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DALLAS – The first half of the season hasn’t been very fun for Kristaps Porzingis.
He missed the Dallas Mavericks’ first nine games as he recovered from surgery to repair the meniscus injury in his left knee that forced him out of the final games of his first NBA playoff series. Porzingis’ struggles, especially defensively, ranked as perhaps the second most important factor (after a COVID-19 outbreak that hit half the rotation) in Dallas, being arguably the most disappointing in the league six weeks after the start of the season.
And Porzingis has heard his name appear in the commercial rumor mill. Although Mavs owner Mark Cuban and coach Rick Carlisle have publicly stated that the team has not engaged in business talks regarding Porzingis, the perception among league officials is that he is available.
The reality is that leaving Porzingis would likely represent a major step backwards for the Mavs, who envisioned him as Luka Doncic’s long-term co-star when they traded to him two years ago. Dallas needs Porzingis, who is in season two of a five-year, $ 158 million max contract, to live up to his potential as a “unicorn” with his mix of skills to be some sort of threat in the game. the competitive Western Conference.
The good news: Porzingis has re-previewed this possibility recently. His first performance coming out of the All-Star break – a 28-point, 14-rebound outing in Wednesday’s 115-104 win over the San Antonio Spurs – was certainly encouraging.
“I feel like I’m getting there,” Porzingis said. “I have to keep working. After having the surgery the leg doesn’t feel the same so you have to keep working on that strength and make sure it is strong and stable and you feel confident at the end. It’s a nonstop job, but I feel better every day and every game, and I do the job, it gives me the confidence that I can go out there and play and play freely.
“I look forward to the second half of the season.”
Porzingis’ health will always be a major concern, and the Mavs need to manage his workload carefully during the second half of the compressed season. He has yet to complete a healthy campaign in his four-year-plus NBA career, and there are complications that come with a 7-foot-3 body that has already needed surgeries on both. knees.
Coach Rick Carlisle has repeatedly referred to the physical challenges of returning from knee surgery – and a rehabilitation process that caused him to miss training camp – as the reason Porzingis looked like often at the world’s largest traffic cone on the defensive end this season.
“My feeling is that it’s on the rise all the time,” Carlisle said Wednesday, thanking Porzingis for doing the work necessary to make such progress. “There is more evidence of this tonight.”
There is also compelling statistical evidence from Porzingis, who was a two-way force at the end of last season. Two months into this season, Porzingis had the second-worst defensive rating among rotating players in the league, with the Mavs allowing 119.5 points per 100 possessions with him on the floor, an embarrassment for a player on the floor. counted to provide rim protection. Take that with a small example of an alert, but since Porzingis came back from a brief absence due to low back strain, his defensive rating has been 103.1 stingy in four games, all wins. for the Mavs, who tied their longest winning streak of the season. to improve to 19-16.
Porzingis has been pretty good offensively this season, averaging 20.5 points per game with an effective field goal percentage of 54.6%. He was extremely effective as the Mavs pushed their way out of a five-game under 0.500 hole, hitting 50% of his shots from the ground and 40% with a distance of 3 points as Dallas won 10. in the past. 12 matches in which Porzingis has played.
Carlisle pointed out that Porzingis got a feel for all the different ways teams defend him, which often kept him with a much smaller player and essentially dared Dallas to slow down his offense by feeding him to the post. Porzingis was 11 of 17 off the floor against Spurs, scoring in a variety of ways, including a few cuts in the second half when fed by Doncic, the kind of chemistry the Mavs need from their franchise.
“We’re all progressing as a team,” said Doncic, who posted a 22-point, 12-rebound and 12-assists triple-double against Spurs. “KP was much better. He gained the trust [coming back] from his injury, and I think he’s going to build his confidence even more, and he’s going to be a lot better. “
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