What's Wrong with Kristaps Porzingis?

Three months ago, Kristaps Porzingis heard the chants: "M-V-P." Of course, such songs are not exactly rare at Madison Square Garden, where end-of-bench reserves like Ron Baker have received such praise.

At the time, the notion of Porzingis as an MVP candidate didn't seem absurd. He was dropping 30 seemingly every night on an array of feathery jumpers and highlight-reel dunks. He was leading the New York Knicks to impressive victories over playoff stalwarts like the Toronto Raptors and Cleveland Cavaliers.

Porzingis was bigger and stronger and better than ever. He was fulfilling his unicorn potential.

At least, that's how things seemed in November. Since then, not so much. The Knicks have dropped 13 of their last 21 games. More worrisome: Porzingis has transformed from basketball god into a less-efficient version of Carmelo Anthony, the star the Knicks sent to Oklahoma City over the summer so that Porzingis could take the reins. 

Porzingis is shooting an ugly 39.9 percent over his last 15 games. He looks befuddled and overmatched. On Wednesday, after another Knicks loss dropped them two games below .500, he confessed to feeling exhausted. 

"I'm tired. I'm tired. I'm so tired right now," he told reporters. "I have one day now to rest my legs and then get back and play better and have more energy and also try and bring the team's energy up." 

Not exactly encouraging words to hear with four months left in the season. 

All this begs the questions: What's the reason for this regression, and is there a way for Porzingis to defeat it and rediscover his dominance?

Opponents have adjusted the way they defend the Knicks' star. They recognized his limitations and spotted opportunities to coax him into low-percentage shots.

"Teams are smart; if a guy's killing the league, they start paying more attention to him," an Eastern Conference scout said.

Porzingis doesn't read the floor well. Only three players with at least 500 minutes played this year have a lower assist rate relative to how much offense they create, according to Cleaning the Glass. He shoots the ball nearly every time he touches it and leads the league in shots per 36 minutes. He's most comfortable operating from a stationary position in the mid-range and takes more long two-pointers than 95 percent of the league, per Cleaning the Glass.

Not only are these his greatest weaknesses, they're also flaws that make him predictable and easy to defend.

How do you slow a scorer with sticky hands? Send extra bodies at him.

"Teams know he's going to shoot because he's a poor passer," the scout said. This additional defender won't dart over until Porzingis initiates a move. Often playing with his head down, the 22-year-old is frequently caught off guard.

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"Something we have to look at, something we have to deal with and learn from," Knicks head coach Jeff Hornacek told reporters this week. "They'll switch a small guy off, and we try to throw it to him and they get into his knees and come from the weak side on his dribble. Maybe we shouldn't settle for looking for him there, swing it to the other side and let the play happen."

Ball movement would be a smart antidote to some of these issues, but it wouldn't solve them all. It goes back to the way Porzingis gets his points, even when he's rolling. He rarely attacks the rim and prefers to work from the mid-range.

Opponents, most of whom these days live behind the three-point line or at the rim, will accept him jacking contested 18-footers over defenders, even if he does tower over most of them.

"He takes a lot of bad shots," the scout said. "Teams know he'll force it."

Case in point: Only 26 players have taken more shots out of isolation this season. Yet Porzingis has only scored on such looks 36 percent of the time, placing him in the 24th percentile, according to NBA.com.

Porzingis' poor decision-making isn't the only cause for this horrid stretch. He's one of just two shot-creators on his team. The other, Tim Hardaway Jr., has missed the past month with a mysterious leg injury. Hardaway's presence on the floor would no doubt release some of the pressure squeezing Porzingis.

He's also not getting all the help he could from Hornacek. Porzingis spends the majority of his floor time playing alongside multiple non-shooters. He rarely plays center (only 12 percent of his minutes have been as the lone big man) and is usually flanked by starting point guard Jarrett Jack, who's shot just 27.9 percent from deep. These lineups feature no spacing, making it both more difficult for Porzingis to read the floor and providing him less room to operate when he does drive.

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This doesn't mean Porzingis needs to play exclusively at the 5. Despite some of the fan clamoring, there are good reasons to ease his transition into what will likely be his long-term position. For one, he prefers to play the 4. Also, the season's not even at its halfway mark and he's already dealing with injuries to an elbow, shoulder, knee and ankle; there's no reason to force him to bang with bruisers more than needed.

Yet extra minutes with more stretchy lineups could create all sorts of options for Porzingis and the offense and have a trickle-down effect on the rest of the game. Maybe, for example, the extra spacing cajoles an extra pass out of Porzingis, which leads to an extra made jumper. Late in the game, a defender will have that in the back of his mind when deciding how aggressively to help.

Getting the ball to Porzingis in the flow of the offense, and especially behind the three-point line, could also boost his cold shooting. He's drilled a solid 38.7 percent of his catch-and-shoot triples this season. More jumpers out of pick-and-pops would be a nice way to get Porzingis some cleaner looks without him expending energy working for position.

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But those are all minor details. The onus, in the end, will be on Porzingis and whether he can make the necessary adjustments. He doesn't have to fire LeBron-like crosscourt passes to defeat double teams; a simple pass to the top of the key, which could then be slung to the far corner, would suffice. That Porzingis has dished out just nine secondary assists all season is symbolic of the issues at play.

The scary part is that many basketball observers believe feel for the game is mostly inherited as opposed to taught. But there are examples in the league of players who developed feel, from Kevin Durant to John Wall to, more recently, Joel Embiid.

Porzingis has already proved himself as an All-Star-level scorer. But for the Knicks to ever become contenders, he'll have to be more.

The good news is the fixes are obvious. The question is whether he can make them.

Yaron Weitzman covers the Knicks and NBA for Bleacher Report. All stats via NBA.com unless otherwise noted. Follow Yaron on Twitter, @YaronWeitzman, listen to his Knicks-themed podcast here, and sign up for his newsletter here.