[Fischer] “Luka is a generational talent. You have to put the perfect team around him to try to get the maximum out of him, you know?” Porzingis said. “I just wasn’t the right guy.”

The Mavericks quietly sniffed around Porzingis’ trade market. Surgeries in both his knees had sapped much of his mobility, when Dallas’ defensive ideology was predicated on its center stalking the back line as a fearsome rim protector. Come the 2021 playoffs, Rick Carlisle, in what amounted to his final season coaching the Mavericks, often stranded Porzingis in the corners, watching Doncic pound the rock in high-screen action just like any other floor spacer on the Mavericks’ roster.

“Luka is a generational talent. You have to put the perfect team around him to try to get the maximum out of him, you know?” Porzingis said. “I just wasn’t the right guy.”

He’d been reduced to the priciest spot-up shooter in the league. And Porzingis still struggled under Jason Kidd. As the February 2022 trade deadline approached, Dallas began to explore its options in earnest, sources said, searching how to break Porzingis’ gargantuan salary into more useful parts to complement Doncic’s solo act.

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