Kristaps Porzingis
Photo: Tony Gutierrez/Associated Press

Kristaps Porzingis initially believed he would be ready for the opening night of the 2020/21 NBA season.

However, this changed when the NBA announced the season would start on December 22.

“Kristaps Porzingis says he expected to be ready for the season when he had knee surgery. That changed when the NBA decided to open Dec. 22 instead of mid-January or later as anticipated at the time,” Tim MacMahon of ESPN reports.

Porzingis, who signed a five-year, $158.3M max contract with Dallas in the summer of 2019, is recovering from a knee surgery he had on October 9 and is set to make his season debut in January.