Grading the Dallas Mavericks’ Return
At some point, it seemed very likely that the Dallas Mavericks were going to move on from Kristaps Porzingis and try to get out of his contract. However, now may not have been the best time to do so.
Who won this trade really does depend on who you ask because there are good and bad things that happen to the Mavericks in this trade.
The “good” is that they get out of Kristaps Porzingis’ long contract and are able to turn their attention to Dorian Finney-Smith and Jalen Brunson as long-term building blocks. Shortly after agreeing to this deal with the Washington Wizards, the Mavericks locked-up Finney-Smith on a new four-year, $52 million extension.
In terms of keeping what they currently have, the Mavericks made out well in this deal, but on the other side of things, Spencer Dinwiddie and Davis Bertans are two big question marks coming into town.
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Dinwiddie was acquired by the Wizards this offseason as part of a sign-and-trade deal on a new three-year, $54 million deal. Not only did Spencer Dinwiddie have a fallout with some of the players in Washington this season, but he has struggled to be a consistent scoring option and is still trying to work his way back to where he was prior to tearing his ACL last season.
As for Davis Bertans, he is a career 40% three-point shooter, which is exactly what Dallas needs right now on the wing, but he has struggled mightily this season.
In 34 games with Washington this season, Bertans averaged just 5.7 points and shot 31.9% from three-point range, the worst mark of his career.
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Making $65 million over the next four seasons, the Mavericks are taking on a high-paying, high liability contract with Bertans.
As mentioned before, you could make an argument for either way in terms of this being a good or bad trade for the Mavericks, but Dallas is definitely taking a bigger risk with Dinwiddie and Bertans than they had with Kristaps Porzingis this season.
GRADE: C+
