The Knicks say Kristaps Porzingis asked to be traded, otherwise he would return to Europe

The most detailed tick of the Jan. 31 transaction that sent Kristaps Porzingis from the Knicks to the Mavericks revealed that it was not as sudden as it seemed, that Porzingis had expressed dissatisfaction with New York and had already discussed it provisionally potential commercial offers before the start of the season. But there remained one question: why did the trade finally take place then? the Time The report only indicates that the Knicks became "open" to an exchange on January 28th. What happened on that date? That would explain it.

At Wednesday's protest, Knicks President Steve Mills said Porzingis had stated firmly that he would not sign in New York and demanded an exchange sometime a week ago, otherwise he would go into action. Europe. (Presumably until it was free, but that would have mitigated the Knicks leverage in all trade negotiations and would have added a faster term to negotiate well before the league matured.)

"He came into my office … and said very clearly," I do not want to be here. I will not sign again with the Knicks. And I will give you seven days to negotiate or return to Europe. Fortunately for us, this process we talked about from September, we had several outstanding offers. We started the commercial calls as soon as he came out of the office. "

Porzingis has not yet commented on Mills' version of the events, but it corresponds to what we already knew: that the Knicks had at least a general idea of ​​what they could get for Porzingis even before deciding to press a trigger. The seven-day delay would also explain the apparent haste of the Knicks to do something; Marc Stein had previously reported that the Knicks had accepted the offer of the Mavericks without addressing other teams to see if they could beat it.

We will not know if the trade was good for the Knicks before the situation of the free agencies fell. Move Porzingis so that the capitalized space sign Kevin Durant and Kyrie Irving is very different from Porzingis's move to get, for example, Khris Middleton or Tobias Harris. But everything that came out of the transaction at least explains why the Knicks had to make a deal.