‘The Truth Will Come Out’ The trade that sent Kristaps Porzingis to Dallas seemed to come out of nowhere, but various trade talks between the Knicks and Mavericks have been ongoing all season. Tony Gutierrez/Associated Press Marc Stein You undoubtedly still have questions about the Knicks’ motivations for abruptly trading Kristaps Porzingis to the Dallas Mavericks last week. Good news: We have answers. Let’s dig into six of the biggest curiosities surrounding the departure of the Knicks’ beloved No. 6. How can the Knicks be sure they got the best possible deal? The Knicks spent much of January quietly canvassing the league for potential Porzingis trades, according to a person familiar with the talks who was not authorized to discuss them publicly. They tried for untouchables such as Utah’s Donovan Mitchell and Sacramento’s De’Aaron Fox and, predictably, were rebuffed. But the Knicks knew all along that the Mavericks had the wherewithal to meet many of their trade objectives, and, just as crucially, that Dallas was generally unfazed by Porzingis’s injury history. In Dennis Smith Jr., Dallas had a recent top-10 pick to offer. The Mavericks also proved willing to give up two future first-round draft picks in a Porzingis deal — in an era when first-round picks are rarely surrendered — while absorbing the contracts of Tim Hardaway Jr. and Courtney Lee. The Knicks were able to shed both of those deals because Dallas had two huge expiring contracts to send back (DeAndre Jordan and Wes Matthews) along with the beleif that Hardaway, despite his defensive deficiencies, would be a useful addition to the lineup. Perhaps you are a Smith skeptic. Or just a Knicks skeptic. Those are both understandable positions. But a trade that returns three quality assets in addition to creating the kind of salary-cap space this summer that the Knicks must have to chase Kevin Durant and Kyrie Irving is no salary dump. It’s a gamble, true, and one that could go numerous directions depending on how free agency and Porzingis’s career play out. But it is an undeniable haul. How did the trade come together so fast? The Mavericks’ interest in Porzingis has been an open secret to the Knicks for years. One Mavericks official not-so-jokingly estimated that Dallas approached the Knicks “about a hundred times” before the team ever showed any willingness to discuss parting with him. The Knicks, for their part, have been expressing interest in Smith all season. The teams, according to two people with knowledge of their talks, also had been discussing a Hardaway-for-Matthews trade for weeks before Jan. 28, which both sides pinpoint as the first date the Knicks showed a willingness to expand the discussions into a Porzingis blockbuster. The parties, as a result, did not need long to build a trade framework, knowing one another’s rosters and goals quite well. It certainly didn’t hurt that the Mavericks made their lone Madison Square Garden appearance of the season two nights later. Knicks General Manager Scott Perry and his Mavericks counterpart, Donnie Nelson, met before the game in a Garden hallway before taking their huddle behind closed doors and summoning the Knicks’ president, Steve Mills. By night’s end, Smith had registered a triple-double (13 points, 15 assists and 10 rebounds) in a resounding Dallas victory and the Mavericks were offering to seal the Porzingis deal by handshake, since the Dallas owner Mark Cuban was right there in the building. The Knicks, however, asked for more time. The reason? Porzingis and his brother Janis, who serves as the player’s agent, had requested a Thursday morning meeting. Did Porzingis really ask for a trade in that meeting? When asked at a Monday news conference to address his reported desire to be traded, Porzingis passed. ”I would rather just focus on what’s ahead of me than looking back,” Porzingis said. A person with knowledge of the meeting, however, said it was requested by the Porzingis brothers — after they had canceled a similar meeting earlier in January — and that it lasted less than five minutes. Later in the day, according to the person, Janis Porzingis provided the Knicks with a list of four teams he and Kristaps had deemed acceptable trade destinations. The Nets and the Los Angeles Clippers were among those teams, but Dallas was not on the list. The Knicks, meanwhile, were told Porzingis was prepared to leave the team and continue his knee rehabilitation in Spain if he was not moved by this week’s league trade deadline. It was not long after receiving the