'Cutting Losses': Mavs Took 'Urgent Step Toward Change' with Porzingis Trade

The Dallas Mavericks took a chance on a big investment when they traded for Kristaps Porzingis three years ago, but they had to cut their losses at this year's NBA trade deadline.

At some point in life, chances are that you're going to make a bad investment or two in one way or another. Even the billionaires of the world, including Dallas Mavericks owner and serial entrepreneur Mark Cuban, have made those mistakes at times. When it happens, and you know there's not a realistic chance at recovering the capital you put in, the time comes to cut your losses, move on, and hopefully learn from the experience going forward.

This is exactly the approach the Mavs took on Thursday, as they traded away Kristaps Porzingis three years after acquiring him from the New York Knicks and then signing him to a five-year, $158 million contract in the 2019 offseason. Despite putting up decent numbers when Porzingis did play, the fact that his health issues kept reoccurring was enough to make Dallas hit the reset button on finding Luka Doncic a true superstar running mate.

According to NBA reporter Marc Stein, the entire Dallas front office was in agreement that this change was needed now, despite Cuban's previous deflections when asked about potentially trading Porzingis.

"Porzingis has actually been quite productive this season when he's been on the floor (19.2 points, 7.7 rebounds and 1.7 blocks per game), but no arrangement of statistics could overshadow what was happening, yet again, in the Games Played column," writes Stein in his recent newsletter.

"Porzingis missed 21 of the Mavericks' first 55 games this season. ... [His] latest run of health woes confirmed to the new regime (general manager Nico Harrison and coach Jason Kidd in concert with owner Mark Cuban) that this was an urgently needed first step toward significant change."

That urgency led to Dallas accepting the "best deal it could get now," according to Stein, which was a return of Spencer Dinwiddie and Davis Bertans. Although the total amount of money pretty much stays the same, Stein confirms what we speculated on our recent Mavs Step Back Podcast - the Mavs' thinking is that it could be easier to rebuild Dinwiddie and Bertan's trade values and use them in deals later than it would be to move Porznigis' massive contract individually, especially if he ends up suffering another significant injury.

After all the hope that was put into the Porzingis era in Dallas, to see it end the way it did disheartening. As Stein noted at the top of his piece, there was definitely a sense of relief after the deal was made, but nobody in the Mavs front office wasn't necessarily celebrating either.

As much as everyone in Dallas wanted it to work, the Mavs ultimately ended up cutting their losses on an investment that didn't live up to its promise. Hopefully a lesson has been learned, as Dallas now goes back to the drawing board on how it can eventually add another superstar next to Doncic as soon as possible.