The Heat won the "Tie-Seven" battle in the NBA Eastern Conference Finals, becoming the second "Black Eight" (8th seed) team in history to reach the Finals.
Named Eastern Conference Finals Most Valuable Player, Jimmy Butler's performance in this playoffs is obvious to all, but fans are also beginning to notice that behind this repeatedly miraculous Heat, Jimmy Butler is surrounded by a group of marginal players who lost the draft.
Before the Eastern Conference Finals, the Heat were not favored by the outside world, and ESPN had predicted that they only had a 3% chance of qualifying, because the Heat's roster was significantly more "shabby" than the Celtics. Green Army stars Jayson Tatum and Jaylen Brown were third in the 2017 and 2016 drafts, respectively, so they are known as the "double scout" combination, and the team's 36-year-old center Al Horford was also a 2007 draft scout.
In contrast, the Heat's top draft pick was the 34-year-old Love, who was selected No. 5 in 2008, but he has long since disappeared and did not play this game; Even the most famous Jimmy Butler and Bam Adebayo are only 30th and 14th picks, respectively.
The Heat miracle reached the Finals, when the spotlight focused on Jimmy Butler and Bam Adebayo, in fact, there were many undrafted players in the Heat's roster, including 3 who started in this "tie-seven" battle, including Caleb Martin, Gabe Vincent and Max Strus.
The Heat's most overlooked soldier
At one point, the Heat led the Green Army to 3-0, and a group of players other than Jimmy Butler were the talk of the day, when Caleb Martin was already the team's most plus-minus player in the playoffs this season, compared to Jimmy Butler's fifth place. Jimmy Butler scored a game-high 28 points in this "tie-break" game, but he shot 12 of 28 shots in the game, and Caleb Martin scored 26 points with an efficient performance of 11-of-16, so many media and fans believe that he is the biggest contributor to the Heat's win of this game, and it is said that Caleb Martin should be elected Eastern Conference Finals MVP. In fact, the two voted 5-4, and Caleb Martin lost by only 1 vote.
If you look at the Eastern Conference Finals data alone, Jimmy Butler averaged 24.7 points, 7.6 rebounds and 6.1 assists per game, which is indeed significantly better than Caleb Martin's 19.3 points, 6.4 rebounds and 1.7 assists. However, in terms of shooting percentage, Jimmy Butler's average shooting rate of 42% is significantly behind Caleb Martin's 60.2%, of course, there are also factors that the former is focused on defense.
What is the origin of Caleb Martin, who can compete with Jimmy Butler in this series and help the team reach the Finals?
Caleb Martin, 27, entered the draft with his twin brother Cody after graduating from college in 2019, and his brother was selected by the Hornets with the 36th pick in the second round, and Caleb Martin was undrafted. He then signed with the Hornets, but was then sent to the Development League, and was not very popular after returning to the Hornets, making only 4 starts in two seasons and being fired in the summer of 2021.
Just as the Heat were looking for a role player who could help defend, by chance, Caleb Martin impressed the Heat coaching team after getting a tryout opportunity and gained more playing time, starting most of the regular season this season, scoring only 7th on the team; Coming to the playoffs (not counting the playoffs), he started only 3 games in total, averaging 14.1 points per game and ranking third on the team, second only to Jimmy Butler and Bam Adebayo, and is the most overlooked "surprise soldier" by the outside world.
The counterattack of the losing player
In Game 1 against the Bucks in this season's playoffs, lead shooter Tyler Herro fractured his right hand and has since been absent, averaging 20.1 points per game in the regular season, ranking third among the Heat. After losing the scoring point of Taylor Hiro , Jimmy Butler stepped up to save the team several times , and then made 25 % of the team's shots in the next four games against the Bucks.
Jimmy Butler has repeatedly been in the media spotlight and has begun to be heavily targeted by opponents, with his shooting percentage dropping significantly from 59.7% in the first round to 43.2% in the semifinals and 42% in this series. His number of shots also declined , with the semifinals against the Knicks , where he shot only 18 percent of the team , and only recovered to 24 percent in the Eastern Conference finals against the Celtics.
Jimmy Butler's number of shots and shooting percentage have declined, and the team can still win smoothly, which means that he began to pass more to his teammates, and also said that the Heat did not have only one scoring point, and this group of frustrated troops who were once undrafted in the NBA draft are becoming the secret weapon of the Heat's repeated defeat of strong opponents.
Heat 5 draft unsuccessful players this season playoff stats:
Caleb Martin (lost in the 2019 draft) / averaged 14.1 points, 5.7 rebounds per game
Gabe Vincent (lost in the 2018 draft) / averaged 13.1 points, 3.9 assists per game
Max Strus (lost in the 2019 draft) / averaged 10.3 points, 3.3 rebounds per game
Duncan Robinson (lost in the 2018 draft) / Averaged 9.3 points, 1.7 assists per game
Haywood Highsmith (lost in the 2018 draft) / averaged 3.2 points, 1.1 rebounds per game
In this best-of-seven game, in addition to Caleb Martin, Gabe Vincent and Max Strus, the Heat's draft losers include Duncan Robinson and Heywood Highsmith. Caleb Martin, Gabe Vincent and Max Strus are averaging double-digit points per game in the playoffs this season, and Duncan Robinson is also averaging near double digits per game.
If you just look at the above data and still think that this group of players is just "Jimmy Butler Friends", then you can look at the Heat's average three-point shooting in the playoffs this season: Gabe Vincent 2.4, Duncan Robinson 2.3, Caleb Martin 2.2, Max Strus 2.1 - these 4 are in the top 4 of the team, compared to Jimmy Butler averaged 1.2 goals per game, if you do not count Taylor Hiro who only played one playoff game, he ranks 6th on the team. 5th place was Loafer (1.6 goals).
These four losers averaged at least two three-pointers per game for the Heat, providing the Heat with plenty of outside firepower. The Heat are averaging 13.1 three-pointers per game in the playoffs this season, ranking fifth in the league — and the four of them have nine of them, while the Heat are the league in the league in 39 percent three-point shooting.
Defeating the Eastern Conference "one brother" Bucks in the first round, facing the second-placed Celtics in the Eastern Conference Finals, they were chased for three consecutive games after leading by three games, and were under the pressure of "let three chase four" win the key game for the first time in history. Behind Jimmy Butler lifting the Eastern Conference Finals MVP trophy, the story of this group of players fighting back and surprising outsiders to reach the Finals cannot be ignored.
Temporary failure is not everything, and how to overcome it after setbacks is a difficult problem that athletes need to face in their lives. As Heat coach Erik Spoelstra said after the game: "Sometimes you need to suffer for what you really want, and when this team inevitably suffers from loss and failure, they show perseverance and regain confidence to move forward until they achieve what they want to achieve." ”
The Heat made it to the Finals, making it only the second miracle of the No. 8 seed in history (the first time in NBA history that the No. 8-seeded team reached the Finals, the 1999 Knicks, who lost to the Spurs), but the story of this group of losers is not over. Maybe when you watch the Heat face the Nuggets, it's no longer just Jimmy Butler and Nikola Jokic.