The #tradeszn just blessed us one more time Thursday afternoon with the news that Kristaps Porzingis was shipped to the Dallas Mavericks along with Tim Hardaway Jr. Courtney Lee, and Trey Burke; with DeAndre Jordan, Dennis Smith Jr., Wesley Matthews, and two first round picks returning to the New York Knicks. All the trade news had been Anthony Davis blah blah blah, but Kristaps Porzingis is a huge name on the move and is going to steal the spotlight for a while in the NBA. Here is my quick reaction:

Kristaps Porzingis is of course injured currently with a torn ACL suffered last February, but when healthy, he is one the most unique and skilled big men in the game. He is a monstrous 7’3″ with the ability to smoothly dribble and shoot.

Adding that once in a decade talent to the Dallas Mavericks now centered around Luka Doncic gives Dallas possibly the most potent young 1-2 punch in the game. They instantly become one of the most exciting teams next year when Porzingis is fully healthy, especially when you consider they will be able to add (probably) a lottery pick in June. The Mavericks have a blindingly bright future now.

As for the Knicks, what I have heard as their thought process is that they did this trade with an intention of clearing cap space for two max free agents in the summer. To that end, they were successful because Courtney Lee and Tim Hardaway Jr. had an additional one and two years left on their deals, respectively. The only costly player returning, Wesley Matthews, becomes a free agent at the end of the season. But I just have such a hard time liking this from the Knicks’ perspective. DeAndre Jordan will either leave at the end of the year or he will eat into a large portion of the aforementioned cap space by resigning. So logically, the only piece the Knicks got in return for Porzingis is Dennis Smith Jr. Smith had a solid rookie season, but this season has regressed and shown that his inefficiency may not be an easy fix. I understand that Porzingis asked for a trade shortly before the news broke of his trade, but using that chip to create cap space is too exorbitant a price. Also, he is slated to become a restricted free agent when his contract expires, so in essence, the Knicks could have forced to stay for many more years anyways. Even if this ploy ends up in the Knicks geetting two max superstars, I will reminisce upon this trade as a lost opportunity. Just because they may get lucky later does not justify that they made a mistake now.

Knicks fans have a true gripe with management after this one. But Dallas fans, boy oh boy. After years of being a mediocre, boring team, they have got to make some room on that bandwagon, especially for me. Geez. They will be so good.