Trade Grade: Dallas Mavericks Trade Kristaps Porzingis to the Washington Wizards

The NBA Trade Deadline was on February 10th, 2022 and I expected many transactions to occur especially trade. There are some trades that are unsurprising but trades like this were absolutely surprising. Well another transaction occurred with a trade involving Kristaps Porzingis between the Dallas Mavericks and Washington Wizards.

Dallas Mavericks acquire: PG/SG Spencer Dinwiddie and PF Davis Bertans
Washington Wizards acquire: PF/C Kristaps Porzingis and a 2022 Second round pick (Dallas Mavericks)

Dallas Mavericks Side

Well this was a deal that came out of nowhere. Out of all the players that I thought were going to be moved at the deadline not once did I think the Mavericks would trade Porzingis away. It was clear for the past few seasons that Porzingis just was not working with the Dallas Mavericks. But he was getting better this season and looked like he regained his old self. To me It seems like the Dallas Mavericks wanted to get out of Porzingis’s awful contract. Looking at his contract I don’t blame them. Especially as they would have to pay 33.8 million dollars to him and I believe he has a player option in 2023-2024 that is around 36 million dollars. That is too much for an injury prone player like Porzingis to be making. My problem is the compensation that they got for Porzingis as both Dinwiddie and Bertans also have two equally bad contracts plus I am shocked the Mavericks did not even get a draft pick for this trade. It also hurts that Dinwiddie has suffered a lot of regression since he had his ACL injury with the Brooklyn Nets and Davis Bertans is a decent player on offense but a massive liability on defense.

Washington Wizards Side

This trade now makes a lot of sense to why the Wizards traded Montrezl Harrell to the Charlotte Hornets earlier in the deadline. They wanted to get a spot open for Kristaps Porzingis to take over once they acquired him. Him and Bradley Beal on the court area scary combination. There is no question that Porzingis when healthy is better than Dinwiddie and Bertans. But the key words is when healthy as Portzingis has been an injury bug and it has effected his play the past few seasons. But this is a gamble worth taking and the Wizards did no have to sacrifice much and even got a free Second round pick for the trouble to help build the team.

Grades for the Porzingis Trade
Dallas Mavericks: C-
Washington Wizards: B

I like this deal more for the Wizards than I do for the Mavericks but lets be real both teams did this to convince there star players Bradley Beal (Wizards) and Luka Doncic (Dallas Mavericks) to trust what they are doing and keep them happy to play for there respective teams. But overall solid move by both teams and hopefully it works out for them.