The Miami Heat have a ton going on right now. With their NBA Free Agency period merely creeping along as they, presumably, sort out their stakes in the chase for Kevin Durant, there is business yet to take care of.
While they did manage to get Dewayne Dedmon and Victor Oladipo back into the mix, they still have work to do on the retention of some more of their own and especially after losing P.J. Tucker to the Philadelphia 76ers.
One of those pieces of business is Caleb Martin. You have to give the Miami Heat credit for initiating things though, as they have extended a qualifying offer to Martin, which allows them to match any offers he might receive.
However, that’s where the questions start. Though the Heat’s qualifying offer stands at $2.1 million dollars for Martin’s services once again, it’s a reasonable assumption to say that he might be able to attract much higher bids on the market.
Miami Heat: Cody Martin Deal Jarring When Thinking About Caleb Martin
That’s not all there is to it though. There’s something very interesting at play when it comes to what Caleb Martin migh tactually be able to claim out there.
Martin’s twin brother, Cody Martin, recently signed a four-year extension with the Charlotte Hornets.
Restricted free agent Cody Martin has agreed to a four-year, $32 million deal to return to the Charlotte Hornets, sources tell @TheAthletic @Stadium.
— Shams Charania (@ShamsCharania) July 2, 2022
Coming in at $8 million dollars per year across the life of the deal, Cody Martin got a pretty nice bump in pay to stay in Charlotte.
Here’s the thing though.
Though Cody Martin was the one kept by Charlotte after actually being drafted by the club in 2019, where Caleb signed on as an undrafted free agent before spending two years with the organization, it’s fair to say that Caleb Martin had the better year of the two in this past season.
That’s not all there either. It’s also fair to wonder if Caleb is the one with the most remaining potential based on his explosive athleticism and growing outside shooting ability.
He’s also shown the ability to be a strong and versatile defensive weapon at times.
Miami Heat: Cody Martin Got $8M Per, So What’s That Mean For Caleb Martin?
Though Cody Martin has been, generally, the better all-around basketball player up until this point by most opinions, Caleb Martin has a top-end potential that Cody may not ever have simply due to more explosive physical gifts.
Either way you slice it, you can say they are comparable players from a production and future potential standpoint. That’s the very least that can be deduced when you analyze them.
If that’s the case, then one might think their deals would be comparable. That’s where things get hairy for the Miami Heat.
The Heat would want to stay below the $6.5 million dollars hard cap range, while the only other option would be an exception that allows them to go higher. While that’s just to give clarity, salary cap gymnastics are entirely too complicated of a sport to act as though it’s as simple as a set of numbers that can be explained in totality here.
The point of it all is that the Miami Heat probably don’t want to get too close to that $8 million dollars per year range, if near at all, for Martin this offseason, as that wouldn’t allow them to do much else at all.
However, if that’s the number that Cody commanded, it wouldn’t be the strangest thing to see Caleb Martin haul in something close to that. And that’s the jarring thing about Cody Martin’s deal with the Charlotte Hornets.