Clippers ahead Marcus Morris visited the garden for Sunday’s matinee on the two-year anniversary of the Kristaps Porzingis trade. Morris has now been added to Porzingis’ trade analysis.
Thanks, Immanuel Quickley.
This was Morris’ first Garden visit since being shared in West last February, and he comes in as a banker for the Clippers, supporting Kawhi Leonard and Paul George.
Morris was the # 1 scoring option during the 2019-20 Knicks debacle.
While Porzingis ‘Mavericks are in a dangerous slide, Morris’ presence is another symbol that the Porzingis blockbuster two years ago is not the disaster as previously reported.
With the season gone astray, the Knicks front office fiercely debated whether to trade Morris or keep him and tried to re-sign him.
They seem to have made the right call, giving Morris to the Clippers for the 27th pick. That became the 25th choice and was converted to Quickley. The rookie sensation makes the organization wonder if they have their starting point for guarding the future – if not the present.
The Knicks would not have had the limit space to sign Morris in the summer of 2019 with a one-year $ 15 million pact without trading Porzingis.
That the story is changing is surprising given the shortcomings of point guard Dennis Smith Jr., who the Knicks decided to put in the G-league bubble with coach Tom Thibodeau currently of no use to the Mavericks- lottery choice of 2017.
But even with Smith’s demise, trading is looking a lot better. The Porzingis Mavericks have lost five in a row and eight of their last 10 games to fall back to 8-12.
If the season ended today, the Knicks would be placed 11th in the lottery courtesy of the Mavericks. The Mavericks gave the Knicks an unprotected 2021 pick and a 2023 first-rounder. The Knicks came right in for the No. 8 seed on Sunday, but there’s still a chance they’ll have two lotteries for the 2021 draw.
The alarming part of the loss of the Mavericks is that Doncic has had enough and is wondering if his teammates want to win.
“Terrible,” said Doncic. ‘There really isn’t much to say. I’ve never felt that way. We have to do something because this doesn’t look right and we have to come up and just talk to each other and play better than this. It is mainly effort. … I’d say now it seems like we honestly don’t care if we win games or not. “
When the Porzingis trade was made, some competition insiders were somewhat concerned, as they knew the egos of Doncic and Porzingis. The Mavericks were not on Janis Porzingis’ wish list that he gave Steve Mills – perhaps knowing the Mavericks already had their face of the franchise.
The Porzingis brothers were trouble in the eyes of Steve Mills and Knicks GM Scott Perry, and they tried to cut their losses before he became a restricted free agent.
The extra logging space that the trade provided did not yield their two big fish – Kevin Durant and Kyrie Irving. But it did bring in Julius Randle and Morris. They didn’t make a perfect forward tandem last season, but Randle played a lot better when Morris shipped in February.
This season, Randle has exploded and earned a big All-Star consideration in propelling the Knicks to a 9-11 start after 20 games entering the Clippers game. Randle, 26, averaged 22.2 points, 11.1 rebounds and six assists.
Smith’s journey has gone the opposite way. “The G League is a very valuable tool,” said Thibodeau on Sunday before facing the Clippers. “You can see that it is being used more and more by almost every team in the league. You get a lot from practice, but playing time is important. I think it will be great for him. His attitude was very positive. “
Smith, the Knicks say, requested relocation. Ironically, The Post reported that the former player’s former development director, Craig Robinson, wanted to place Smith in the G League last season, but Perry rejected the idea. Sources say Perry feared Smith’s representatives would be angry.
Smith has been downgraded to two garbage-time cameos since he came back from a quad injury in the first week of January. Earlier this week, Thibodeau mentioned his options at point guard, but he didn’t mention Smith.
When Thibodeau was hired, he pledged to use the G League more liberally. Smith will now go to the bubble where other teams can watch him play and maybe his trade value will increase.
Meanwhile, Porzingis, who is 25 and missed the first nine games after knee surgery, scores an average of 18.6 points, eight rebounds and less than one assist per game. The 7-3 Latvian has never been as good a compass as advertised from the 2015 design.
Since Obi Toppin is hardly sure of turning into a power-forward high by a rookie lottery, the Knicks are looking at Randle through a new lens – not as trading bait. The question is how Dallas looks at Porzingis now.