Knicks Insider: Kristaps Porzingis Ready to Fast-Track Superstar Status
NEW YORK — Forget, for a moment, all the talk about triangles. Toss away that Medicine for Dummies book and quit delving into the injury histories of Derrick Rose and Joakim Noah.
The Knicks are not winning a championship this season.
There, it's been said. Any talk about the team's prospects for the upcoming year is nothing more than a distraction from what really matters: the continued development and ascension of Kristaps Porzingis.
He is the most exciting prospect the Knicks have had since Patrick Ewing, an otherworldly talent seemingly designed in a factory for the era of small ball. A basketball unicorn, to quote Kevin Durant.
It's not just the stuffed stat sheets, though it's worth taking a moment to highlight those as well: Porzingis averaged 14.3 points, 7.3 rebounds and 1.9 blocks per game last season. He became the only rookie in NBA history to score more than 1,000 points, grab over 500 rebounds, hit over 75 three-pointers and block over 100 shots in a season (per Basketball Reference), too.
All as a rail-thin 20-year-old kid (he turned 21 in August) in a hostile and unwelcoming market (remember this young Knicks fan?), forced to go up against stronger and more seasoned men.
Porzingis' combination of size (7'3" with a 7'6" wingspan) and skills is literally one the league has never seen before. The hype around him is all warranted.
He can space the floor on offense and protect the paint on defense (according to NBA.com, opponents shot just 47.7 percent at the rim last season against Porzingis, a number right in line with many of the league's top shot blockers).
The exciting part: He's only going to get better.
Think Porzingis was impressive last season? Just wait until you see him play for a real head coach (Jeff Hornacek) and with a real point guard (Rose). The rest of the league should be terrified about just how much room for improvement remains.
So much about the way the Knicks went about their business last year seemed to hinder Porzingis' growth more than facilitate it. The pace was slow. He was rarely used in pick-and-rolls. Also, the team's primary point guard, Jose Calderon, was stone-footed and unable to knife into opposing defenses. Players guarding Porzingis were rarely forced to leave his hip and help on drives. That Calderon connected with Porzingis for less than one assist per game last season, per NBA.com, is telling.
That should change, and not just because Hornacek plans on cranking up the speed of the offense. In Derrick Rose and Brandon Jennings, Porzingis will now get to play alongside two guards capable of beating their men off the dribble and drawing help.
Rose was 17th in the NBA in drives per game last season, according to NBA.com's player tracking data. Jennings is one of the NBA's quicker players. The mere presence of the two of them could push Porzingis' scoring output up to 20 points.
"Now, with the point guards we have, Brandon and Derrick, they're going to be able to create much more for us," Porzingis told Bleacher Report. "They're going to help get me into situations where I can be most effective."
Hornacek has said he plans on throwing Porzingis into more pick-and-rolls, (something that happened during just 13.7 percent of Porzingis' possessions last year, according to NBA.com), but don't expect the Knicks to abandon the basic triangle principles and morph into the Seven Seconds or Less Suns. Porzingis also added about five pounds of muscle this offseason; he should be more effective this year holding his own in the post and finishing around the rim
Then there's his newfound handle.
"My ball-handling is a lot better," he said during the Knicks' Media Day in September. "I feel more comfortable pushing the ball up now, just playing pick-up ball. I just feel comfortable with the ball now."
"holy kristaps crossover pic.twitter.com/RMdiJiLXNa
— LØØPSØØP (@vineydelnegro) October 11, 2016"
He spent hours this summer working with his brothers at midtown Manhattan's Life Time Athletic, dribbling through cones that his older brother, Janis, set up. He's continued working on this during the preseason. We've already seen his crossover put both Jason Smith (above) and Clint Capela (below) on skates.
Then there's Porzingis' greatest weapon, the very thing that catapulted him to the top of the 2015 draft but abandoned him at times during his rookie season. For all the talk about Porzingis' smooth jumper, he only knocked down 33.3 percent of his triples last year.
"You know, the three-point line is quite a bit further than what it is in Europe," Porzingis said to Bleacher Report during training camp. "It takes a bit to adjust, but I expect my percentages to go up this year."
His new coach does as well.
"I think he's improved greatly from last year just watching him shoot," Hornacek said recently. "He's really feeling confident about the shot. His corner threes seem like they're automatic."
All of which sounds great and should have Knicks fans salivating. But that doesn't mean there aren't landmines ahead.
For one, there's team president Phil Jackson's decision to focus on the present and bring in three veteran players (Rose, Jennings and Joakim Noah), all of whom prefer to play with the ball in their hands. That could mean less opportunity for Porzingis on offense.
Then there's the team's decision to seemingly lock Porzingis into the 4 slot. It started with signing Noah to a four-year deal and continued during the preseason with nearly all of Porzingis' minutes coming alongside a center. Hornacek was asked on Saturday night whether he plans on giving Porzingis some minutes at the 5 this year, the position that many fans and analysts would like to see him settle in at.
"We're going to have some of that. You know, it's a long season. If we start playing him at the 5, with (Joakim Noah) then we end up kind of shortening our rotation a bit," he said. "I think early on, we'll have times where we do that, but we don't want to go to that too soon, because we're going to build their minutes throughout the season."
