Amid the craziness that was the NBA trade deadline, the Dallas Mavericks made a move that had many scratching their heads.
In a shock to everyone, they moved Kristaps Porzingis to the Wizards for Davis Bertans and Spencer Dinwiddie. As two overpaid, underachieving players, there are a lot of questions about the logic behind the trade and plenty of debate on if GM Nico Harrison made the right decision.
In response to all the backlash, Harrison came out and explained the trade in a recent chat with the media.
Mavs GM Nico Harrison on signing players via buyout: ‘We’ve done our homework. So we think we know who’s going to get bought out. But at the end of the day, we have 15 roster spots already filled. And for us to bring somebody in whoever that person could be, we’d have to release somebody. And I don’t think we want to do that. I think we like we like our roster how it is. And there’s nobody that I would feel comfortable releasing at this point to add room for somebody else.’
‘I think the biggest thing is we were able to turn KP into two players that give us depth. And so I think for us, that was the biggest thing that we could take away from is like we a chance to turn one player into two and kind of fill some holes that we needed. So that’s that’s the reason why we did it. And then as you start going through trade deadline teams start calling you start have conversations back and forth. And then you start realizing, hey, we actually can make this happen.
To many, his quote is being taken as a slight dig at Porzingis. Just a few years ago, the Mavs gave up a haul of players and several first-round picks to bring KP to town. Now, they seem content trading him for a pair of struggling role-players.
Porzingis, who has played just 34 games this season, is on his third team in five years. True, there are doubts about his heath, his potential, and his reliability.
But there is also a chance he could make the Mavericks regret letting him go. For their sake, they better hope Bertans and Dinwiddie are able to capitalize on their new opportunity.
