Kristaps Porzingis on being traded by Mavs: 'Luka Doncic is a generational talent... I just wasn’t the right guy'

“As soon as I got traded, I was ready to be more,” Kuzma told The Athletic. Now, Beal (22.9), Porziņģis (21.8) and Kuzma (20.6) are all averaging 20 points per game or more, making the Wizards one of two teams in the league with three players scoring 20 a night. “Being in this situation helped out a lot. Here, I’m not playing behind LeBron and AD. Those guys are my position, my type of player, who I am, my style,” Kuzma said. “So coming here, I don’t have that anymore. It’s been great because me, Brad and KP don’t get in each other’s way. We all just flow out there. It’s been a pretty good jell for the first 20 games. We’re all averaging 20 a game without having any friction out there.” -via The Athletic / December 6, 2022

And so, 23 minutes before the buzzer sounded, Dallas officials redialed Washington. The Wizards and Mavericks had held discussions on other trade frameworks, but these waning moments, sources said, were when the two teams first discussed sending Porzingis to the nation’s capital. Dallas was able to net an additional ball-handler in Spencer Dinwiddie, a secondary creator for Doncic, who could also spearhead bench units if the Mavericks were to, gulp, ultimately lose Jalen Brunson in free agency. Davis Bertans could recreate some of the spacing Porzingis provided — and for half the cost. -via Yahoo! Sports / December 6, 2022

The deal’s headliner emerged from a hyperbaric chamber not long after, hoping the increased air pressure in that glass cocoon had aided his bruised knee. He was hungry for a sandwich. But Porzingis found a missed call from Mavericks president Nico Harrison. “And it’s the trade deadline,” Porzinigs said. “So I’m like, ‘Oh s***, it’s happening.’” He was bracing for a move, but believed the trade that would end his time in Dallas was more likely to come during the summer. “It was just a feeling. I knew it wasn’t going in the direction that we all expected in Dallas,” Porzingis said. “And there needed to be some changes.” -via Yahoo! Sports / December 6, 2022

if they’re not careful, Luka Doncic won’t be anywhere near his best because he’ll be so worn down from carrying this team. Even Jason Kidd, who put a lot of responsibility on Doncic, as he did with Giannis Antetokounmpo years ago, knows this isn’t sustainable. “For 82 games, it’s no way that he can play at this level, the usage is just way too high,” Kidd told Yahoo Sports last week. “No one can. You know, the things that we ask him to do on the offensive end and then asked him to defend on the other end. It’s a lot.” -via Yahoo! Sports / December 6, 2022

No one is getting anything easy and Doncic hasn’t figured out how to be effective without the ball to make life less stressful for his teammates. Fatigue, of course, has to play a factor, but it’s hard to tell how he would handle playing with another ball-dominant player. “We got to get them help and we got to look to see how we can do that,” Kidd told Yahoo Sports. “His minutes are extremely high. You try to hold him [on the bench] but a lot of times you gotta bring him back early just to get back in the game.” -via Yahoo! Sports / December 6, 2022

“I think you got to be able to balance that,” Kidd said when asked about struggling defensive players who provide offense. “And, you know, sometimes you just try to keep it simple. We’re running everything just to keep things simple. Sometimes it puts a small on a big and then a shot goes up, that’s where it becomes about manhood and trying to fight the small’s fighting the big, but it’s hard in this league.” -via Yahoo! Sports / December 6, 2022