As expected, shortly after the NBA free agency period began at 5 p.m. Sunday, the Mavericks and restricted free agent Kristaps Porzingis agreed to a historic five-year, $158.253 million maximum-salary contract.
Why is it historic? It's the largest contract in the Mavericks' 39-season history _ in total, by season average and in a single season.
Porzingis, 23, was acquired by the Mavericks from the Knicks on Jan. 31 in a blockbuster seven-player trade in which Dallas also sent New York its first-round picks in 2021 and 2023 (top ten-protected).
Assuming 7-foot-3 Porzingis plays in October's season-opener, it will have been 20 months since he played in an NBA game, as a Knick, on Feb. 6, 2018. That was the night he sustained an ACL tear in his left knee, requiring major surgery.
At the time of the injury, Porzingis was averaging 22.7 points and 6.6 rebounds and had been named to the Eastern Conference All-Star team.
His 7-foot-6 wingspan and prodigious talent were why the Mavericks, despite the injury, pounced on the opportunity to acquire him. Dallas also ran the minor risk that Porzingis might sign a one-year, $4.9 million qualifying offer this summer and enter unrestricted free agency next summer, but bypassing a guaranteed $158 million payola never made much sense.
Porzingis won't actually sign the contract until the Mavericks complete most of their free agency maneuvering and go over the salary cap, which then will enable them to sign Porzingis without consuming salary cap space.
Until now, the largest single Mavericks contract was the four-year, $94.438 million deal that Harrison Barnes signed on July 7, 2016.
Dirk Nowitzki made about $255 million during his Mavericks career, but that was spread over 21 seasons and multiple contracts.
The Mavericks' franchise record for a single-season salary was $25 million, earned by Nowitzki in the 2016-17 season, followed by Barnes' $24,793,702 million salary last season, before he was traded to Sacramento.
Porzingis is scheduled to make $27,285,000 this upcoming season, with eight-percent raises ($2,182,800) in each of the ensuing four seasons of his deal: He'll make $29,467,800 in 2020-21; $31,650,600 in 2021-22; $33,833,400 in 2022-23; and $36,016,200 in 2023-24.
Under terms of the collective bargaining agreement, the maximum starting salary Porzingis could earn was 25% of the NBA salary cap. When the NBA on Saturday night raised the 2019-20 cap from a projected $109 million to $109,140,000 it gave Porzingis a slight first-season salary bump and a $203,000 boost over the five year life of his contract.
