Janis Porzingis Rumors | Hoops Rumors

Porzingis Never Planned To Play This Season

March 24th, 2019 at 6:21pm CST by Arthur Hill

Despite speculation before and after his trade from New York to Dallas, Kristaps Porzingis had no intention of playing this season, he said in an interview with Tim MacMahon of ESPN.

Porzingis developed a plan more than a year ago with his brother and agent, Janis Porzingis, and physical therapist Manolo Valdivieso for the best way to recover from a torn ACL. That included sitting out a full season, even though it has been difficult to just watch.

“Oh my god, that’s the hardest thing for me to wake up on game days, go through shootaround with the team and then have to pick a suit to wear for the game,” Porzingis said. “… It’s so weird that I’m not able to — I am able to, but I’m not playing yet. It’s the game day, and I feel like it’s the game day, but you just pick a suit and you wear it and you’re there. And I try to be in the moment when I’m there with the team and help as much as I can without being able to be on the floor, but it’s very, very, very tough. Tougher than I expected.”

Porzingis confirmed that he is fully recovered from the injury to his left knee that derailed last season. He said he feels great and is doing all basketball-related activities except for playing in games. He adds that his power, explosiveness and lateral movement are all testing better now than they did before the injury.

The Mavericks gladly signed on to Porzingis’ plan when they traded for him at the end of January. The team added Valdivieso to its staff and has him working with its top training officials. Porzingis said he is “grateful” that the Mavericks have been so accommodating, which although he didn’t mention it, was a point of contention with the Knicks before the deal.

Porzingis participated in his first practice in more than a year on March 13 and said he is looking forward to more. He admits that he has been tempted to play since three months after the operation, but is focusing on what’s best for his future.

“I can feel the progress already, so it excites me even more,” he added. “It makes me even more eager to be out there on the floor. But I’m going to stick to what I have to stick to, stay patient, and when I’m back, I’m going to be back to 110 percent. At this point, I’ve matured a lot. I’m like, ‘This is the decision I have in my mind, and it’s the right decision.’ I don’t feel the same way every day, but I stick to it.”

Porzingis will be a restricted free agent this summer, but he already sounds committed to the Mavericks, who can offer him $158MM over five years. Porzingis said he wants to help the franchise end its three-year playoff drought and is ready to recruit free agents to Dallas.

Steve Mills Discusses Kristaps Porzingis Trade

February 3rd, 2019 at 3:47pm CST by JD Shaw

The Knicks made the decision to trade Kristaps Porzingis last week, ending a three-and-a-half year run that featured a number of highs and lows. Porzingis, the team’s 2015 lottery pick, began to express his displeasure with the team and its losing ways, culminating in a meeting involving him, his agent, and Knicks management last Thursday.

“We started to get a feel that everything wasn’t going as well as we would’ve liked with Kristaps,” Knicks president Steve Mills said in an interview on MSG. “So Scott [Perry] and I spent a lot of time saying, ‘Okay. We need to be prepared if things aren’t going well or if he doesn’t want to be here, or that we need to be ready.'”

Mills then revealed he held exploratory trade conversations with several different teams to test Porzingis’ value, sifting through the best offers before zeroing in on a package from the Mavericks.

“We at the end of the day had about eight potential scenarios we thought would be great for us if we made the decision that we were going to trade Kristaps,” Mills said.

It was then in the meeting, which was held just hours before the trade, that Porzingis officially made his trade request alongside his brother and agent Janis Porzingis.

For the Knicks, reaching a trade agreement before the February 7 trade deadline was paramount. Porzingis was set to become a restricted free agent at season’s end, and made his intentions known that he would sign elsewhere if the team didn’t honor his request.

“We felt the 7th was really important because if we let this go beyond the 7th, the leverage completely shifted. We would not have control of the situation,” Mills said, as relayed by Mike Vorkunov of The Athletic. “We weren’t sure what Kristaps was going to come in and tell us. We didn’t know if he’d come in and tell us he wanted to be traded or he may have come in and said he wanted to do a one-year contract with the player option, which would then have made him untradeable and he would have had all the leverage. We just felt we needed to have some certainty by the 7th.

“When they came in to meet with us, they made it clear to us — it was a meeting that they requested — they made it clear to us that he did not want to play for the Knicks, that he was not going to re-sign with us as a free agent. And we in one way thanked him for the clarity because it gave us the information we needed to know.”

The Knicks would acquire Dennis Smith Jr., DeAndre Jordan, Wesley Matthews and two future first-round picks for offloading Porzingis, Tim Hardaway Jr., Courtney Lee and Trey Burke, ending the run for Porzingis in New York and placing a focus on free agency by creating two maximum-salary roster spots.

Knicks Notes: Smart, Porzingis, Delany, Draft

May 19th, 2018 at 6:20pm CST by Arthur Hill

Grizzlies assistant Keith Smart is expected to become a top assistant on David Fizdale’s staff with the Knicks, tweets ESPN’s Ian Begley. Smart was an assistant with Fizdale for two years in Miami and came to Memphis with him when he was hired as head coach in 2016.

Smart, who appeared in just two NBA games as a player, began his coaching career in 2000. He has also been an assistant with the Cavaliers, Warriors and Kings and eventually became head coach of all three franchises, compiling a 93-170 career record.