The league-wide embrace of small ball means Porzingis will spend most of his minutes being guarded by and guarding smaller and more athletic players. This could create enticing mismatches on offense but also leave Porzingis on an island against bouncy forwards defensively.
"We want him to continue to work at that," Hornacek said recently. "He's long, he's going to have to figure out how close he needs to get to a guy where he has an effect with his length yet not get beaten off the dribble. A focus will be on him trying to bend his legs. It's tough for a big tall (guy) like that to get down on that defensive stance. But he's capable of doing it."
But those are minor details that can be worked out over time. Porzingis is the type of player for whom teams spend years tanking. As long as he's in New York and healthy, the Knicks will remain in good shape, no matter how many misguided win-now moves Jackson makes.
Basketball Boroughs
The Triangle Lives!
We're now less than a week away from the start of the regular season and we still know little about what kind of offense the Knicks plan to run. If it were solely up to Phil Jackson, it'd be the triangle. But is that what new head coach Jeff Hornacek wants?
Hornacek has been asked this question numerous times by the media during the preseason, and his answers typically reveal nothing. He's said there's going to be some triangle with tweaks and also he'd like his team to play faster, but they might not always be able to and the triangle is really just about spacing anyway. What's the big deal?
But the Knicks have played four preseason games under Hornacek, which means we have some tape we can parse for clues.
"They've been running a lot of triangle so far," a Western Conference scout told Bleacher Report.
Nick Hauselman, of the indispensable BBallBreakdown, agrees. In a phone interview with Bleacher Report, Hauselman said he's studied the majority of the Knicks' preseason offensive possessions and noticed the team essentially seems to be running two distinct offenses.
"The first few games they were really just running basic triangle stuff," Hauselman said. "Then it looked like they added some basic motion-type stuff but not as part of the triangle. They're coming down the floor and running one or the other."
This would seem to go against the theory that Hornacek was brought in by Jackson to bring the triangle offense into the 21st century, though it is worth nothing that Hornacek has told the media that Derrick Rose's absence has altered his approach during the preseason.
"We're trying to stall a little bit in putting some of the things in, so we don't go over it again when he's here. But we're hoping it's sooner than later," he said recently.
Whether Rose's return triggers a change in the offensive scheme is worth watching.
Knicks Unprepared for Rose Absence
Derrick Rose is still out in L.A. due to his civil suit, meaning he's now been away from the Knicks for more than two weeks.
This, it's safe to say, is something the Knicks were not expecting or prepared for.
"We anticipate it will not affect his season hopefully, training camp or games," Phil Jackson said in late September. "But we're going to let the due process of the justice system works its way through here in the next week and a half or so. We want to put this to rest. There doesn't need to be a lot of talk about this."
Then there was this quote from Hornacek about Rose last Thursday:
"Our hope was that he would be done on Monday or Tuesday and maybe be back. It is what it is. He's got to deal with that. We've got to continue to work with our other players, get them to be better."
How or why Hornacek thought Rose could return by Oct. 12, when the trial, after no settlement was reached, was expected to take two weeks and didn't begin until Oct 5, is unclear. But it does shed some light on how little thought the organization devoted to this whole situation before pulling the trigger on the trade.
Trading for a player being sued for rape is one thing; clearly not doing proper due diligence on the situation beforehand is another.
Guillermo Hernangomez Continues to Impress
At this point, it would come as a surprise if Guillermo Hernangomez doesn't start the season as the first big man off the bench. The Spanish rookie, who was featured in this space last week, put up 12 points and 12 rebounds during 24 minutes of action Saturday against the Boston Celtics and looks more comfortable every game.
"I like the Big Baby," Carmelo Anthony said of Hernangomez on Saturday night. "He's a guy who can score, he can pass, he can play D. He can do it all. I try to not make comparisons but I see a lot of Marc Gasol in him."
That praise might be a bit much, but Anthony's not the only one who's been impressed and surprised by how quickly the 22-year-old is adjusting to the NBA game. He's flashed some solid post moves and a mid-range jumper, and he's shown he's comfortable rolling to the hoop and helping reverse the ball.
"He's looked really good so far," said the same Western Conference scout.
On offense, Hernangomez has the skills and IQ to contribute. The question is whether he can hold his own on the other end of the floor.
What's His Name?
Ron Baker's teammates during practice last week could be heard yelling out the name "Shaggy" whenever he did something noteworthy, and, well, can you blame them? Check out the resemblance between Baker and Scooby Doo's best friend.
But following the team's Saturday night preseason loss to the Celtics, Kyle O'Quinn, always a jovial presence around the locker room, tossed out a new moniker for the former Wichita State guard when asking him if he had any spray deodorant that could be shared.
Ron Burgundy.
"That's his new name," Sasha Vujacic told Bleacher Report.
The 6'4" Baker, who's drilled 43 percent of his threes during the preseason, has a good shot at making the Knicks' roster now that Chason Randle will be out 3-4 weeks with an orbital fracture. If he does, then perhaps more nicknames are on the way.
All quotes obtained firsthand unless otherwise noted.
Yaron Weitzman covers the Knicks, and other things, for Bleacher Report. Follow him on Twitter @YaronWeitzman.
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