Los Angeles—Kristaps Porzingis, who hasn’t played in almost a year because of injuries, was traded by the last place New York Knicks to the Dallas Mavericks in a multi-player NBA deal on Thursday.
The Knicks also gave up Trey Burke, Courtney Lee and Tim Hardaway to the Mavericks for Wesley Matthews, Dennis Smith and DeAndre Jordan and two first round draft picks.
The Knicks said Porzingis, of Latvia, asked to be traded.
“Considering the uncertainty regarding Kristaps’ free agent status and his request today to be traded, we made a trade that we are confident improves the franchise,” said Knicks general manager Scott Perry.
New York (10-40) have the worst record in the NBA and are already going to get a high pick in the entry draft.
“We started to get a feel, we could see that he wasn’t completely buying into what we were trying to do,” Knicks president Steve Mills said. “And again, (during Thursday’s meeting) we wanted a confirmation from him whether he was completely in or out. He made it clear to us when he came in to meet with us that he no longer wanted to be part of our group.”
The Mavericks are hoping to re-sign the seven-foot-three Porzingis, who will be a free agent, to a long-term deal in the offseason.
Porzingis can now form a formidable frontcourt unit with Dallas rookie Luka Doncic. The two played professionally in Spain before coming to the NBA as top-five picks.
Porzingis was the number four overall pick in the 2015 NBA draft. He was averaging a career-best 22.7 points per game before he was lost due to a left knee injury during 2017-18 season.
Hardaway, 26, was leading the Knicks in scoring with 19.1 points per game this season.”‹