Kristaps Porzingis or Rick Carlisle? The situation is untenable for the Mavs and sooner or later someone needs to go

Even if they hadn’t blown a 2-0 lead in the first round, then doubled down on that by coughing up a chance to clinch at home, a reckoning was coming if the Mavs’ season hadn’t ended Sunday in Los Angeles. The situation simply became untenable. Sooner or later, someone would need to go.

So who should it be?

Kristaps Porzingis?

Or Rick Carlisle?

Because you can’t trade two first-round picks and give a guy a max contract to be your second option, then watch him become an afterthought as you frittered away your two-win head start in the playoffs.

You can’t waste a historic series by Luka Doncic, who went for 46 points and 14 assists in Sunday’s 126-111 Game 7 loss to the Clippers at the Staples Center.

“Forty-six and 14,” Dorian Finney-Smith said, practically in awe. “What else can you ask of him?”

On that note, let’s hear no more complaints about Luka’s four-quarter lulls in this series. Ask LeBron James what it’s like to be guarded by Kawhi Leonard. For that matter, Luka’s 22-year-old shoulders may be broad, but it’s a heavy burden carrying a team for four quarters every night. No wonder his neck hurt. I’m surprised his back didn’t give out, too.

Luka needs help, and even if Tim Hardaway Jr. was a revelation the last couple of months, he’s not nearly enough.

Give him this, though: He’s been better than the other guy they got in that trade with the Knicks.

Porzingis averaged 13.1 points against the Clippers, 10 fewer than he did last year in three playoff games against the same team. And he was playing on a bad knee then. He’s supposedly healthy now. Even though he scored 16 points Sunday as the Mavs made at least a token effort at getting him involved, he didn’t look remotely like the player who dazzled in the bubble last year.

This isn’t headed in the right direction.

Asked after Sunday’s loss how he sees his fit with the franchise, Porzingis said, “Good question.” He said his role primarily as a floor-spacer and defender in the playoffs was a “little bit of a mental battle” because it’s “not what I’m used to doing.” When a reporter asked what he thought about continuing in that role, he said, “Um, I don’t know.”

Let me answer for him: You don’t pay a guy $100 million over the next three years to space the floor and play defense, even if he could.

Of course, Carlisle once again put a happy face on Porzingis’ recent play, just as he did after Game 6. In fact, Carlisle said he was “really encouraged” by Porzingis’ last three games, in which, for the record, he scored 8, 7 and 16 points. Carlisle said Porzingis’ defense has taken “great strides” and he’s “moving well.”

Nice to know that a guy making $29.4 million can get around.

Only occasionally over the last two years has Porzingis looked like the player he was in New York, and there are several possible explanations, starting with his health. But the biggest after you get past his wobbly knees is his fit in Carlisle’s flow offense.

Basically, the Mavs’ offense operates as it did when Carlisle gave Jason Kidd the keys to it before the title run in 2011. The point guard mostly runs it on the fly. This keeps defenses from anticipating your next move and, more importantly, keeps Luka happy.

But it seems that Porzingis has a hard time wrapping his head around it. He needs set plays that run through him. As it is, he too often looks adrift.

Could Carlisle change the offense to suit KP? Possibly, particularly if Mark Cuban requests it. But what if Carlisle goes over Cuban’s head?

In other words, what would Luka think?

Because that’s who will be making the calls from now on. Whatever Luka wants, he should get.

So, to go back to the first part of my original question, should Porzingis go? Even if the Mavs thought so, his contract and injury history would make a deal almost impossible. At any rate, it’s always easier to fire the coach than the players.

Carlisle owns a title and has a great reputation among his peers, but it’s now been a decade since he won a playoff series. He went one game further this year than last year. No question, it was a difficult season with so many factors out of the coach’s control. But he was up 2-0 in this series and had a chance to clinch it at home and couldn’t close it out.

Like Luka said when someone asked him about the historic numbers he piled up in this series, “You get paid to win.”

But if you think Carlisle’s 10-year streak is grounds for firing, you should know Cuban isn’t as hardline as he seems.

“You don’t make a change to make a change,” he told ESPN after Sunday’s loss. “Unless you have someone that you know is much, much, much better, the grass is rarely greener on the other side.”

Just what’s on the other side of this is a good question. From what we saw and heard Sunday, I don’t particularly care for the Mavs’ answers.

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