four-team list that the Knicks notified the Mavericks they were prepared to do the deal. The maverick nature of Cuban and Nelson prompted Dallas to accept the trade with no guarantees of a long-term commitment from Porzingis since they believe they can persuade the 7-foot-3 Latvian to commit to a future in North Texas. Porzingis did say Monday that “there might be a time when I go into more detail” about the depths of his discontent as a Knick and the reasons that led him to push for his departure. The Knicks insisted they did not part angrily with their most popular player in years, but Porzingis’s recent Instagram posts asserting that “the truth will come out” and that “the city deserves better than that” suggest he is in a far different place. Why didn’t the Knicks shop the Dallas deal for something better? The Knicks were convinced, having devoted much of their January to assessing their various Porzingis options, that no team out there was prepared to absorb the Hardaway and Lee contracts in addition to packaging a player of Smith’s caliber with first-round draft picks. They are now projected to have more than $70 million in salary-cap space this summer. The Knicks also were fearful that letting the Dallas offer linger, or engaging other teams in the week leading up to the trade deadline, would have enabled the Porzingis camp to scare off the Mavericks or other potential suitors by threatening to sign long-term only with teams like the Nets or the Clippers. In a radio interview Monday with 105.3 FM in Dallas, Cuban said, “Shopping a deal is a lot more complicated than it sounds.” How worried should the Mavericks be about convincing Porzingis to sign a long-term deal? The Mavericks are one of those dice-rolling teams, like Boston, Houston and most recently Oklahoma City when it traded for Paul George, that always bet on themselves in these situations. Porzingis has the option to play next season for a mere $4.5 million and become an unrestricted free agent in July 2020, but Dallas is already expressing confidence that it can get Porzingis’s signature on a five-year, $158 million contract this summer. Porzingis has strong pre-existing relationships with the 40-year-old Dirk Nowitzki and the Mavericks’ rising Slovenian star Luka Doncic. And neither Mavericks Coach Rick Carlisle, nor Cuban, has been bashful about comparing a potential Doncic/Porzingis partnership to the Nowitzki/Steve Nash duo that lasted for only six seasons. Nash was allowed to sign with Phoenix in July 2004, after which both Nowitzki and Nash became league most valuable players. “It was my mistake to not keep Dirk and Steve together longer,” Cuban told me Monday night. “I won’t make the same mistake with Luka and KP.” Who won the trade? I know you want this answer today, but it’s simply not possible to provide it. Not without knowing, for starters, how the Knicks will fare in free agency — and how Porzingis will bounce back from his knee injury. But I can tell you this: In my discussions with rival team executives, I’ve heard from many more who praise the trade — believing the Knicks must have some promising inside information about their ability to lure the likes of Durant and Irving — than from those questioning how much the Knicks received in return. I can also pass along that the threat of the Knicks’ persuading Durant to leave one of the most dominant teams in league history has never felt more real to the Warriors themselves. The Knicks have absorbed considerable criticism for purportedly smearing Porzingis on his way out — and wholly justifiable criticism for the indefensible decision to exclude the Daily News beat writer Stefan Bondy from last Thursday night’s news media conference call with team officials. And let’s face it: Believe-it-when-I-see-it scoffing at the notion that the game’s biggest names would be willing to play for the Knicks, when they are still owned and operated by James Dolan, is fully expected given how the last two decades have gone since the Knicks’ trip to the N.B.A. finals in 1999. Yet there is far more to like than dislike about the deal, even if Porzingis goes on to become everything Dallas dreams he can be. The Knicks move forward with massive financial flexibility and a young core of Smith, Kevin Knox, Allonzo Trier and Frank Ntilikina, as well as seven first-round picks over the next five years — chips they can either build around or offer in trades for someone starry like Anthony Davis. Processing all that should bring Knicks-loving New Yorkers some winter warmth.