Weekend Reflections: Porzingis trade doesn’t look so good for Hawks now

“We’re super confident in Kristaps’ health and him playing a healthy season and having a great season. We wouldn’t have made the trade if we didn’t think that.”

Here is what the Hawks said about Porzingis on Sunday:

“Center Kristaps Porzingis has missed multiple games while dealing with a recent illness. To ensure he continues to make progress toward a full recovery, he will continue this period of limited basketball activities and evaluation for two weeks, after which time his status will be updated.”

Saleh’s supreme confidence that Porzingis would play a lot of basketball has been supplanted by hope that two weeks of less basketball might help the player. That’s after Porzingis missed six of the past seven games and 10 of 14.

The pattern for Porzingis was similar in Boston last season. He missed 10 of 14 games spanning February to March and four of seven games in April. He played 11 games during the playoffs, but didn’t look the same.

Porzingis looked better while playing EuroBasket over the summer, but told reporters he had work to do to get back to peak form. Now, he is struggling with illness again.

To acquire Porzingis, Saleh gave up two lesser players, Terance Mann and Georges Niang. Saleh shed the $47 million owed to Mann through 2027-28 while taking on $30.7 million owed to Porzingis this season.

If it doesn’t work out for Porzingis here, the Hawks can part ways with him next summer. But that would be a disappointing outcome after Saleh gushed about the team’s excitement about adding him.

Porzingis has been at his best for a handful of games this season. In those moments, you could see the vision for how he could make the Hawks contenders in the Eastern Conference. No other Hawks big man can do all he does.

It’s uncertain what the Hawks will get from Porzingis after he misses at least the next 10 games. That would make 23 of 37 games missed.

Tack on more time for Porzingis to ramp up to playing in games. Add more time for him to find his rhythm in games while fitting in with the team’s flow.

The Hawks’ offense has been great with Porzingis on the floor. He has efficiently scored points and assisted teammates in scoring. The defense has been bad with Porzingis on the floor. The numbers suggest his rim deterrence hasn’t been as effective as usual.

Porzingis’ on/off efficiency difference ranks third best on the team, per Cleaning the Glass. The sample size is too small for drawing firm conclusions. He needs consistent minutes with his new teammates. It will be some time before we see that.

The Hawks (15-12) have stayed afloat despite Porzingis missing more than half the games and Trae Young playing in only five. Young is set to return to practice just as Porzingis scales back. The two Hawks with All-Star bids on their resumes have played only 121 possessions together.

This is another setback for Porzingis. He’s a uniquely talented big man. Injuries have held him back during his career. Now illness is preventing him from performing at his best.

Porzingis said in October that doctors diagnosed him with postural orthostatic tachycardia syndrome. He said extreme fatigue was a symptom of the condition.

Saleh thought Porzingis was past that. It turns out the GM thought wrong.

The Mets (sort of) replace Pete Alonso

The Phillies made the most significant offseason move of National League East teams by re-signing NL MVP runner-up Kyle Schwarber (56 homers, 132 RBIs in 2025).

The Braves signed two players who improve their depth, quality reliever Robert Suarez and useful outfielder Mike Yastrzemski, and re-signed closer Raisel Iglesias.

Washington’s new front office mostly has stuck to the status quo, and the Marlins are being thrifty like usual.

Then there is New York.

During the winter meetings the Mets lost two front-line free agents: first baseman Pete Alonso (Orioles) and closer Edwin Diaz (Dodgers). The Mets signed closer Devin Williams but traded popular outfielder Brandon Nimmo for offensively declining second baseman Marcus Semien.

President of baseball operations Davis Stearns sold those moves as improving run prevention while vowing he will build a playoff roster. Stearns gestured toward that goal Sunday by signing free agent Jorge Polanco (two years, $40 million).

Polanco has played everywhere in the infield except first base, but the Mets plan to use him there regularly. Polanco is an inferior (sort of) replacement for Alonso, but he’s a solid lineup addition. New York still looks light on bats below the middle of the order.

As Mets shot-caller, Stearns always is expected to do more. The pressure increased when Alonso and Diaz walked weeks after the Mets lost a win-or-go-home game on the season’s final day.

Then Diaz threw shade on the Mets during his news conference in L.A: “I chose the Dodgers because they’re a winning organization, and they have everything to win. It will be pretty easy to win.”

According to the Athletic, Stearns is targeting five Padres for trades: right-hander Nick Pivetta (more run prevention), outfielder Ramon Laureano (less), and relievers Mason Miller, Adrian Morejon and Jeremiah Estrada. Pivetta and one or two of the bullpen arms might be enough for a playoff roster.

Georgia men’s basketball earns another solid win

One key for earning an at-large bid for March Madness is getting solid nonconference wins now. Georgia’s men did that with a victory over Cincinnati on Saturday at State Farm Arena. It’s a boost for UGA’s standing in the NET Rankings metric that is used by the tournament selection committee.

The victory over Cincinnati is the second Quad 3 win for the Bulldogs (9-1). They also beat Xavier in Charleston. Georgia beat Florida State (Quad 2). The Bulldogs lost to Clemson (Quad 1) in overtime on a neutral court.

The Bulldogs were up to No. 18 in the NET Rankings after the win over Cincinnati. For coach Mike White’s first three seasons, UGA finished ranked 152nd, 100th and 38th. The Bulldogs were selected for 2024 NCAA tournament as a No. 9 seed, and No. 8 seed Gonzaga routed them in the first round.

Georgia can boost its chances to do better in next year’s tourney by earning better than a nine seed. The Bulldogs start the harder part of their schedule when SEC play begins in January. The conference is not as top-heavy as last season, but it’s still deep.

Georgia might be built to do better than last year’s 8-10 record in the SEC. The Bulldogs rank No. 1 nationally in two-point shooting percentage (65.1) and 19th in offensive efficiency, per kenpom.com. Defensively, they rank 12th in the key metric of effective field-goal shooting allowed and 32nd in overall efficiency.

Three-point shooting has been the one big weakness for the Bulldogs. They are shooting 3’s at a much higher rate than White’s previous teams but have made only 30% of the attempts. Georgia was 4-for-21 on 3’s against Cincinnati.

“Sometimes when you’re playing against high-level defenses, that’s what happens,” White said during the postgame news conference. “I liked our looks today.”

Shane Beamer went on a weird rant

The news conference purportedly was called so South Carolina coach Shane Beamer could announce the hiring of Kendal Briles as offensive coordinator. But after only three minutes it turned into a rant by Beamer about his unhappiness with reporting by unnamed national media outlets on the OC search.

Media are fair game for criticism by coaches. Beamer’s point about inaccurate reports is valid, though his case would be stronger with specifics. But it was weird for Beamer to fixate on the minutiae of those reports before either coach answered questions and before Briles even got a chance to speak.

The hope in Columbia is that Briles will help the Gamecocks score more points so they can do better than their 16-24 SEC record with Beamer.

At Arkansas from 2020-23, Briles ran offenses that ranked eighth, ninth and sixth in scoring versus SEC opponents. South Carolina’s scoring ranks in SEC games under Beamer: 13th, eighth, eighth, second and 15th.