Dallas Mavericks’ Kristaps Porzingis on NBA’s restart: ‘We’re a dangerous team.’
Dallas Mavericks forward Kristaps Porzingis is ready for the NBA to restart its season at the end of the month. And he believes the Mavs are a team with potential.
“We’re a dangerous team,” Porzingis said during a Zoom news conference following the team’s practice on Friday at the team’s facility in Dallas. “I think we can surprise people. That’s got to be our mindset.”
The Mavericks (40-27) are currently the seventh-seed in the Western Conference. The NBA will restart its season at the end of the month. The Mavs will play eight “seeding games” before the NBA playoffs begin, starting with a game against the Houston Rockets on July 31.
As far as Porzingis is concerned, he’s ready for the season to resume after the league shut down on March 11 amid the coronavirus pandemic. As a single 24-year-old, he doesn’t have the same reservations about playing as others.
“I’m a guy without kids and family and those kinds of things, so maybe I’m more fearless in that kind of sense,” he said. “I think everybody is just trying to look out for their own families and their own safety.”
Porzingis said he is fully healthy and was able to work out in his native Latvia during the break. He’s eager to experience the postseason for the first time in his career.
He never reached the playoffs in his first three seasons with the New York Knicks. Now the hope is to have an extended run with the Mavs under the unique circumstances.
“My goal is to have a postseason every year from now on,” he said.
Porzingis has averaged 19.2 points and 9.5 rebounds in 51 games with the Mavs this season. He became a bigger threat as the season progressed, averaging 24.5 points and 10.8 rebounds since the beginning of February.
Porzingis hinted at adding additional elements to his game during the break, but said: “I can’t talk about it. I’ll show you on the court.”
Honing his basketball skills and spending time quality time with family is how he spent the bulk of his pandemic break. Porzingis said he’s not a big TV or movie watcher, but even he admitted that he had caught the wildly popular Tiger King series on Netflix.
“It was the most insane thing I’ve ever seen,” he said.
This story was originally published July 3, 2020 at 5:09 PM.