J.B. Bickerstaff, who recently had his interim tag removed by the Grizzlies, has started interviewing potential replacements in anticipation of Smart’s departure, according to Begley.

There’s more today from New York:

Fizdale met Friday with Janis Porzingis, the older brother and agent for Kristaps Porzingis, relays Frank Isola of The New York Daily News. Fizdale is hoping to travel to Latvia this summer to talk with the Knicks’ star, who is currently rehabbing his left knee in Spain. Fizdale is working to repair a damaged relationship, Isola adds, as Porzingis has been losing faith in the front office, the Knicks’ medical staff and former coach Jeff Hornacek. In Friday’s meeting, Fizdale reportedly addressed his issues with Marc Gasol in Memphis and a reputation that he doesn’t deal well with foreign-born players.
Pat Delany, who also worked with Fizdale in Miami, could be another addition to the coaching staff, Isola adds. Delany has been with the Hornets the past four seasons.
Small forward is an obvious position of need for the Knicks, but they plan to approach the ninth pick in this year’s draft with a best-player-available philosophy, writes Chris Iseman of NorthJersey.com. Wing players Miles Bridges and Kevin Knox met with the Knicks during the draft combine, but so did point guards Collin Sexton and Trae Young, even though New York drafted Frank Ntilikina in the first round last year. “There’s no secret that we can use help on the wing,” GM Scott Perry said. “But at the end of the day I think we’re still in that talent-acquisition mode. If that happens to be at No. 9 a wing player, great. If we feel the most talented guy clearly is at another position then we got to look at that direction as well.”

New York Notes: Lee, Porzingis, Crabbe, Russell

December 7th, 2017 at 11:07am CST by Luke Adams

With Tim Hardaway Jr. expected to be sidelined for at least two weeks – and possibly longer – the Knicks’ performance during his absence may go a long way toward dictating the team’s approach to the trade deadline, writes Ian Begley of ESPN.com. If New York can tread water and remain in the playoff hunt during that time, the front office could stand pat or even attempt to bolster the roster in February. If not, perhaps the Knicks will become deadline sellers.

In the event that the Knicks do decide to move veterans, Courtney Lee is one player to watch. Lee, who scored 24 points on Wednesday, continues to draw interest from opposing teams, league sources tell Begley. Lee’s contract, which is guaranteed through 2019/20 at about $12MM per year, is somewhat onerous, limiting his trade value, but his shot-making ability (.465 3PT%) should certainly appeal to teams around the NBA.

Here’s more on the two New York teams:

Knicks star Kristaps Porzingis was represented by Andy Miller, who relinquished his certification as an agent this week, but his primary agent is his brother Janis Porzingis, who also works at ASM Sports. As such, Porzingis is expected to remain at the agency with his brother despite Miller’s situation, writes Marc Berman of The New York Post.
Knicks owner James Dolan was named as a defendant in a civil suit filed against movie producer Harvey Weinstein. Begley has the details at ESPN.com.
Nets guard Allen Crabbe was fined $15K by the NBA after throwing a ball at the basket stanchion on Monday (link via Jeff Zillgitt of USA Today). Crabbe is set to earn more than $19.3MM this season, so the $15K hit to his salary is a drop in the bucket.
While Nets head coach Kenny Atkinson didn’t provide an official update on D’Angelo Russell‘s recovery timetable this week, his comments suggest that Russell’s return isn’t exactly imminent, as Brian Lewis of The New York Post details.

Knicks Notes: Hardaway Jr., Ntilikina, Hornacek

November 16th, 2017 at 3:40pm CST by Austin Kent

The Knicks may have been onto something with Tim Hardaway Jr. all along. As Marc Berman of the New York Post writes, the shooting guard, whose four-year, $71MM contract was ridiculed at the time of signing, is starting to live up to his lofty contract.

Over the course of the past nine games, the 25-year-old has averaged 20.4 points and 5.3 rebounds per game. Now, as Newsday’s Barbara Barker writes in her own feature, the swingman is stepping up as a valuable No. 2 option for the Knicks behind Kristaps Porzingis.

While the deal was initially panned when it was announced, Berman reasons that Steve Mills and the Knicks’ front office, leery of losing out on another coveted free agent, had to offer a big enough deal to discourage the Hawks from matching.

There’s more Knicks news today:

First-year point guard Frank Ntilikina has thrived for the Knicks on both ends of the ball. His impact thus far into his rookie campaign has been beyond what most predicted, Ian Begley of ESPN writes. “It’s great that a young guy comes into this league with more defensive principles than the offensive principles,” head coach Jeff Hornacek said. “It’s hard to teach.”
The Knicks have more confidence in their offense now that Jeff Hornacek has been cleared to run his own plays, ESPN’s Ian Begley writes. “Our guys are feeling comfortable with what we’re running,” the coach said. “We’re going to get better at that. It’s a style most of those guys like to play. It makes it easier for them.“
With Phil Jackson out of the picture, the Knicks’ front office is easing tension with Janis Porzingis. Marc Berman of the New York Post writes that the brother of Kristaps Porzingis, who also serves as the star’s agent, was recently seen amiably chatting with team president Steve Mills and general manager Scott Perry.