5 million-year contract extension. Pat Riley said at that time, “Martin can play multiple positions. He is energetic and very young. With his efforts, he deserves this contract, we are very happy with his return.”
And this is also due to Tucker’s departure-last summer, Tucker decided to go to 76 people to rush to harden, and Martin, who was only 1.96 meters tall, became the first forward of the heat. As the main force in 49 games, Martin handed over the data sheet with an average of 10.1 points 5.2 rebounds and 45.4%+36.1%+76.4% hit rate.
But with the Heat signing Kevin loafers in the middle of the season, Martin was put back to the bench by Spike. Worried that Martin was unhappy, SPO wrote a full page of composition to Martin at that time, explaining to him why he did this, however, Martin accepted the arrangement of SIBO frankly-the Heat starting lineup has too much body weakness and flat projection ability. Loafers projection and figure are indeed more suitable for starting. Martin has no complaints about this.
However, whether starting or replacing, Martin was ready. He wore a hot No. 16 jersey, just like James Johnson, the last owner of the jersey, both of them can hold the third and fourth positions, and have the defensive ability full of oppression in the same position. Both of them can hold the ball to promote the organization and actively fight for the rebound. The only difference is that Martin’s three-point shot is more determined, and this is the key to his becoming Butler’s right-hand man.
After the third heat team beat the Celtics 26 points in the East games, Celtics coach marzula was asked why the team always released Martin and replied, “If we want to bag clip Butler, martin will be the point that has to be emptied. We need discipline at the defensive end to avoid those mistakes as much as possible.”
But marzula certainly couldn’t figure it out. Martin, who shot only 35.6 percent of the regular season’s three points, how to play Celtics so accurately?
Martin said after 10 of the first three points of 21 against the Celtics series, “this must be disrespectful to me, but the team will always have game plans and arrangements, and I accept this result. Therefore, if the empty I am part of their plan, then my plan is to remain confident. If they should take the shot, they will start to adjust, and I will also make adjustments.”
During the regular season, Martin averaged 0.8 receive the ball points, with a hit rate of 33.3 percent. During the whole playoff period, Martin shot 51.7 percent of the three points in receive the ball. In the series against Celtics, his three-point shooting rate increased to 61.5 percent in receive the ball, the number of hits is 2.7 times faster than the regular season. There were only 4 single games of 20 + Martin in the regular season, and there were 4 playoff games of 20 + this season, and the two 25 + games happened in the last two games of Dong Ji.
Just like the unexplainable Miami Heat in the playoffs this season, Martin’s three-point ball also broke out during the East games. Not only the three points in the open hand, the counterattack in the push of the ball, the breakthrough in the ground battle, the defense that has always been powerful, Martin’s last two games are just like when he was in college, between raising his hand and lifting his feet, perfect Heat 2 star. During the East games, Martin’s scores/rebounds/three hit rates all exceeded Jay Brown. Such an exaggerated plot, even hot fans, are afraid to think about it?
Speaking of Martin’s outstanding performance after the game, Adebayor said: “What you can’t see is his hard work behind the scenes. After losing seven games last year, Martin said: ‘I want to be the reason why we can win. I want to be the reason why we won the key match. ‘”
Before the playoffs began, the Heat team lost to the Eagles in the first game of the play-off. At the last 3 minutes 45 seconds of the second play-off, it was still 3 points behind the bull. Finally, it was hard to win the playoffs. No one was optimistic that they could win the Bucks. However, from 4-1 Black Eight bucks to the second round of 4-2 winning the Knicks, ESPN thought that there was only a 3% probability of winning the Celtics before the East decision, to 3-0 lead and then 3-3 was chased up to win and grab seven away.
Can’t you win the playoffs if there are few stars? Butler said after the game today: “I don’t want to call my teammates role players. They are my teammates. I know how hard they work.”
In NBA, everyone is Jordan in his own story, but those who can wake up the DNA of these underestimated players’ stars really depend on the team’s subtle cultivation ability.
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