“Mark Cuban, I think you meant to say 2, not 20”: Mavericks owner’s old statement comes back to haunt Kristaps Porzingis after KP gets traded to the Washington Wizards

Mark Cuban turned the fortunes of the Texas franchise on its head – but he definitely got the gamble on Porzingis a bit wrong

Back in 2019 when Kritaps Porzingis moved from the New York Knicks to the Dallas Mavericks, fans from the state of Texas were overjoyed. They had much love for European players with Dirk Nowitzki and Luka Doncic, and they just added Tingus Pingus to that long list of European giants to play for them.

When Mark Cuban bought the Dallas Mavericks for $285 million in 2000, they were languishing at 9th spot in the conference. A year later, they immediately saw a turn of fortunes climbing up to 5th. Since that move, Dallas has not looked back, reaching the NBA finals 2 times,  and winning the title in 2011.

Porzingis and Dallas did not work out, with the player being injured for long periods of time. He was brought in to be a Robin to Luka’s Batman, but he turned out to be Barbara Gordon on a wheelchair, constantly just injured. Luka has been his usual brilliant self, but he needs help, otherwise he would want out too. A player of his caliber needs rings, and if he were to be treated like Dirk, he needs the support.

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Mark Cuban definitely wants to win another ring – he’s trying his best to build the team around Luka Doncic

Mark Cuban oversaw Dirk Nowitzki play his full career with the Mavericks, and that is what Cuban would have hoped Porzingis could have been. Although the main focus of the team would always have been Luka Doncic, Porzingis was on paper the best partner he could have. So it would seem, since he has now been moved to the Washington Wizards, just 2 years after they acquired him.

In the playoffs last year, Porzingis was atrocious, compared to his colleague Luka Magic. 13.1 points and 6.4 rebounds are Russell Westbrook on a bad night numbers, and he averaged that in crunch time. Paul George may have been called Pandemic P in the 19-20 playoffs, but 20-21 was reserved for Porzingis.

Even now the big man from Latvia is injured, having played only 134 games in 3 seasons at the club. The Mavericks in return get a healthy duo of Davis Bertans and Spencer Dinwiddie, two important pieces in Dallas’s point of view come playoffs. There is a win now attitude slowly building about in Dallas, and they definitely need all the pieces they can to accomplish that.

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