Cuban denies Mavs explored Porzingis trade

Dallas Mavericks owner Mark Cuban strongly dismissed rumors that the franchise recently considered trading big man Kristaps Porzingis.

"That's not true," Cuban told NBA.com's Mark Medina. "Why would I do that at all? Trades like that, you always end up further behind. When you trade a superstar, you never get the best end of it."

Rival executives reportedly believed in March the Mavericks were willing to ship away the one-time All-Star despite Cuban and then-head coach Rick Carlisle publicly stating otherwise.

Rumblings of a potential exit for the 7-foot-3 Latvian seemingly grew louder over the summer after the Mavericks were eliminated by the Los Angeles Clippers in the first round of the playoffs for a second consecutive year. Porzingis had reportedly grown upset with his role, believing he was not Luka Doncic's co-star but instead an afterthought on the team.

However, since returning from a five-game absence due to back soreness earlier this month, Porzingis has recorded 23.1 points, 9.1 rebounds, and 1.4 blocks per game and shot 37.5% from beyond the arc in the eight games that followed.

Injuries have been an unlucky theme for Porzingis' career, but Cuban believes the 26-year-old is still a much better player than he has shown to date.

"I've always believed that KP hasn't played his best basketball yet," Cuban told Medina. "Now you're seeing why we didn't trade him. He's a great player. He's a good dude.

"All of my experiences with him have been positive. So why would we do that? But that's NBA Twitter and that's Mavs Twitter. That's what they do. They're probably trying to trade Luka right now."

The Mavericks are 9-7 on the season under new bench boss Jason Kidd.