NBA Trade Grades: Knicks sending Kristaps Porzingis to Mavericks

Dallas Mavericks

The most obvious takeaway from this deal from the Mavs’ point of view is this team is committed to putting a winning product around its franchise cornerstone, Luka Doncic.

If the Zinger can return healthy from last year’s ACL tear and build on what would’ve been an All-Star campaign, this dynamic duo is one worth salivating over.

Porzingis may have only shot 43.9 percent from the field last year, but he canned a career-high 39.5 percent of his triples, taking 4.8 of them per game. He’s a legitimate stretch-5 and one of the league’s best shot-blockers, making him a terrific cornerstone alongside Doncic if they can keep them together for the foreseeable future.

Doncic is the runaway favorite for Rookie of the Year and even has a case for an All-Star spot in the loaded Western Conference as the best player on a Mavs team that’s still within striking distance of the postseason. Averaging 20.4 points, 6.9 rebounds and 5.4 assists per game, Wonder Boy is doing things the league has never seen from a 19-year-old before.

His instant translation to the NBA game has accelerated Dallas’ timeline, which is why it was important to start putting the right building blocks around him now. Like Doncic, Porzingis is an established NBA star who’s also young enough to help ground the franchise’s title aspirations for the next 10 years — if he so chooses, that is.

The Unicorn is heading for restricted free agency this summer, but according to Charania, he intends to sign a one-year qualifying offer that will allow him to become an unrestricted free agent in 2020. Such a move would only guarantee he stays in Dallas for one full season, at which point in time other suitors could enter the bidding war in 2020 free agency.

Wojnarowski offered a conflicting report that Porzingis will consider his options and familiarize himself with the Mavs organization before making a decision about the qualifying offer, which would give Dallas the chance to lock him down for the foreseeable future if he were willing to agree to a longer deal.

This would seem to be the most prudent path, especially for a seven-footer coming off a serious knee injury, but only time will tell what kind of advice he’s getting from his camp about giving Dallas a chance or already browsing next year’s market for a new NBA home.

Tim Hardaway Jr. is on a bloated contract that will pay him $18.2 million next season with a $19 million player option for 2020-21, but a large part of his struggles in New York were due to how much he was asked to do. He’s not a go-to scorer on offense, so hopefully playing alongside Doncic and Porzingis in a lesser role will allow him to recapture some of the efficiency he showed during his time with the Atlanta Hawks.

Courtney Lee will be owed $12.8 million next season, but can still serve as a 3-and-D guy off the bench. He hasn’t played much in New York this season, but if he’s washed up at 33 years old, the Mavs should still be able to move him as an expiring contract sometime within the next year.

Porzingis won’t be able to help with the Mavs’ last-ditch playoff efforts this year, but whatever happens this season, Dirk Nowitzki‘s importance may have just shot through the roof. Once compared to the great German big man, Porzingis would have a full year to learn under Dirk if Nowitzki commits to running it back for one last season in 2019-20. That kind of veteran presence cannot be understated.

As for what the Mavs gave up to get the Zinger, Matthews and Jordan were both expiring contracts who had no future in Dallas. Matthews is 32 and hasn’t been the same since his Achilles injury in 2015, while Jordan has been a shell of his former self this season. Approaching his 31st birthday, he was likely to be gone this summer as well.

Dennis Smith Jr. is the only real player of value on the way out, but his numbers had taken a hit in year two, falling to 12.9 points, 4.3 assists and 3.0 rebounds per game in an increasingly off-ball role. Though he was hitting an improved 34.4 percent of his 3s, he wasn’t a good fit beside Doncic and had grown as disgruntled with his role as head coach Rick Carlisle had grown with his decision-making. Even if Porzingis turns out to be a one-year rental, the package Dallas gave up — two expirings on the way out and and point guard who was a poor fit — was worth that risk.

Giving up two future first round picks after shelling one out last year to snag Doncic will subtract yet more team-controlled assets down the road, but that’s easier to swallow since they’ve been used to land Doncic and now KP as foundations to build upon.

The soonest the first pick can go to New York is 2021, assuming Dallas’ top-five protected pick conveys to the Atlanta Hawks this summer. It’s a definite gamble to send out two picks for an injured seven-footer (depending on what the protections are), but it could ultimately be a worthwhile one.

Grade: A-