Caleb Martin is the Miami Vice-president

He didn't get the Eastern Finals MVP but he led the 8th-seeded Heat to the main event.

Caleb Martin wasn’t good enough to play for the Charlotte Hornets, which says more about them than him.

He wasn’t good enough to be drafted either. His previous claim to fame was to be the twin brother of Cody, as they drifted inseperably from Cooleemee N.C. (population 940, on the mighty Yadkin River) to Oak Hill Academy to North Carolina State to Nevada to the Hornets. When Caleb signed with the Miami Heat it was the first time he and Cody played in different places. Cody is still with the Hornets, which means he’s had plenty of down time to watch Caleb.

Even when Caleb signed with Miami he agreed to a two-way contract, the kind the rookies usually have to accept. It allows the club to send the player to the G League when it’s convenient for them, not him. Thus Caleb was called to make appearances for the Sioux Falls (S.D.) Skyforce, which is about as anti-Miami as you can get.

And now? The Miami Heat heads for Denver on Tuesday to fulfill an NBA Finals appointment, beginning Thursday. That plane is only airborne because of Martin.

He scored 26 points on 11 for 16 shooting Monday night as the Heat grabbed those banners in Boston and used them to polish the Larry Bird Trophy. For the series he shot 60 percent overall, 49 percent from the 3-point line, and averaged 19.3 points. Jimmy Butler, the MVP recipient, had better numbers, as he should, but someone had to be the X factor, with Tyler Herro on the bench with his healing wrist and his Hallowe’en outfits, and Martin looked like a righthanded Chris Bosh throughout the series.

Martin is one of four undrafted players who fueled Miami’s jet. He, Gabe Vincent, Max Strus and Duncan Robinson averaged nearly 55 points in the series. That’s half of Miami’s 8-man rotation, an equation that will change if and when Herro plays against Denver. But it is a welcome respite from the NBA’s usual Alien vs. Predator vibe, in which everything is supposedly decided in one-on-one battles between aristocrats. This is fueled by the networks, particularly ESPN. They purport to bring you Giannis vs. Steph instead of Milwaukee vs. Golden State. It leads to all kinds of silly GOAT comparisons, and ignores the quiet summertime hours in which players bank the skills and stamina that they eventually withdraw during the season.

There is a far greater supply of talented players out there than the chances that are given them. But Miami will build you, if you come. If the Heat spots an NBA skill, like the long-distance shooting possessed by Robinson and Strus, they will help that player develop enough of an accompanying game so that he someday can do his thing with impunity.

Robinson began his college career at Williams, in Division III, and then transferred to Michigan. At the end of Game 6, the one Boston won to force a Game 7 and a possible comeback from a 3-0 deficit, Robinson took two wide-open 3-pointers, ones that he makes literally hundreds of times a day in the gym, and missed both. But he did not disappear, although he’s been struggling all year to re-enter the rotation. He went 4 for 6 in the 103-84 Game 7 win, and even showed some cutting ability and a knack for scoring in the lane.

You can only imagine what Miami would do with an energetic, long and explosive center like Robert Williams, and today Boston fans must be wondering why he can’t seem to find the floor. He played 19 minutes a game in the series, shot 78.4 percent and averaged nine-and-a-half points and five rebounds. Instead Boston preferred to play the gallant Al Horford, who is almost old enough, in basketball years, to run for President, and rarely used Horford and Williams together, which might have been a problem for Butler’s 2-point game.

Jayson Tatum’s ankle turn, which happened 26 seconds into Game 7, cannot be underestimated. He kept playing, almost 42 minutes worth, but he went 5 for 13. There was no way Boston would win unless Tatum played like the first-team All-Star he is, and when he couldn’t, his teammates panicked. It will be an interminable off-season for Jaylen Brown, who shot 8 for 23 with a career-high eight turnovers. Again, Boston’s insistence on long-distance basketball is the source of their inconsistency. It was 16 for 77 from deep space in its final two games. It also must be noted that Malcolm Brogdon, the Sixth Man of the Year in the league, missed Game 6 and played seven invisible minutes Monday.

Meanwhile, Martin took sensible shots and made them. Again, there were no network cameras when he began saving his career. When Charlotte released him — and, in their defense, the Hornets have no Butler figure to create space for a guy like Martin — there was little immediate demand. But he did manage to get inside the private gym of J. Cole, the Grammy-winning musician who hails from Fayetteville, N.C. and befriends area players, including the Martin twins. Cole also plays the game a little, and he had just returned from a trip to Rwanda when he saw Caleb on the rampage during a pickup game.

Cole swung into action and called his friend Caron Butler, the ex-NBA player who is a Miami assistant coach. “He told me he had a very, very talented guy who was wrecking shop in North Carolina,” Butler told the Charlotte Observer. Martin got invited to the Heat’s Wednesday open-gym sessions, which were designed to help Bam Adebayo develop. Martin did so, even took a charge, and converted a tip-dunk that raised the hardened eyebrows of club president Pat Riley. The offer came shortly afterward.

The upcoming Denver-Miami series will either be a walkover or a episodic drama depending on how much of an edge the Nuggets have lost while waiting for Miami to settle its business. They have not played since they finished sweeping the Lakers. That’s a 10-day layoff. But then Miami, understandably breathless after this series, will be gasping at 5,280 feet.

In 1990, Eric Spoelstra’s dad Jon sued the Nuggets after they fired him from his front-office position, just three months into the job. That went away, and Jon now runs Mandalay Sports Entertainment. His son appears headed for a Hall of Fame coaching career, particularly if the Heat gives him a third NBA championship. Not bad for the neophyte whom LeBron James was supposed to devour before the All-Star Game. In Miami, many players can be Chosen Ones.