There were plenty of excitement when the Dallas Mavericks acquired Kristaps Porzingis to partner with Luka Doncic back in 2019. While Porzingis and Doncic proved to be a lethal pick-and-pop duo at the beginning of their partnership, Porzingis ended up being marginalized in the Mavs offense the more Doncic ascended into the superstar he is today. Thus, the Mavs decided to ship Porzingis to the Washington Wizards during the 2022 trade deadline in exchange for Spencer Dinwiddie and Davis Bertans.
Kristaps Porzingis is now flourishing in his role as a more featured option in the Wizards offense, while Luka Doncic is functioning as an MVP-caliber heliocentric source of offense the Mavs have relied on on a nightly basis. Sometimes getting the best out of one's self entails a necessary parting of ways, and Porzingis, in retrospect, now realizes that he just might not have been what Doncic and the Mavs needed, especially during their run to last season's Western Conference Finals.
“Luka is a generational talent. You have to put the perfect team around him to try to get the maximum out of him, you know? I just wasn’t the right guy,” Porzingis said, per Yahoo! Sports.
Still, it's difficult not to think of what might have been had Kristaps Porzingis not torn his meniscus during the 2020 Bubble. That injury sapped Porzingis' mobility on both ends of the court, and he was relegated to a spot-up role as a result. And with the best ability being availability, perhaps the Mavs just had enough of KP's repeated absences that left the Mavs depleted often.
“That’s the thing about me, you know? It’s like, ‘Oh yeah, he’s talented, but he cannot stay on the court consistently,’” Porzingis added.
At the end of the day, Porzingis is only 27 years old, and he clearly has a lot left in the tank despite his past injury woes. Mavs fans will, at the very least, be happy that Spencer Dinwiddie is playing at a high enough level for the Mavs not to rue giving away Porzingis at what seems to be the nadir of his trade value.
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