The Miami Heat's Caleb Martin has been a standout for the team ever since his crucial performance in the miraculous playoff run from last season. Trying to translate that to this current season, it's been an uphill battle as he suffered from an off-season knee injury. In an exclusive interview with ClutchPoints, he opened up about the recovery process, his mindset, and more.
After missing most of the preseason, he was involved with the Heat in the opener on Oct. 25 against the Detroit Pistons. However, he would have a disappointing outing scoring two points in 20 minutes. He would miss time until Nov. 16 against the Nets and has been trying to find his footing since then.
However, as the Heat were short of people with injuries against the Nets last Saturday, Martin had his best game of the season by far as he scored 22 points, collected seven rebounds, and recorded three assists. More importantly, he played a season-high 31 minutes. He said to ClutchPoints that he's “feeling better” as the games and days go by.
“I'm feeling good. As the games go by, I'm getting better, just feeling better and you know, that was my first real test going on the back-to-back,” Martin said. “So just seeing how I recover from that, which I had a good day of treatment and then the next day. So, it's definitely going in the right direction.”
Martin's “frustrating” recovery process with the Heat
When asked about if the time sitting with the injury was frustrating or if he knew the circumstances he was in, Martin was honest with ClutchPoints, saying it was a mixture of both. With all the up-and-downs, Martin opened up about the recovery process and acknowledged that it was “frustrating” to go through since he's eager to help out his teammates.
“A little bit of both, even though you understand that it's not easy going through it, you definitely want to be back 100% with the next day you get back,” Martin said. “So, just understanding that it's gonna be a process and understanding that it's going to take time to get back acclimated to the game because nothing really emulates playing other than playing. Trying to be easy on the physical side of things and understanding it's gonna take a little bit of time, but find a positive thing each game.”
Martin's mental approach and what Erik Spoelstra saw from him
What was apparent from Caleb Martin was the fact he was mentally prepared for what stood in the way. He mentioned that every year is a “mental battle” and that it's important to see the positives rather than the negatives.
“Definitely mentally. Each year is a mental battle just in terms of just saying level, you know, not getting too high, not getting too low, you're gonna have good moments and bad. Possibly more bad than good,” Martin said. “Just trying to find a positive to each day, find a way to get better, even on the bad days. It's really important.”
Someone who saw that positive improvement from Martin was Heat head coach Erik Spoelstra. He said that besides what the final stat-line of the Nets game shows, he evaluates the 28-year old on a different level.
“What I'm evaluating is not what everybody else is evaluating. Everybody else is evaluating that final column, how many points did he score, that's not the deal,” Spoelstra said. “It's the quick twitch, it's the multiple efforts, his burst and speed that makes him unique and then the fact that he's able to play in the back-to-back and recover in practice today, those are big things for us. We'll continue to build on that and can see how he builds on a different element of quickness and speed that's dynamic to the team.”
With the statuses of such players as Jimmy Butler still up in the air, players like Martin and rookie Jaime Jaquez Jr. are sure to be very active in their next game against the Milwaukee Bucks tomorrow. It'll be the Heat's last group play game in the NBA In-Season Tournament where if they want a shot to advance to the next round, their main focus is to obviously win.
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