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Clippers forward Marcus Morris visited the garden for Sunday morning to mark Kristaps Porzingis’ second trade anniversary. Morris has now been added to Porzingis’ business analysis.
Thanks, Immanuel Quickley.
It was Morris’s first visit to Garden since he was dealt with the West last February and he stepped in as a bench player for the Clippers, supporting Kawhi Leonard and Paul George.
Morris had been the No.1 option during the 2019-20 Knicks debacle.
While the Porzingis Mavericks are in a dangerous slide, Morris’s presence is another symbol that Porzingis’ blockbuster two years ago is not the disaster as previously reported.
With the season lost, the Knicks front office has vigorously debated whether to trade Morris or keep him and try to sign him again.
They appear to have made the right choice, giving Morris to the Clippers for the 27th pick. This became the 25th pick and was turned into Quickley. The feeling of a rookie makes the organization wonder if it has its starting point from the future – if not the present.
The Knicks would not have had the ceiling space to sign Morris to a one-year, $ 15 million pact in the summer of 2019 without trading Porzingis.
The fact that the narrative changes is surprising, given the failures of point guard Dennis Smith Jr., who the Knicks have decided to put in the G League bubble with coach Tom Thibodeau who currently has no use for the pick. Mavericks Lottery Prize 2017.
Yet even with Smith’s demise, the trade looks a lot better. The Porzingis Mavericks have lost five in a row and eight of their last 10 games to drop to 8-12.
If the season ended today, the Knicks would be ranked 11th in the lottery thanks to the Mavericks. The Mavericks gave the Knicks an unprotected 2021 pick and a 2023 first round. The Knicks came in tied for the No.8 seed on Sunday, but there’s still a chance they’ll have two lottery picks for the. 2021 draft.
The alarming part of the Mavericks’ loss is that Doncic seems to be fed up, wondering if his teammates want to win.
“Terrible,” Doncic said. “There really isn’t much to say. I never felt that way. We have to do something because it doesn’t look good and we have to engage and talk to each other and play better than that. It is above all an effort. … I would say right now it looks like we don’t honestly care about winning games or not.
When the Porzingis trade was made, some league insiders were slightly concerned, knowing the egos of Doncic and Porzingis. The Mavericks weren’t on Janis Porzingis’ wishlist he gave Steve Mills – perhaps knowing that the Mavericks already had their franchise face.
The Porzingis brothers were a problem in the eyes of Steve Mills and Knicks general manager Scott Perry and they tried to cut their losses before he became a restricted free agent.
The extra ceiling space provided by the trade made it impossible to catch their two big fish – Kevin Durant and Kyrie Irving. But he carried Julius Randle and Morris. They didn’t make a perfect attacking tandem last season, but Randle performed much better once Morris was dispatched in February.
This season, Randle has exploded, earning major All-Star consideration to propel the Knicks to a 9-11 start after 20 games before the Clippers game. Randle, 26, averaged 22.2 points, 11.1 rebounds and six assists.
Smith’s journey followed the reverse route. “The G League is a very valuable tool,” Thibodeau said on Sunday before facing the Clippers. “You can see that it is being used more and more by practically every team in the league. You get a lot of practice, but playing time is important. I think it will be great for him. His attitude has been very positive.
Smith, say the Knicks, called for the move. Ironically, the Post reported that Craig Robinson, a former director of player development, wanted to place Smith in the G League last season, but Perry rejected the idea. Sources say Perry feared Smith’s representatives were angry.
Smith has been relegated to two garbage time cameos since returning from an ATV injury in the first week of January. Earlier this week, Thibodeau mentioned his options to the point guard, but did not mention Smith.
When Thibodeau was hired, he made a commitment to use the G League more freely. Smith is now going into the bubble where other teams can see him playing and maybe his business value will increase.
Meanwhile, Porzingis, who is 25 and missed the first nine games after knee surgery, is averaging 18.6 points, eight rebounds and less than one assist per game. The Latvian 7-3 has never been as good a passer as announced at the end of the 2015 draft.
With rookie lottery pick Obi Toppin unlikely to turn into a standout, the Knicks are looking at Randle through a new lens – not as commercial bait. The question is how Dallas sees Porzingis now.
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