In his latest newsletter for The New York Times, Marc Stein takes a deep dive into the trade that sent Kristaps Porzingis from New York to Dallas, sharing several interesting new details on the negotiations leading up to the deal itself.
Here’s a round-up of the highlights from Stein:
- The Knicks spent a good portion of January canvassing the NBA for possible Porzingis trades, according to Stein, who hears the team was rebuffed when it inquired on potential targets like Jazz guard Donovan Mitchell and Kings guard De’Aaron Fox. After devoting much of the month to possible trade scenarios, the Knicks were convinced that no team besides Dallas would take on the Tim Hardaway Jr. and Courtney Lee contracts while also offering a player like Dennis Smith Jr. along with multiple first-round picks, says Stein.
- New York’s management group has known for years that the Mavericks were very interested in Porzingis, with one Mavs official joking to Stein that Dallas had approached the Knicks “about a hundred times” before they finally showed a willingness to move the All-Star big man. Conversely, the Knicks had been expressing interest in Smith all season, per Stein.
- The Knicks and Mavericks had been discussing the framework of a possible Wesley Matthews/Hardaway deal for weeks, and began expanding those talks to include Porzingis on January 28, Stein writes. The two teams then worked in person toward finalizing the framework of a deal last Wednesday when the Mavs played the Knicks in New York. However, the Knicks wanted to wait until after they met with the Porzingis brothers on Thursday to make any decisions.
- Following that Thursday meeting between Knicks management and the Porzingis brothers, Janis Porzingis (Kristaps’ agent) provided the club with a four-team list of preferred destinations, a source tells Stein. The Nets and Clippers were on that list, but the Mavericks weren’t. The Knicks opted to move quickly on the Mavs deal in part due to concern that Porzingis’ camp would leak that list and threaten to only sign long-term with those clubs, Stein adds.
- The Knicks were informed that Porzingis was ready to leave the team and continue his injury rehab in Spain if he remained on the roster through the trade deadline, Stein hears.
- Mavericks owner Mark Cuban, with an interesting quote to Stein: “It was my mistake to not keep Dirk [Nowitzki] and Steve [Nash] together longer. I won’t make the same mistake with Luka [Doncic] and KP.”
- For what it’s worth, Stein reports that the threat of Kevin Durant leaving for the Knicks has “never felt more real” to the Warriors than it does now that New York has cleared two maximum-salary slots for the summer.
No way did this FO canvass the NBA about KP’s availability. Simply not credible. NY sports media, love them or hate them, lives for this stuff, and has tentacles everywhere. They don’t miss a discussion (or eye contact) between two GMs during the trade season. But here, on the Knick’s most significant player, they’re out to lunch for an entire month while multiple trade scenarios are discussed-? Yeah, they were interested all year in DSJ, but nothing about him and the Knicks when he was AWOL and being offered around the league for 2 weeks.
Looks like the three stooges panicked when they realized that their mismanagement of this situation was about to come to light, and the Mavs happened to be in town.
Cuz you’re a Knicks fan, I guess natural to be this negative. I love this deal.
You still get bonus points for not mentioning 2010
I remember that offseason well. Two are nothing alike. Lazy comparison.
How do i block xabial’s comments specifically
yo I liked that spot of terseness. Don’t complain, don’t explain. Not my choice for blocking though. Right now I’m down on Demps-trashers.
(Demps is not great and in the past I have advocated he be replaced. But the position he is in now is tough, not what he wanted, and most people actually agree with the one decision he has had to make– no to LAL’s offer.)
Those details makes Mills’ claims sound more credible– Which maybe is the objective of the excercise. A favor to Mills?
The Cuban quote is fabulous, and too easily corraborated to be a lie. There are other points of corraboration also, so I’m believing Stein.
I doubt the Knick shopping was intensive though– I suspect it was more of a Dallas initiative. But to go further with my suspicions, it fell in line with posible Pels’ nervousness over trading for Zinger, which in turn falls in line with the Irving promise plot to join AD in NY.