Getty Zach LaVine (left) and Luka Doncic
Perhaps the opening line explaining a proposed NBA trade involving the Mavericks on Bleacher Report this week should say it all: “This three-teamer is bonkers at first blush.”
Indeed. The proposition, from writer Grant Hughes, involves three teams, six players and two first-round draft picks and the upshot would be that the Mavericks wind up with what is dubbed a, “true second star.”
Here’s how it shakes out:
Chicago Bulls Receive: Brandon Ingram
Dallas Mavericks Receive: Zach LaVine, Garrett Temple
New Orleans Pelicans Receive: Kristaps Porzingis, Jalen Brunson, Coby White, 2024 first-round pick (via DAL), 2027 first-round pick (via CHI)
If you’re the Mavs, the answer here is probably, “Yes, please,” especially if you suppose that LaVine would work well in a backcourt with Mavs star Luka Doncic. There are some pluses and minuses there, but if the cost is Porzingis, Brunson and a first-rounder—with a veteran like Temple also coming to Dallas—then the Mavs would surely be on board.
Doubtful, however, that the Bulls would see much positive in a trade like this, bringing back only Ingram for All-Star/Olympian LaVine and White, who has the potential to be a bench superscorer. In fact, given Porzingis’ health history and Brunson’s impending free agency, the Pelicans might balk, too. The future first-rounders are nice, but GM David Griffin needs to start winning sooner than later.
Mavericks Have Been Hyping Porzingis All Preseason
Now, unless you are Ben Simmons’ employers, trade talk at this stage of the season is mostly idle and there is no indication that the Mavericks have been engaging other teams on deals. There was plenty of talk last year that they at least scanned the market for interest on Porzingis, but nothing came close to getting done.
Certainly, now would not be the time to trade Porzingis, anyway, not after his brutal postseason in which he averaged 13.1 points and 5.4 rebounds in seven-game first-round loss to the Clippers in which Dallas blew a 2-0 lead after winning the opening pair of games on the road.
The Mavericks have spent much of the preseason pumping up Porzingis, indicating that his disappointing stint in Dallas to this point has mostly been because he was an awkward fit in coach Rick Carlisle’s system. New coach Jason Kidd has vowed to make Porzingis a bigger part of the offense, and has used him in post-up situations more often.
Kidd indicated he wanted to unleash Porzingis a bit more by moving him to power forward rather than center. He played the 4-spot most of his career—78% of his possessions—with the Knicks before he was dealt to Dallas, but played almost entirely as a center (99% of his possessions) in two seasons with the Mavs, according to Basketball-Reference.
“I’ve always looked at everyone as a basketball player,” Kidd said on Mavericks media day. “I don’t look at guys as 4s and 5s. Put your best out there and use them in different situations. When you look at KP, he can play both 4 and 5. There will be times when he’s out there at the 5 but I think starting off the season, he will probably start at the 4.”
Porzingis-Doncic Tension ‘Fake News,’ According to Kidd
Now, just because the Mavericks are trying to push Porzingis back into the fore this season does not mean they won’t look, eventually, to deal him. Entering the preseason, one of the hot topics was reports of tension between Porzingis and Doncic, something the Mavs’ brain trust has been emphatic about denying.
Mavericks coach Jason Kidd calls rumors of Luka Doncic-Kristaps Porzingis tension “fake news.”
“There were some other issues that I thought they did a great job of keeping in house that had nothing to do with those two.”
On ESPN this month, Kidd said, “I think we all heard in NBA circles that there was tension between the two. But I would have to say that’s fake news. I think they both want to compete, I think they really want to compete. There was some other issues that I thought they did a great job of keeping in house. It had nothing to do with those two.”
That may be, but it would behoove the organization, before diving back into the Porzingis trade market, to help the wayward big man regain his reputation in the NBA. If the team can help Porzingis reach the kind of production he had in New York—he was an All-Star averaging 22.7 points and 2.4 blocks when he got hurt in 2018—the Mavs will either have a top-shelf big man to keep for themselves, or one other teams would be willing to give up a lot to acquire.
But LaVine and Temple? Probably not that much.