Mavericks power forward Kristaps Porzingis admits it's “very tough” to sit on the bench and not be able to play the game which he loves.

Porzingis says he's fully recovered from the ACL tear he suffered last season while playing with the New York Knicks. However, KP and the Mavs are sticking to the plan of having him make his Dallas debut in 2019-20.

The 7-footer says this whole experience has been tougher than he thought, but is proud of himself for being patient.

“It's so weird that I'm not able to — I am able to, but I'm not playing yet,” Porzingis told Tim MacMahon of ESPN. “It's the game day and I feel like it's the game day, but you just pick a suit and you wear it and you're there. And I try to be in the moment when I'm there with the team and help as much as I can without being able to be on the floor, but it's very, very, very tough. Tougher than I expected.

“I'm really proud of myself for staying this patient with the knee and taking my time. There hasn't been a lot of cases of a 7-3 guy tearing his ACL. The good thing about the injury is it was a contact injury. If it was not a contact injury, that would be much more dangerous for me. But it was a contact injury. That means my body mechanics are fine. Now what I've been doing is just getting better with them. I'll keep doing that the whole summer, keep working on my body, keep strengthening my joints, my knees, my ankles, my posture, everything.”

Next season is going to be a fun one for the Mavs. The franchise will have Porzingis and Luka Doncic playing together.

Dallas is hoping Porzingis and Doncic can lead the Mavs back to the playoffs.