If you’re reading this, chances are, you’re confused, too.
And if you caught BasketballNews.com's NBA Trade Deadline Show on Thursday, you saw that we were very bumfuzzled... among other things.
Here’s @MSchindlerNBA, @BryanFonsecaNY, @esidery and I reacting to the Kristaps Porzingis trade in real-time. 😂 We definitely didn’t see this coming: pic.twitter.com/SmJQ5CZbWc
— Alex Kennedy (@AlexKennedyNBA) February 10, 2022
Can you tell I didn't know how to react to the Porzingis trade ???
— Bryan Fonseca 🇵🇷 (@BryanFonsecaNY) February 10, 2022
😂😂😂@basketbllnews pic.twitter.com/HH4seIoS2d
But yeah, say that sh*t out loud: Kristaps Porzingis is a Washington Wizard. And Porzingis is a Wizard because Spencer Dinwiddie and Davis Bertāns are now Dallas Mavericks.
Alright, now take a breath, and let’s take a few minutes to attempt to understand this together.
It was clearer than Sweet Baby Ray’s barbecue sauce being amazing that the Mavericks did not want any more of the Porzingis experience. When moved from the New York Knicks three trade deadlines ago, KP was thought to be a franchise star joining then-rookie sensation Luka Dončić to uplift the Mavericks into whatever stratosphere we were talking about at the time. Seriously, that feels like generations ago.
But in "KP Years" it kinda was.
Back then, Porzingis was in the midst of sitting out all of the 2018-19 season, his fourth in the NBA. But the previous year, he had been named a first-time All-Star in just his third season despite his Knicks being 21-27 on the day he was honored. Two weeks later, he tore his ACL, ending his season with averages of 22.7 points, 6.6 rebounds and 2.4 blocks on .439/.395/.865 shooting splits. In Dallas, he has come close at times, but hasn’t been able to fully replicate his All-Star self — even as his numbers may suggest otherwise, especially on the boards.
If he was still Unicorn KP, he wouldn’t have gotten dumped for Dinwiddie and Bertāns, the latter of whom is in the conversation for worst contract in the NBA. But to his credit, Porzingis was having a productive season.
In his tenure with the Mavs, Porzingis averaged 20.0 points, 8.8 rebounds and 1.7 blocks with a .448/.345/.831 slash line. He averaged 4.4 free throw attempts per contest and 5.0 in 2019-20; however this season, it was just 3.2 FTAs a night. Even so, his free-throw rate has progressively dropped every season in Dallas, from .260 to .247 to .240.
To this point currently, Porzingis stands at 19.2 points, 7.7 rebounds, and 1.7 blocks on .451/.283/.865 shooting. The 28.3% from three is coming on 5.1 attempts per game (his lowest as a Mav), which is a drop from 7.1 to 6.0 in the two seasons previous.
Porzingis had been anchoring one of the league’s best defenses at times. As of this writing, the Mavericks stand third in fewest points allowed per game, fifth in defensive efficiency, and ninth in point differential. Porzingis even had the team’s second-best win shares per 48 minutes at .172, only behind Dwight Powell, and marking his personal career-high.
But as Tim Cato penned in The Athletic, this has more to do about the direction of Dallas as a team.
Porzingis is eating $31.6 million this year, leaving little room for the Mavericks to maneuver this pffseason without financial creativity, which hasn’t been their strong suit in previous offseasons if you haven’t noticed. KP is also due $33.8 million next year with a $36 million player option for 2023-24, and you can guess how that one’ll go.
By adding Dinwiddie and Bertāns, you’re now eating those contracts, but they’re not as taxing individually. As ran through recently here, Dinwiddie is due $17.1 million this year and $18 million next year, and has a partial guarantee for $18.9 million in 2023-24. Dinwiddie has $10 million guaranteed in '23-24, but the deal becomes fully guaranteed if he plays 50 games each in the two seasons prior; he's played in 44 this year, so he's only six games away from satisfying half of the criteria.
Bertāns will get $16 million again next year and $17 million in 2023-24, and has a partially-guaranteed $16 million in 2024-25.