General Discussion Thread 1/31: Deal in place to send Kristaps Porzingis to Dallas

Good afternoon Sixers fans. The Liberty Ballers crew is hard at work creating Sixers content for you to consume. But we know our readers are not only Sixers fans. And a lot is happening at the moment (much to the expectations of Liberty Ballers community member CamdenSixers, who seemingly correctly insisted that drama would pickup as the deadline approached):

New York has agreed with Dallas on trade that includes Kristaps Porzingis, Courtney Lee, Tim Hardaway Jr., for Wesley Matthews, Dennis Smith Jr. and DeAndre Jordan, league sources tell ESPN. Players and agents are being notified of particulars. Deal may include more draft assets. - @wojespn

If you did not already know, Kristaps Porzingis met with Knicks decision-makers this morning and requested a trade. Before the sun has even had a chance to set since that meeting, the Knicks have a deal in place to send Porzingis to Dallas.

Some thoughts on this:

• If Porzingis can return healthy and fully capable of becoming the player his potential can achieve, the Mavericks become my favorite Western Conference team (Kristaps and Luka?!). Well, maybe after the Nuggets.
• Sohil Doshi asked the following question in our Slack: “Now [Porzingis] is going to sign the [qualifying offer]?”
• Another question from our Slack, asked by many: “Why are the Knicks doing this?” Now, the obvious answer is for cap space. But the Knicks have been inept for a long, long time. And despite the fact that playing in New York City is an attractive proposition, playing for James Dolan isn’t. There’s no guarantee the Knicks can lure (a) stud(s) and actually utilize that cap space. It is a major gamble. New York clearly has very high aspirations in a summer when Kevin Durant and Kyrie Irving could hit free agency.
• 8 comes before 9: