Dallas Mavericks: Complete grades for the 2019 NBA offseason
By Phil Watson
Re-signing Kristaps Porzingis
Despite some potential off-the-court troubles and the fact he will have gone 20 months since his last NBA game by the time the season opens, the Dallas Mavericks opened up the vault and re-signed Kristaps Porzingis to a five-year max deal worth $158.25 million that includes a player option for 2023-24.
The upside for Porzingis is tremendous. Already an All-Star, Porzingis turns just 24 on Friday and possesses a unique blend of size, shooting range and skill.
He’s a career 36.1 percent shooter from 3-point range and hit 39.5 percent on 4.8 attempts per game in his last season with the New York Knicks in 2017-18 before he was sidelined the last year-plus with a torn ACL.
He’s a quality rim protector, averaging 2.0 blocks in 31.0 minutes per game in his career and he was a 22.7 points-per-game scorer in 2017-18.
Porzingis is up to 240 pounds now on his 7-foot-3 frame and it will be interesting to see if that translates into better rebounding numbers — he averages only 7.1 per game for his career, a startlingly low number for a player his size, and he hasn’t been the best at sharing the ball, averaging 1.3 assists per game.
Porzingis was accused in March of sexually assaulting a woman in New York, with the player’s attorney in turn accusing the alleged victim of attempting to extort money from Porzingis, per a March report by USA Today.
His offseason hasn’t been entirely uneventful either. He was involved in an incident at Latvia nightclub in May that was captured by amateur video, per CBS News. The video showed a bloodied Porzingis shoving a woman aside as he yells at another person.
The Mavericks released a statement at the time:
"“It is our understanding that Kristaps was jumped and assaulted outside a club in Latvia.”"
That’s a considerable amount of baggage coming with a player just signed to a max deal and not everyone is sold on his fit or future in Dallas. Per Keith Smith of RealGM, an executive from another team said:
"“It’s tough. First, you have to believe he’s fully recovered from the ACL. I assume they do. Then, is he really a max guy? Signs were there before he got hurt for sure. I worry about some of this off-court stuff that has come up. “Sometimes these young guys become different on us. I know Dallas does their homework though. They must believe it will be fine.”"
The Mavericks are betting $158.25 million that it is.
Still, to pair a 24-year-old All-Star with a 20-year-old who just was named Rookie of the Year is a situation many teams would love to have to deal with.
Managing Porzingis’ minutes will be key to his future. At his size, he might not profile as a player who can go 34-35 minutes a night over 82 games. Load management — the buzzword in today’s NBA — will be crucial.