The Dallas Mavericks should pursue Otto Porter Jr.

The Dallas Mavericks are looking good right now and should be a team to keep an eye on going forward. The Washington Wizards are on the other end of the spectrum. What kind of deal should we be talking about?

The pipe dream that every Dallas Mavericks fan is engaging in presently is the sheer hope that the team has enough assets to trade for Bradley Beal, a one-time All-Star, and one of the best shooting guards in the league. I personally do not believe that they do have those assets.

What the Mavs do have, however, are the assets to pull a young wing with some star potential like Otto Porter Jr. Porter was drafted by the Washington Wizards in 2013 out of Georgetown University and has spent his entire career in Washington D.C. He became the undoubted number three guy on the team over the past few years and has done well in that role.

Porter has had a rough start to his 2018-19 campaign, averaging more than 4 points per game less than last year, while his shooting percentages have also dropped. It is pretty unlikely for a 25 year old to just all of a sudden fall off the map like that. It is not unheard of, but the wild ride that has been the Washington Wizards this year is a much more likely explanation.

The Wizards are at least looking at trade options for most of their players. Seeing as Otto Porter is the highest paid player on the team this year (although John Wall‘s contract is much more outrageous), it makes sense that he would be on the trading block just as much as Bradley Beal and Wall. Because the Wizards really shouldn’t be too picky about this new makeover.

Porter is the type of player I would love for the Mavs to get. He has been a solid defender for years, averaging almost 3.0 defensive win shares over the past three seasons, an average defensive rating of 106, as well as almost 1.5 steals and about 0.5 blocks per game. His shooting numbers prior to this season have been impressive as well.

Tyler Watts, co-editor for The Smoking Cuban, wrote about a couple different trade options the Mavs could pursue to land Porter. You can read about those trade options here.

The one I want to focus on here is trade #2, Otto Porter for Wesley Matthews, Dwight Powell and a 2nd round pick. I believe the Mavs could add another 2nd rounder to sweeten the deal a little bit, but the overall deal makes a lot of sense.

The Mavs would get a guy that could step right into the starting lineup in Matthews place, ready to hit threes and be the leading defender. He would be paid more than Wes and for a few years after this, but that money would be worth it if he gets back to his form of the past three seasons.

The Wiz, on the other hand, get a serviceable player in Wes for the rest of the year and then get a lot of cap flexibility going forward. They also get a young energizer bunny in Powell who will help the bench gain some more excitement going forward. The two 2nd round picks add future assets that they can keep or package in other deals.

The Wizards may be waiting for a better offer than this which isn’t too surprising since they don’t want to go into tanking mode, but at this point, this is a nice offer for the team going forward. Porter has a lot of good basketball left to be played but it may be a mutual parting if this deal were to happen.

The Mavs have a solid team right now that may be able to fight for a playoff spot as is. With a couple tweaks here and there, however, this team could be quite good and be looking to make a big splash in the coming years. Maybe a deal with the Wizards can jump start that push.