At the end of a disappointing 2020/21 season, Mavericks big man Kristaps Porzingis would have liked to be traded, ESPN’s Tim MacMahon said during an appearance on Brian Windhorst’s Hoop Collective podcast (hat tip to Dan Feldman of NBC Sports). However, according to MacMahon, Porzingis is “coming back optimistic” following a healthy summer and Dallas’ hiring of Jason Kidd as head coach.
“At the end of last year, Porzingis wanted to be traded. My understanding is he feels like he has a fresh start with the coaching change,” MacMahon said, per Feldman. “He’s had the healthy offseason. He has been able to work, not just on his game, but on his body some more. He’s kind of coming back with a refreshed feel.”
Even if the Mavs hadn’t made a coaching change in the spring, MacMahon doesn’t think Porzingis would have come out and asked the team to trade him, recognizing the poor optics of such a move following his up-and-down season. However, it’s not hard to understand why he was frustrated by his role following a first-round playoff loss in which he averaged just 13.1 PPG and 5.4 RPG in seven games (33.3 MPG) and often found himself standing in the corner on offense.
According to MacMahon, Porzingis felt more like an afterthought than a co-star for Luka Doncic under former head coach Rick Carlisle. Kidd visited Porzingis in Latvia over the summer – which the 26-year-old said on Monday was “huge for me” (Twitter link via Brad Townsend of The Dallas Morning News) – and envisions a more expansive role for the former Knick.
“The simple way to put it is, I want KP to be a basketball player,” Kidd said, adding that he expects Porzingis to start at power forward. “There’s no limitations on just shooting threes. Being able to roll, to be able to shoot the mid-range, to be able to put the ball on the floor — I want him to be who he is, and that’s a basketball player and not just be limited to shooting threes or crashing from the corner. I want him to feel comfortable on the floor in any spot. I think he’s a weapon. He shoots the ball too well not to be able to shoot mid-range shots.”
The Mavs are optimistic that a healthy offseason for Porzingis – who has a history of knee and leg injuries and missed 29 games last season – will position him for a nice bounce-back year in 2021/22, writes MacMahon.
“I think he’s in way better shape this year, especially mentally,” Doncic said of his teammate on Monday. “You can see him having a good time when we’re playing pickup, and I think he’s going to have a great season this year.”
Thank God the Knicks got rid of this headache case
Who also averaged 20ppg 2.2 under his best.
The guy is a fragile prima Donna. Somewhat amazing that a player who has accomplished so little is given so much press
Injury for sure sometime in the season …
Unicorns are fragile creatures, they need to be handled with care.
Wow, so in other words trade me to a team where everything goes my way.
Paging Philly and Ben Simmons … salaries match straight up … throw in a rookie contract like Jalen Brunson to make Morey happy? link to socraticgadfly.blogspot.com
KP feels under-appreciated. Film at 11.
So many of today’s players choose to try and change their environment rather than looking inward to see what might be inside that is more the problem. Nobody wants to work thru difficult moments. Can you imagine if MJ let his frustrations get to him the first 6 years of his career?
MJ’s frustrations were used as fuel. I don’t get the “first six years” parameter… if your point is wrong for years that follow, when he won his titles, why call it a point at all?
@x%sure
Because those were the periods where the Bulls had little supporting cast, bad coaches and were being manhandled by the Pistons. Rather than looking elsewhere he stuck it out until Pippen, Jackson and Grant were added.
I used to get clowned on this site for being hyper critical of KP and Simmons. Needless to say, I’m enjoying this off season very much.
I just hope the CBA changes, because the most clownish think in the NBA is that for the first 9 years of a players career the control of their destiny belongs to the team that drafted them… I mean after 9 years a player is already past his best as a matter of fact!
There is no outlet for a player to control his career, the only thing they can do, are allowed & have no option but to do is play out, become a headache, that is the league’s obligation for them to get out of the team, they never had a choice to just nicely say trade me & they get traded… just the most outrageous system there ever was!
First rookie contract must be 3-4 years & after that there is no control or favoritism for the team that drafted them, then those teams would be obligated to do better, show them they deserve their staying, protecting teams, specially the small market ones is just ridiculous & not right, be good, do well & players will come, no matter where you are!
But the biggest problem is that teams are owned by rich guys, that is always the worst case scenario, & I can never support a team owned by a rich guy who will never care for the fans, only their $$$… a proper team will be owned by the fans!
Until then is always about the players, rich owners & useless fans who doesn’t own their team have no say in the NBA!
How’s this relate to Porzingas?
Above commenters seems to hate on KP6 for having wanted a trade out of the team… I was just pointing out that the system stinks & that it makes players misbehave as the only way out of their teams!
Then dense fans blame the players for wanting out when they must blame teams, seems very related to me, of course here KP6 as always was a nice guy & didn’t wanna create the sting that the CBA makes him do!
I didn’t know basketball players were so under paid. And you mean until they are 30+ years old they suffer in a major city. Good thing us common folks can make much more then them. Sorry but nothing about Poz. Knicks should have gotten more for him.
I didn’t know basketball players were so under paid. And you mean until they are 30+ years old they suffer in a major city. Good thing us common folks can make much more then them. Don’t they said they do it for the fans?
Sorry but nothing about Poz. Knicks should have gotten more for him.