New Mavericks coach Jason Kidd believes Kristaps Porzingis is in a good place both mentally and physically, as relayed by Brad Townsend of the Dallas Morning News.
Kidd recently visited Porzingis in Latvia for three days. The 26-year-old Porzingis, who is Dallas’ second option on offense behind superstar Luka Doncic, averaged 20.1 points and 8.9 rebounds in 30.9 minutes per game in 2020/21.
“I wanted to see where he lived, that is home for him,” Kidd explained. “Beautiful place. We always talk about family. Sometimes we need to show our care factor. I care. I wanted to let him know that I care.
“I know that he’s healthy. I know he’s excited. And then I just wanted to talk to him about things basketball-wise as well as off the court. We always talk about basketball, but I wanted to see where he was off the court. He’s in a great place.”
There’s more out of the Western Conference tonight:
- Various members of the Nuggets front office expressed confidence that Jason Terry could have a serious coaching future, Townsend tweets. Denver recently hired Terry to coach its G League affiliate for the 2021/22 season. “Sitting down with [vice president] Calvin Booth and [president] Tim Connelly and [player personnel manager] Scott Howard, they firmly believe that being a bench coach or a head coach is in my near future,” Terry said. “You need that type of support and belief. The sky’s the limit for me. I’m ready for the opportunity.”
- Thunder rookie Josh Giddey is representing a newfound hope and legitimacy for the NBA’s global academy, Joe Mussatto of The Oklahoman examines. Giddey was drafted by Oklahoma City with the No. 6 pick in July.
- Chris Herrington of the Daily Memphian takes a closer look at some of the Grizzlies‘ newcomers, exploring which are likely to stick around. Memphis recently acquired Rajon Rondo and Daniel Oturu as part of the trade involving Eric Bledsoe, with both players facing uncertain futures in the present day. The team also acquired Patrick Beverley in the deal, but has reportedly agreed to move Beverley to Minnesota in exchange for Jarrett Culver and Juan Hernangomez.
“I wanted to see where he lived, that is home for him,” Kidd explained. “Beautiful place. We always talk about family. Sometimes we need to show our care factor. I care. I wanted to let him know that I care.”
Kidd, who do you think you are kidding here? Everyone knows you don’t care about your players and treat them like crap. You only did this at the behest of Cuban.
That’s called learning from your mistakes. Humans should be given an opportunity to do that.
Posted as if you personally know him lol
porzingis is a guy who needs to be coddled, unfortunately this won’t stop him from missing 25 games pus some playoff games next year. Fragile like an Italian leg lamp.
It will be interesting to see how many (or how few) players next season end up participating in all 82 games after what we have seen over the past year.
Especially the guys with big contracts who are either injury-prone or getting on in years. Load management will become very widespread in 2022.
Agreed that guys who are injury prone will more than likely take the foot off the gas in “easy” matchups but the injury problem last year was largely due to the odd circumstances presented the year prior. Long pause going into the bubble, the bubble it self, and the shortened off season were all major contributors to injuries and that’s undeniable. The entire league dealt with injuries. I don’t see that happening again.
KP needs to be moved. They are only buttering him up. He’ll never be effective until he gains 35 LBs and plays Center. its that simple. I’ve been saying it since we drafted him. Just like Ben Is not a PG. Until someone has the basketballs to get these two right. It’s going to be the same issues. Both have already dropped in value. NBA I’m available.
You’re available? Or do you mean your alter ego Sillivan?
We all know you talk to yourself. Fact is Sillyman talks more about actual ball than you do. You should just stick with that one.
The greatest fault of man is not realizing a win when it stares you in the face. Dude is 7’12 and averaged 20/9/2 on 47/37/85 playing along with a ball dominant guard as a 2nd option. His slash line is better than Luka’s. That’s called a win bro
“They” said same thing about AD and he a won ring. Bubble or no bubble it’s an NBA championship.
Retrospect, “The Bubble” banner may have been harder to win with all the distractions going on the world and being isolated from it. Some teams used that as fuel and were focused AF – eg The Heat – and played their tails off.
Does playing the 5 make you a center in today’s NBA? The 5 is a true center for 20mpg depending on the opposition’s lineup.
There has been some shifting back to traditional center play the last 2 seasons. How you going win if you don’t have a rim protector against today’s speedy AF PGs?
Rebounds are very underrated!
Is WCS still with Dallas? I felt he was underutilized by Carlisle. Kidd will push the ball more and WCS can play above the rim and finish.
Damn, Luca so good, your team is in good shape if KP is can stay on the floor as your #2. Hardaway Jr as #3 option ain’t bad at all.
KP has bulked up, but has chronic bad knees Dallas has to manage. The extra lbs on a 7’2 pair of knees while playing in the NBA is rough. You don’t want him to shine bright now at the expense of his candle going dim 5-10 years too soon.
See Walton, Bill.
I think DeAndre Jordan at 10m/year for 2 seasons to play 18mpg a great/risk reward scenario for Dallas. His stats last 2 seasons were at/near career 36mpg. He’s obviously lost his bounce.
Nets current philosophy is switching on defense and maximizing offense. DeAndre’s odd man out his career is not over.
If Dallas can match short term salaries for DeAndre I’m sure the Nets will toss in Reggie Perry and a 2nd round pick as sweetener.
Sounds like the trip Fizdale took to Latvia to bond with Porzingis.
That worked out well.
Culver and HernanGomez can help Grizz. I wonder if they’ll get a real chance to help. Culver needs to start showing. Time is running out.
I like Giddey a lot. But I don’t think he’s ready to start. Maledon is also a PG with a future. I’m guessing he can start. Work in Giddey slowly. Giddey is a big PG, but definitely a PG.
KP only needs one Q-Tip to clean his ears.(Straight thru).
It’s called NBA Global Academy. Giddey got backing from the NBA’s NBA Global Academy in Canberra AUS. The desciption for what that is, is lacking in the source article, and so may have confused HR’s Shaw too.
Meanwhile the Memphis paper repeats two tweets from Rondo celebasting trades to MEM and MIN… yet none are official and he is still a member of LAC lol.
The good writer indicates MEM is referencing the P-W-B scheme (point-wing-big, not the 12345 scheme) however, there is no technical language available to express these schemes so I have to interpret. Look out. Bad news for Dillon Brooks & Sam Merrill staying IMO.