Mavs trade Kristaps Porzingis for Spencer Dinwiddie & Davis Bertans

Damn. Smart by Dallas to move off KP

 

Probably but it doesn't make them better. Spencer Dinwiddie is hot garbage after a good start to the season. He tried to be a locker-room leader and they all laughed him off. Bertans is shooting 31.9% from 3 and doesn't do anything else.

I wonder how much Brunson is going to demand in free agency if they're clearing space for him.

 

Contracts:

Porzingis: 2023: 33.8M, 2024: 36M (player option)
Dinwiddie: 2023: 18M, 2024: 18.8M
Davis: 2023: 16M, 2024: 17M, 2025: 16M

 

Well, if KP ever wanted his own team, he got his wish (with Beal out for the season).

Man, this dude has fallen so hard. Went from being a dude who had "potential top 10 player in the NBA" written all over him, to being traded for Dinwiddie and Bertans.

Dallas gets a secondary playmaker and an outside threat (albeit overpaid).

 

Washington is where NBA careers go to die

 

To me this was the biggest L of the deadline

Mavs get much worse players, they don't save any money, and in fact extend and add very bad salary in Bertans


All that was made of the WB LBJ dynamic in the media is actually that the Luka / KP dynamic was. Mavs ate **** to move him.

 

Dallas got BOTH Dinwiddie and THJ in the backcourt now. Talk about a lot of chucking.

 

KP was a waste. He's a giant 3 with virtually no inside game. His rebounding is anemic for a guy his size and he simply cannot protect the paint. Had he still be on the roster come playoff time, the Mavs would have gotten murdered (and probably still might) by any team that attacks the paint. This is a team that hasn't really addressed the center position since they let Tyson Chandler go (because mark Cuban had a hard on for Dwight Howard).

 

porzingis was really good in the playoffs just 2 seasons ago

 

The problem the Mavs have is that it is highly unlikely that they will be able to get any big name free agents to sign in Dallas as long as Luka is there.

Why? Because most NBA players don't want to play second fiddle to a white superstar. I hate to say it, but evidence suggests this is the truth.

Remember, Dallas could not get any big name free agents when Dirk was in his prime either. The only way they got players was through the draft (Josh Howard), trades (Michael Finley, Shawn Marion, and Steve Nash) or guys who were on their last legs (Jason Kidd).

I went back and tried to think of a situation in the modern era where great NBA FA's went to a new team where the key player was white. I could not think of a single one. Even the Phoenix Suns during the Steve Nash heyday could not sign big time FA's; in fact, they lost several big time FAs to other teams (Joe Johnson, Amare Stoudamire).

The question is why? I think it comes down to fame and blame: most black players know that if they go to a team where the star is a white guy, any issues that come up will get blamed on the FA, and not the white player, even if the team was bad or average before the new player got there. Why go through all that? Most agents would tell them to avoid it.

So I don't think Dallas will get many free agents to come over no matter how much cap space they have. They will have to depend on the draft and on trades to improve.

It will be interesting to see what ends up happening. My bet is that at some point Luka will get frustrated and ask to be traded.

 

At some point they had to move on due to injury. But KP is still talent. So it's hard to see them just let it go for nothing.

 

I legit never thought about this perspective

Rocket River

 

OR or the back players unwillng to help the white win it all?

 

That could be it. By the way, I am not making an excuse for this, just giving a reason. There has to be something to it. I gave this some thought and I realized that you just never see major NBA FAs go to teams with white star players.

I would be happy to be proven wrong.

 

Everyone is going to be lining up to play with Chet the safe bet.

 

Everyone called Porzingis a unicorn, but in the end he’s just a taller Raef Lafrentz.

 

How many recent superstars are there where a player a big FA was joining to win it all? KD, LeBron, Kobe, Curry, Harden and Kawahi?

How many white player has there been that's on that level? Jokic? Aaron Gordon was a trade but he resigned there happily, along with MPJ and Jamal Murray. Also Paul Millsap in his prime also joined Jokic. Bird? Robert Parish was a trade but he didn't ever seem to have an issue playing with the Celtics, even in a town like Boston.

To me there needs to be more data.

It's not like NFL where there has been 511 head coaches, only 24 of them were black and 4 of them (1 in 6) have gotten to the Superbowl and you still only have 1/30 teams with a black head coach that you can point to as maybe something to look into.