The other necessary adjustment came from Porzingis. In New York, Porzingis posted up liberally in an offense that encouraged him to. In his final abbreviated season, he averaged 4.6 shot attempts out of the post per game, fourth-most in the league. He averaged 0.96 points on those possessions, a great result for a post-up. (It put Porzingis in the league’s 73rd percentile.) But it is not a great result for his new offense and its historic 1.16 points per possession.
In the month that followed, though, Porzingis increasingly embraced the role Dallas had envisioned for him: a player whose mere presence unlocked the offense when he stood behind the arc and whose role was to finish scoring opportunities rather than create for himself. The day after Christmas, the Mavericks beat the Spurs in a rather forgettable game broadcast on TNT. At halftime, Charles Barkley and Shaquille O’Neal spent most of the segment criticizing Porzingis for not posting up. “Rick Carlisle has got to say, ‘Yo, (Porzingis), we need you to be aggressive. We can’t rely on Doncic every night.” It was then made clear that “aggression” for Porzingis meant backing opponents down, as Barkley and O’Neal once had in their own careers.
A team source doubts Carlisle had seen or heard the segment before he was asked about it during his post-game press conference. Instead, the three-minute rant that followed was inspired largely from conversations that had already been happening with Porzingis. “The post-up just isn’t a good play anymore,” Carlisle said in response, among other things. “Our numbers are very substantial that when he spaces beyond the 3-point line, you know, we’re a historically good offensive team.”
By then, Dallas had risen not only to the top of the league but to the historic pace they have now achieved. Carlisle wanted to provide affirmation to Porzingis that the role he was starting to embrace, the one they wanted for him, was the right one. Porzingis started the year adamant that he viewed himself as a four and preferred to play that way, a team source says. But his mind has changed as the year progressed, and Dwight Powell’s season-ending injury, however unfortunate, only confirmed his feelings.
