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Maybe the New York Knicks did the right thing after all?
Kristaps Porzingis was traded to the Dallas Mavericks on Thursday in exchange for Dennis Smith, Jr., two future first-round picks, and not much else of tangible value.
Also heading to the Big Apple with Smith, who the Knicks infamously passed on in favor of Frank Ntilikina in the 2016 draft, are DeAndre Jordan and Wes Matthews, each of whom is playing on an expiring contract, leaving New York with enough room below the cap to add two max-level free agents this summer.
Is Smith, who's still more potential than effective player during his sophomore season, extra draft compensation, and even more cap space worth the price of losing Porzingis?
Reasonable minds can disagree there, but the majority of league followers have panned the Knicks for so quickly giving into the trade demand of a player who looked like a future MVP candidate last season before tearing his ACL.
But what if Porzingis had his heart set on playing elsewhere?
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That's what president Steve Mills suggested while discussing the trade with reporters, per ESPN's Tim Bontemps.
Steve Mills: "We feel like we did the right thing. When you are thinking in the long-term, you don't want to commit a max contract to a player that doesn't want to be here."
— Tim Bontemps (@TimBontemps) February 1, 2019
Indeed, reports emerged before news of the trade broke that Porzingis had already decided he didn't want to be with the Knicks long-term.
Another report surfaced shortly after the deal was announced that cast doubt on the Latvian star signing a long-term deal in Dallas this summer, instead suggesting he would sign a one-year qualifying offer before hitting unrestricted free agency in the summer of 2020.
New York, clearly, could have exercised greater patience after learning of Porzingis' wishes, and perhaps have ended up with a better deal in the end.
The trade deadline isn't until February 7, after all. But if Mills and other executives were really convinced Porzingis would never re-sign with the Knicks, their haste in shipping him out of town becomes a bit more defensible.
