Trade EXCLUSIVE: Mark Cuban Says New Mavs Dinwiddie & Bertans Will ‘Surprise People’
Thursday was as wild of a day in the NBA as they come. From the trade deadline - which featured the likes of James Harden, Ben Simmons and Kristaps Porzingis all getting traded - to Luka Doncic torching the Los Angeles Clippers for a career-high 51 points, the level of excitement and adrenaline remained high from top-to-bottom throughout the day.
In the aftermath of the Dallas Mavericks’ bit trade - which featured Porzingis being dealt to the Washington Wizards for Spencer Dinwiddie and Davis Bertans - owner Mark Cuban sat down with DallasBasketball.com to discuss the team’s thinking behind making this kind of move.
“We think they both will fit into [Jason] Kidd’s system well,” Cuban tells DallasBasketball.com in a post-trade deadline exclusive interview.
“Spencer [Dinwiddie] can create his own shot, which takes some of the pressure off of Luka [Doncic], [Jalen Brunson] and Trey [Burke] to do so much every game.”
Even with the emergence of Brunson this season, the Mavs have still found themselves in need of more secondary playmaking and ball-handing off of the bench. Although Goran Dragic - who was traded to the San Antonio Spurs and could be bought out any day now - has been connected to the Mavs in rumors for the longest time, adding Dinwiddie’s six assists per game into the mix alleviates some of the pressure Dallas might’ve faced to sign Dragic.
“There won't be as much pressure on Spencer to do as much,” says Cuban. “Particularly since he missed all of last year [with an ACL tear]. We think that will help him as well.”
Dinwiddie is a player that DallasBasketball.com targeted as a potential free agency signing for the Mavs last summer, as well as on our pre-trade deadline Mavs Step Back Podcast from Wednesday (where we actually predicted this trade). So we can definitely envision his potential fit with the Mavs.
But what about Bertans, who is in the second year of his five-year, $80 million contract? How concerned should we be with the overall shooting percentages he’s put up this year?
“We think Davis [Bertans] is going to surprise a lot of people,” Cuban tells us.
The ‘Latvian Laser,’ as some people call Bertans, is a 40 percent career three-point shooter, but has only shot 31.9 percent from beyond the arc this season (by far a career-low). However, the Mavs believe putting Bertans in the right spots on floor will make a big difference in his percentages going forward.
“We generate a lot of corner threes, and Davis should do really well as a result,” says Cuban.
“Even in a down year, he is shooting 57 percent from the corners and has shot more than 56 percent from the corners four of the past five years.”
Given the constant uncertainty around Porzingis’ health, the Mavs had to make a business decision to part ways with their $30 million man who couldn’t quite live up to the expectations of being a consistent co-star next to Doncic.
Who knows what’s to come next of this move from Dallas, but at the very least, we know two things as facts: 1) the pressure on both of these new guys will be far less than the pressure Porzingis probably felt given his expectations, and 2) anybody who can shoot, move around the court and share the ball has a good chance of seeing increased production when playing with Doncic.
Cuban says people might be surprised by what happens next, but should we be? Let’s see how it unfolds as the Mavs continue to chase homecourt advantage with 26 games remaining.
