Caleb Martin has been on absolute fire during the Miami Heat's incredible playoff run. As part of his team's much heralded undrafted crew, he has been one of the Heat's most valuable players this postseason and has only improved the deeper they go, and has joined a pretty exclusive club of undrafted players as a result.
In Miami's incredible Game 7 victory over the disappointing Celtics, in which he scored 26 points on 11-16 shooting, Martin took his total points this postseason to 254. That's enough to have him sitting in third place for points scored by an undrafted player in a single postseason. In first place is John Starks, who scored 364 in 1994, while in second place is Austin Reaves, who this year managed 270 before the Los Angeles Lakers were eliminated by the Denver Nuggets.
It's been an incredible performance for Martin not only because he's undrafted, but also because of how well he is played relative to his regular season output. Martin averaged 9.6 points per game in the 2022-23 regular season, shooting 46.4% from the floor and 35.6% from long-range. In the playoffs, playing very similar minutes, that went up to 13.4 points per game per game on 55.3% shooting from the field and 42.2% from three-point range. What's more, he's got better as the playoffs have gone on.
In the Eastern Conference Semifinals against the Celtics, Martin averaged 19.3 points, shooting 60.2% from the field and 48.9% from outside the arc to help the Heat to a seven-game series victory.
With the Heat now set for a date with the Nuggets, Caleb Martin still has plenty of game time to come this postseason, and if he continues playing the way he has been he will certainly move past Reaves and quite possibly surpass John Starks. If he does, expect the Heat to be in the NBA Finals against the Nuggets up to their eyeballs.
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