Before they boarded their flight to Boston on Tuesday, the Mavericks got hit with a few questions about the 7-3 elephant in the room.
Kristaps Porzingis, the former Maverick who never quite worked out the way everybody hoped, is expected to return in the NBA Finals from a leg injury that kept him out of the previous two rounds of the playoffs.
When coach Jason Kidd was asked about Porzingis, he had a logical response.
“They were good without him,” he said. “They’re going to be pretty good with him.”
Indeed, the Celtics breezed through the Eastern Conference with a 12-2 playoff record. The last 10 games they played were without Porzingis. They went 9-1. They were 3-1 in the first round against Miami before Porzingis went out.
Just as with Kyrie Irving going back to Boston after spending time there with the Celtics, Porzingis is set to hit basketball’s biggest stage against his former team. And his former teammates, notably Luka Dončić.
The rumors have persisted that Porzingis and Dončić were not on the best of terms.
On Tuesday, the Mavericks’ superstar point guard shrugged off any ill feelings toward Porzingis.
“Me and KP have a good relationship,” he said. “I don’t know why people say otherwise.”
Porzingis came to the Mavericks before the trade deadline in 2019, when he was injured and recovering from ACL surgery.
He signed a long-term extension that summer and made his debut in the 2019-20 season alongside Dončić.
Before the trade deadline in 2022, Porzingis was traded to Washington for Spencer Dinwiddie and Davis Bertans. That was Kidd’s first season as coach of the Mavericks and set up their run to the Western Conference finals that spring.
Kidd said that Porzingis still has unique abilities for a player that big and that he has fit in well with the Celtics’ wing-dominant attack built around Jayson Tatum and Jaylen Brown.
“You always talk about the offensive side, but we’ve talked about both sides because he’s an underrated rim protector,” Kidd said. “(He) rebounds the ball, he fits in with that group, they’ve made him very comfortable. You can see that.
“His ability to shoot the ball with range, put the ball on the floor, post up the small (guys), it puts a lot of pressure on your defense. The ball’s moving, it doesn’t stick a lot of times. So he fits in right in to what they’re trying to do.”
On the other side now: Kidd said he’s enjoying this challenge of taking the Mavericks to the NBA Finals, adding that he believes it is a lot harder than reaching the NBA Finals as a player, which he did three times, winning the title with Dirk Nowitzki in 2011 with the Mavericks.
“A lot harder to coach,” Kidd said. “It’s fun, but it’s harder. As a player, it’s easy. You have a little more control. As a player, it’s a lot easier.
“As a coach, it’s harder, but it’s gratifying. It does feel good to be here. You’ve put in a lot of time. I got to wear glasses now because you watch so much video. It’s fun. It’s chess. I love playing chess, to be able to put players in position to be successful.”
Kidd reminds himself often of the same thing he tells his players: enjoy this.
“You’re never guaranteed to be back here,” he said. “And that’s as a player, too. In ’11, we felt we could do it again, but we never made it back.”
Dollars piling up: The Mavericks stand to earn a nice chunk of change from the NBA’s playoff pool for reaching the NBA Finals.
So far, they have made $2,207,074 for reaching the NBA Finals. That includes $279,698 for finishing sixth in the Western Conference, $452,708 for reaching the first round, $551,580 for making the conference semis and $923,088 for getting to the conference finals.
The big payday is yet to come. If they win the NBA Finals, they will add another $8,549,074 to their pool.
That would put them over $10.7 million. Split 18 ways, that would come to about $594,000 per player. That may not move Luka’s bank account much, but for a two-way player or a somebody on a minimum contract, it would be a nice bonus.
The losing team in the Finals will add $3,692,000 to their pot.
X: @ESefko
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