Sixers film study: Can Caleb Martin alter his style to fit in Philadelphia?

The most conventional way for a team to maximize significant cap space is signing the best player available, but another manner in which that financial flexibility can be utilized is waiting out players whose markets crater and signing them to deals below their expected market value.

This summer, the Sixers did both.

The team adding Paul George has grabbed most of the headlines. But days later, the team secured a four-year deal with trusted two-way wing Caleb Martin worth a base total of about $35 million, containing a player option in the final year. Martin, who is entering his age-29 season, spent the first two years of his career with the Charlotte Hornets before spending three years with the Miami Heat and blossoming into a quality piece of the team's rotation, helping power them to the 2023 NBA Finals.

Martin figures to slot into Sixers head coach Nick Nurse's starting five alongside George, Tyrese Maxey, Kelly Oubre Jr. and Joel Embiid. So, what kind of player are the Sixers getting in Martin and how does he fit alongside those pieces?

Statistical / Athletic Profile

Martin played in 64 games (23 starts) for the Heat in 2023-24, playing 27.4 minutes per game and averaging 10.0 points, 4.4 rebounds and 2.2 assists while shooting 43.1 percent from the field and 34.9 percent from three-point range (3.6 three-point attempts per game).

Listed at 6-foot-5 and 205 pounds with a 6-foot-10 wingspan, Martin is not the size of a traditional power forward, but because of the makeup of the roster he is joining, that will likely be where he plays most of his minutes -- at least while the Sixers maintain this iteration of the roster.

Spot-up shooting

This is perhaps the most important offensive skill for anybody playing alongside the Sixers' new All-Star trio of Joel Embiid, Tyrese Maxey and Paul George. And while Martin is often labeled as a "3&D" wing and is certainly capable of getting hot from beyond the arc, he is not a surefire, knockdown shooter, rather a decent one. In the Sixers' offense, that should be more than acceptable, particularly because his shot profile is more impressive than his three-point percentage.

Martin is willing to let it fly right off the catch in the half-court, and is also comfortable launching in transition -- where he may see many opportunities with the Sixers:

Martin also does not need to be stationary to fire away, as his comfort level shooting on the move is much higher than what one might expect from a player who is considered only an okay three-point shooter:

A career 35.7 three-point shooter on three long-range tries per game, Martin has a diverse enough shot portfolio to outweigh slightly suboptimal efficiency. He could see an uptick in three-point percentage playing alongside Embiid, Maxey and George -- a situation that may enable him to be a bit more judicious about which shots he takes.

Rebounding

Martin's likely transition to being a full-time power forward being a success or a failure hinges on a few things, and this is one of them: will he contribute to the team's continued difficulties on the glass, or will he not be a liability at the position despite his frame that is underwhelming for a four?

Martin has averaged 5.9 rebounds per 36 minutes for his career, certainly an underwhelming mark for someone expected to play power forward. One would certainly imagine that Martin's rebounding will peak during his time with the Sixers -- as long as this roster construction is sustained -- as he will be around the rim more than ever, and one would imagine that rebounding is going to become somewhat of a point of emphasis for him.

There is no question that Martin has the strength, physicality and length to improve his rebounding as he transitions to spending more time on the interior. But how will those tools play when he is battling for positioning against true bigs? The answer will help determine whether or not the Sixers can turn around their identity as a poor rebounding team.

Scoring

While Martin will never be a go-to scorer, he will never need to be on this team. The situation he is entering will enable him to pick and choose the right spots to be assertive with the ball, otherwise allowing the team's trio of three-level scorers to take the reins. Martin has some key factors working in his favor in terms of scoring the ball, though.

The first is that, from an instinctual standpoint, Martin is very good at utilizing his wingspan and long strides to get to the rim, particularly in transition. Martin's film indicates that he clearly has a knack for this, and it is an immensely valuable skill:

Martin is also not remotely intimidated by the prospect of taking a hit en route to the rim. He will gladly absorb contact and finish through it. Additionally, he is not a poor ball-handler whatsoever -- unlikely many wings in the general vicinity of his scoring production -- and frequents a left-to-right crossover move that gets him going downhill in his preferred direction:

Is Martin qualified to be a team's second or third option on offense? Not for more than a few minutes at a time here and there. But he is likely somewhat overqualified for the offensive role he will occupy in Philadelphia, and that is always the hope for role players: ask them to do what you know they can do and accept anything else as a bonus instead of banking on improvement that has yet to be seen.

Defense

I saved this section for last because I believe it is the most interesting of the bunch. I feel that way for this reason: Martin has a lengthy track record as a successful defensive player, but he has generally not thrived in the ways that Nurse typically asks his wing defenders to impact the game. On top of that, he is making the aforementioned position change, which completely alters the profile of players he will be defending on a nightly basis.

On defense, Nurse typically deploys his wings in aggressive manners. As someone who puts a significant emphasis on the possession battle, he puts a tremendous amount of value on creating turnovers, and forcing turnovers requires aggressive coverages at the risk of fouling. Martin's defensive film shows a player who is often content to keep his hands out of the cookie jar and avoid fouling his man, even if it means not going for a steal. He only averaged 0.7 steals per game last season; it is a safe bet that figure will increase playing under Nurse.

Watch how Martin is capable of holding his own and getting a stop without fouling against DeMar DeRozan, one of the league's toughest one-on-one covers and foremost foul-drawers:

Additionally, Martin spent a lot of time defending wings as well as a significant chunk of time defending guards in Miami. With the Sixers, he will be matched up with bigs far more often than guards to begin the season due to the team's sheer lack of muscle. No player with Martin's frame is going to get stops against large wings and true bigs every time down the floor, but the new Sixer absolutely refuses to be physically overpowered:

The key point here, though, should not be that Martin and Nurse will be incompatible on defense; rather that Martin has all of the requisite tools for Nurse to mold him in whatever fashion he deems appropriate.

Some are of the belief that players should rely on their instincts and it is the job of the coach to craft a scheme to optimize those instincts -- perhaps Nurse will recalibrate how he wants his wings to operate defensively. But it is not as if Martin is incapable of becoming the sort of player Nurse typically covets. He is simply good to very good at enough aspects of defense that it is easy to imagine him being malleable in his role on that end of the floor based on whatever Nurse's preferences end up being.

Martin's instincts and length should enable him to force more turnovers than he has in the past should Nurse instruct him to play with more aggression. Here, he helps as a doubler and forces a turnover against Giannis Antetokounmpo:

The question likely is not whether Martin will be able to adapt as a defender to fit Nurse's style, but how long it will take for him to do so. It may not be a perfect match in the opening weeks of the regular season, but there is nothing about Martin's tools and skills on defense that make me think this is a transition he is not fully capable of making.

Conclusion

Martin is unquestionably a good player, and he is one who can be trusted on both ends of the floor. For the price the Sixers paid to get him, it is hard to imagine them not receiving a strong return on investment. But that does not mean there will not be an adjustment period of some sort. Do not be surprised if it takes Martin a little while to get in a groove as he and Nurse work to optimize his role -- particularly on the defensive end of the floor -- but after diving into the film and numbers, this still feels like a terrific acquisition for the Sixers.

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