Dallas Mavericks trade re-grade: Kristaps Porzingis for Spencer Dinwiddie

The Dallas Mavericks acquired Kristaps Porzingis with the vision that he would become their second star next to Luka Doncic. He was recovering from a torn ACL in Jan. 2019 when Dallas swung a deal with Knicks. Doncic kept putting up historic numbers as a teenage rookie, and the chance to acquire another young All-Star was too good to pass up.

Porzingis missed the entire 2018-2019 season, but he was healthy on the opening night of Luka’s sophomore campaign. The Unicorn helped the Mavericks reach the playoffs twice, but he never blossomed into a superstar playing off Doncic. Dallas dreamt of a 7’3 floor-spacing big man that could form a deadly pick and roll duo with Luka, but it just never worked out.

The Mavericks shook up their front office and coaching staff in the summer of 2021, and new general manager Nico Harrison quickly realized that KP was never going to be the team’s second star, so he traded him at the deadline to the Wizards. At the time, there were plenty of skeptics, but what does the deal look like knowing what everyone knows after the season?

Re-grading Dallas Mavericks trading Kristaps Porzingis for Spencer Dinwiddie

For the second time, the Mavs pulled for a Porzingis trade virtually out of nowhere. Owner Mark Cuban said on numerous occasions the team would not trade KP, but things changed at the deadline. Rumors leaked of Dallas shopping Porzingis on the morning of trade deadline day, and by the afternoon, he was headed to Washington. Below are the particulars of the deal.

At that moment, it looked like the Mavericks sold low. Spencer Dinwiddie and Davis Bertans were both underperforming and the Wizards were looking to dump both players because of their multi-year contracts. Dallas was willing to split KP’s max deal into two medium-sized contracts, but it was far from a home run.

Dinwiddie and Bertans did their best to change that from the moment they arrived in Dallas. Looking back after the season, did the Dallas Mavericks improve on their C-minus instant reaction?