The epitome of being a team player is the willingness to sacrifice one’s own game, particularly one’s own stats, for the good of the team. Or so we’re told. Yet for Kristaps Porzingis, this sacrifice has brought seemingly more criticism than praise, and in so doing has amplified the differences between a team construct maximizing a particular player and maximizing the team as a whole.
By any reasonable accounting, the Dallas Mavericks have been one of the pleasant surprises over the first third of the season. Picked to finish around .500 (the preseason over/under was 40.5 or 41.5 most places) and perhaps battle for the Western Conference 8th seed, the Mavs have instead jumped out to a 55 win pace. That’s been driven in large part by their historically great offense — even after Sunday’s poor shooting in their loss to the Lakers, Dallas’ 116.4 Offensive Rating is the highest raw points/100 ever recorded according to Basketball Reference,…
