3:37pm: Porzingis has yet to make any formal decisions on his future with the Mavs, tweets ESPN’s Adrian Wojnarowski.
3:31pm: With the Mavericks and Knicks in the process of finalizing a trade that will send Kristaps Porzingis to Dallas, Shams Charania of The Athletic has provided another fascinating detail. According to Charania (Twitter link), Porzingis intends to inform the Mavs that he plans to sign his qualifying offer as a restricted free agent this summer.
In order to make a player a restricted free agent, a team must submit a one-year qualifying offer to that player. This QO serves as a placeholder one-year contract offer, which the player can accept if he wants to. Accepting a qualifying offer puts the player on track to reach unrestricted free agency the following year, but typically pays him far less than he’d receive on a multiyear contract.
In Porzingis’ case, because he has failed to meet the “starter criteria” this season (by making at least 41 starts or playing 2,000+ minutes), his qualifying offer will be worth just $4.5MM. By comparison, a maximum-salary offer from the Mavericks would be worth a projected $27.25MM in 2019/20 and approximately $158MM over five years.
While Porzingis could potentially cash in with a huge payday in 2020, playing on a one-year, $4.5MM deal next year would be a huge gamble for a young player coming off ACL surgery. If he thrives next season, he’d be in position to reach the open market in ’20 and choose his destination without any restrictions, but if he struggles at all or battles more injuries, his long-term value could take a major hit.
It appears the Mavericks are comfortable going through with the trade despite not having any long-term assurances from Porzingis, which makes sense. The franchise likely figures it can use the next year and a half to convince the 23-year-old to stay in Dallas long-term. If he ultimately leaves, the cost – Dennis Smith Jr., plus the expiring contracts of Wesley Matthews and DeAndre Jordan and a future first-rounder – wasn’t too damaging, and the Mavs would be in position to open up a massive amount of cap room in 2020.
Assuming the Mavs and Knicks make their deal official and Porzingis informs Dallas of his summer plans, this will be a fascinating story to watch in the coming months, as there’s no guarantee the big man won’t re-think his stance.
The Mavs could potentially point to Nerlens Noel – who signed his qualifying offer with Dallas after turning down a reported four-year, $70MM offer from the club, then had to settle for a minimum-salary contract the following year – as a cautionary tale during their discussions with Porzingis.
In fairness, the Mavs should also consider the cautionary tale of Nerlens Noel when offering Porzingis an extension. It’s not only a cautionary tale to players, but also a warning to teams about how much the value of injured players can fall.
They got lucky. Nerlens declined their 4/70 M offer.
Exactly, but they should still learn from even making the offer in the first place. Without that luck, they’d have a Chandler Parsons sized anchor on their payroll right now.
Wasn’t there a whole thing where that offer was never really on the table?
unicorns don’t get hurt. dallas about to find out the hard way – cuban remains an idiot
Idk how you can call the man an idiot.. even if porzingis never makes an all star team again the increase in marketability getting “dirk 2.0” and pairing him with luka increases the team value dramatically
Not to mention it could very well become a great team in a couple years
Mavs’ fans will be happy to know that KP comes with his own camp, starting with his ex-player older brother who’s there to make sure KP aggregates every dollar. His shooting is excellent but he’s not a low post player and his defense is average at best. He’ll put up lots of points in Dallas, and Doncic looks like a winning player. Not sure about KP as a foundational piece however, especially given his body type and injury history.
At least KP didn’t throw a tantrum and leave the team because he’ll never make at his preferred position. Then Knicks got toxic waste in this deal.
For Luke. Bleacher Report says Brad Turner of L.A. Times says Lakers made 5 offers, but only known one is Ball, Ingram, Zubak, Kuzma, and 1st. Says $4mm would need to be added to make it work. Lakers could include Stephenson, or include KCP and New Orleans would return Tim Frazier and Ian Clark. New Orleans would then waive Stephenson or KCP.
We had this in our Pelicans/Lakers/Davis post from earlier today, but I revisited it in the Ball post that just went up. (Didn’t get into the salary-matching stuff, since it doesn’t sound like it’s that serious yet.)
The Knicks are boobs, but it’s also clear that KP isn’t being properly advised. Noel didn’t get a max offer and thought he was entitled to one; stupid, yeah, but think of all the guys who didn’t deserve one that got one. I’m sure he was. Bet $$ on himself and lost.
KP would be the first player to leave a RSC max extension on the table. Why? Not $$. Just to determine where he plays 2 years sooner than otherwise would with a 3/1 (in 2020 after QO vs in 2022 after the 3 years are up). Not even that (it could be as little as 6 months sooner) because he could demand a trade midway through 2021-22 similar to what AD is doing (AD has 1.5/1 left on his deal). Turning down you first nine figure contract offer is not just reckless for him, but his family as well. Even the indestructible LeBron understood that something could happen, and there’s nothing else he can do to earn even a small fraction of that contract over his lifetime.
I am very glad I’m a mavs fan but to see Dennis go is tough.
Not me. Dennis looked promising at times, but his tirade and leaving the team told me all I needed to know about him. Now he’s going to a team flush with young PG’s. Will be interesting to watch how he responds to that as well as the bright lights of NYC.
so rookie deals in the NBA are only 3 year deals? Is that right? Great for players but it doesn’t allow rebuilding teams much time with their high draft picks to compete…another reason NFL players association need to fight for a new structure
It’s normally 4 yrs. This unicorn is rare
Why did the mavs give two first rounders. When they also took two bad contracts??